Targum Jonathan takes the story of Jacob's settlement in Egypt and layers it with theological details the Torah never mentions, including an economic revolution, a hidden act of kindness by Joseph, and one of the most powerful deathbed scenes in all of Jewish literature.
When Joseph brings his father before Pharaoh, the Torah simply says Jacob "blessed" the king. The Targum specifies exactly what he said: "May it please the Almighty that the waters of the Nile may be replenished, and may the famine pass away from the world in thy days." This was not a polite greeting. It was a prophetic prayer. And according to the tradition, it worked.
Pharaoh asks Jacob his age, and Jacob's answer in the Targum is more revealing than the biblical version. He says: "In my youth I fled before Esau my brother, and sojourned in a land not my own; and now in the time of my old age have I come down to sojourn here." He frames his entire 130 years as exile after exile, never truly at home.
The famine narrative gets a striking addition. When Joseph buys up all the land for Pharaoh, the Targum explains why he relocated entire populations, moving city dwellers to the provinces and province dwellers to cities: "for the sake of the brethren of Joseph, that they might not be called wanderers." Joseph reshuffled all of Egypt so his family would not stand out as foreigners. Everyone became a stranger simultaneously.
The Targum also reveals why Joseph spared the priests' land from seizure. It was not merely Pharaoh's decree. The Egyptian priests "had considered him innocent at the time when his master was seeking to put him to death, and they had delivered him from the judgment of death." They had saved Joseph's life during the Potiphar affair. He repaid the debt.
The Israelites in Goshen did not merely settle, they "built there schools and mansions, and inherited therein fields and vineyards, and they increased and multiplied greatly." The Targum pictures them establishing an entire educational infrastructure, not just surviving.
Jacob's deathbed request involves a detail the Torah leaves ambiguous. He asks Joseph to place his hand on "the place of my circumcision", the sign of the covenant, when swearing the oath. But Joseph, "because he was his son, did not so put his hand." He swore the oath another way, out of respect.
The final moment is extraordinary. After Joseph swears, "immediately the Glory of the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence) of the Lord was revealed to him, and Israel worshipped upon the pillow of the bed." The divine Presence itself appeared in the room, drawn there by the oath to bury Jacob in the land of Canaan.
And Joseph came and informed Pharoh, and said, My father and my brethren, with their sheep all oxen and all that they have, are come from the land of Kenaan, and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen.
And from the extreme of his brethren he took five men, Zebulon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, and resented them before Pharoh.
And Pharoh said to Joseph's brethren, What is your work?
And they said to Pharoh, Thy servants are pastors of sheep, both we and our fathers. And they said to Pharoh, To dwell in the land are we come, because there is no place of pasture for thy servants' sheep, for the famine hath prevailed in the land of Kenaan; let thy servants therefore now dwell in the land of Goshen.
And Pharoh spake to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren have come to thee.
The land of Mizraim is before thee. In the fairest part of the land make thy father and thy brethren to dwell: let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if thou know any among them men of ability, appoint them masters over my flocks.
And Joseph brought Jakob his father, and presented him before Pharoh. And Jakob blessed Pharoh, and said, May it please the Almighty that the waters of Nilos may be replenished, and may the famine pass away from the world in thy days!
And Pharoh said to Jakob, How many are the days of the years of thy life?
And Jakob answered Pharoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life; for in my youth I fled before Esau my brother, and sojourned in a land not my own; and now in the time of my old age have I come down to sojourn here. And my days have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
And Jakob blessed Pharoh, and went out from before Pharoh.
And Joseph brought his father and brethren to dwell, and gave them a possession in the land of Mizraim, in a goodly part of the country, in the country of Pilusin, as Pharoh had commanded.
And Joseph sustained his father and his brethren and all his father's house with bread, according to the need of their families.
But there was no bread (grown) in all the land, because the famine prevailed greatly, and the inhabitants of the land of Mizraim failed, and the dwellers in the land of Kenaan, in presence of the famine.
And Joseph collected all the money which was found in the land of Mizraim, and in the land of Kenaan, for the corn which he sold to them; and Joseph brought the money into the treasure--house of Pharoh.
And the money was finished from the land of Mizraim, and from the land of Kenaan; and the Mizraee came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread; why should we die before thee? for all our money is finished.
And Joseph said, Give your flocks, and for your flocks I will give you provisions, if the money be consumed.
And they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread for their horses, and for the flocks of sheep, the oxen, and the asses; and he sustained them with bread for all their flocks for that year
And that year being ended, all the Mizraee came to him, in the second year, and said to him, We will not hide it from my lord, that the money is finished and my lord hath the flocks of cattle: there is nothing left us before my lord except our bodies, and our land.
Why should we die and thine eye seeing (it), both we and our land also? Buy us, and our land, for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharoh, and give the seed of corn, that we may live and not die, and the land be not desolated.
And Joseph bought all the land of Mizraim for Pharoh; for the Mizraee sold every man his portion, because the famine prevailed over them, and the land became the property of Pharoh.
And the people of a province he removed to a city, and the people of the city he removed to a province, for the sake of the brethren of Joseph, that they might not be called wanderers: therefore he made them migrate from one end of Mizraim to the other.
Only the land of the priests he bought not because they had considered him innocent at the time when his master was seeking to put him to death, and they had delivered him from the judgment of death: and besides he had said that a portion should be given them from Pharoh. So they ate the portion which Pharoh gave them, and sold not their land.
And Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharoh: behold, (I give) you seed corn to sow the land;
and at the time of the ingathering of your produce you shall give the fifth part to Pharoh, and four parts shall be yours, for the seeding of your land, and for food and for provision for your houses and little ones.
And they said, Thou hast preserved us: let us find favour in the eyes of my lord, and we will be Pharoh's servants.
And Joseph established it a law unto this day over the land of Mizraim to take to Pharoh a fifth part of the produce, except only the land of the priests which was not Pharoh's.
And Israel dwelt in the land of Mizraim, and they built there schools and mansions in the land of Goshen, and inherited therein fields and vineyards; and they increased and multiplied greatly.
And Jakob lived in the land of Mizraim seventeen years. And the sum of the days of Jakob, of the days of his life, was a hundred and forty and seven years.
And the days of Israel drew near to die. And he called to his son, to Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour before thee, put thy hand on the place of my circumcision, and deal with me in goodness and truth, That thou wilt not bury me in Mizraim,
that I may sleep with my fathers, and thou mayest carry me from Mizraim, and bury me in their sepulchre. But because he was his son he did not (so) put his hand; but said, I will do according to thy word.
And he said, Swear tome: and he sware to him. And immediately the Glory of the Shekina of the Lord was revealed to him, and Israel worshipped upon the pillow of the bed.
