God's Question to Hiding Adam in the Garden

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 3:9 View source
Curated by Maggid·Edited by Arthur Sabintsev·

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

EdenAdam EveSinRepentanceDivine Justice

Biblical References

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