This is the sentence the rabbis have wrestled with for two thousand years. Jacob, dressed in Adam's garments, stands in front of his blind father and says, "I am Esau thy firstborn: I have done as thou spakest with me. Arise now, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me" (Genesis 27:19).
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan keeps the sentence as it stands. Jacob says it. Plain.
Did Jacob lie?
The traditional readings split the phrase to rescue it. Rashi, the great eleventh-century commentator, parses it this way: I am the one bringing you food; Esau is your firstborn. Two separate statements, neither one a lie. Others read it as I am he-who-is-now-the-firstborn-through-purchase, referencing Esau's sale of the birthright over a bowl of lentils.
But Pseudo-Jonathan does not soften it. The Targum leaves the words exactly where they are: I am Esau thy firstborn. The Aramaic tradition seems to want us to feel the sharp edge of this moment. Rebekah has guaranteed any curse that might come. Adam's garments are on Jacob's shoulders. Pesach night is above them. And yet the son of the covenant speaks a false name.
The deeper teaching
The rabbis do not let Jacob off the hook. The consequences of this moment will chase him for decades. Laban will deceive him with the wrong bride. His own sons will deceive him with the bloody coat of Joseph. The pattern will loop until Jacob, at the Jabbok, is given a new name: Israel — one who has striven with God and with men and prevailed.
Pseudo-Jonathan's lesson is not that the end justifies the means. It is that even chosen people pay for every syllable. The takeaway: the covenant is larger than any single action, but no action inside it is free.