Jacob speaks. For the first time in the Targum's chapter, he is called by his second name — Israel.
"Israel said, Many benefits hath the Lord wrought for me; He delivered me from the hand of Esau and from the hand of Laban, and from the hands of the Kenaanites who pursued me; and many consolations have I seen and have expected to see; but this I had not expected, that Joseph my son should yet be alive. I will go now, and behold him before I die" (Genesis 45:28). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan lays out the itinerary of the patriarch's rescue, one deliverance at a time.
Read the list. Esau, who wanted to kill him after the stolen blessing (Genesis 27:41). Laban, who pursued him from Haran with a small army (Genesis 31:23). The Canaanites, who threatened his household after the rape of Dinah (Genesis 35:5). Three near-deaths. Three divine rescues. A life, Israel says, of rescue after rescue.
But none of them prepared him for this. This I had not expected. Not the deliverance from Esau, not the deliverance from Laban, not even the deliverance from the Canaanites. The return of Joseph is outside the catalog. It is the one rescue Israel had stopped praying for, because he had accepted the death as final.
The sages call this the techiyat ha-meitim be-ze'era, the resurrection of the dead in miniature. The loss Jacob mourned as absolute is reversed. The son he could not stop weeping for is alive. The door of history that Jacob thought was closed has swung open again.
"I will go now, and behold him before I die." The pilgrimage of old men. The last great journey of a patriarch. Israel does not ask for more years. He asks only for one more look. That, he says, will be enough.