God's Question to Hiding Adam in the Garden

Midrash Aggadah Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 3:9 View source

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 18, 2025

The Torah's "Where are you?" is one of the shortest questions in Scripture. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 3:9) unfolds it.

God calls to Adam and says, in the Targum's longer rendering: "Is not all the world which I have made manifest before Me; the darkness as the light? And how hast thou thought in thine heart to hide from before Me? The place where thou art concealed, do I not see? Where are the commandments that I commanded thee?"

The question is not geographical. God knows where Adam is. The Targumist makes plain that the real question is ethical. Where are you in relation to what I asked of you? Every act of hiding in human history — every attempt to pretend we are not who we have just become — is answered by this same divine patience. God asks us to locate ourselves.

Themes

Eden Adam & Eve Sin Repentance Divine justice

Biblical References

Genesis 3:9

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