The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39 is already tense. The Targum Jonathan ratchets the tension higher by adding theological motives, divine intervention, and a trial scene with behind-the-scenes maneuvering that the Hebrew original never mentions.
The most significant change is the Targum's repeated use of a specific phrase: "the Word of the Lord was Joseph's Helper." This appears four times in the chapter, replacing the Hebrew Bible's simpler "the Lord was with Joseph" (Genesis 39:2). The Aramaic Memra, the divine Word, is a theological concept the Targum uses to describe how God interacts with the physical world. Joseph's success in Egypt is not presented as natural talent or luck. It is direct divine assistance, mediated through the Memra.
When Potiphar's wife propositions Joseph, the Targum adds a motive for his refusal that goes beyond moral principle. He refused, the text says, "lest with her he should be condemned in the day of the great judgment of the world to come." This is not in Genesis at all. The Aramaic translators inserted the concept of an afterlife judgment, giving Joseph's refusal an eschatological dimension. He was not just avoiding sin. He was avoiding damnation.
The Targum also changes what Joseph was doing when he entered the house that fateful day. (Genesis 39:11) says vaguely that he came "to do his work." The Targum specifies: he came "to examine the tablets of his accounts." He was doing bookkeeping. This mundane detail makes the scene more vivid and strips away any suggestion that Joseph came looking for trouble.
The most dramatic addition comes at the end. Where Genesis simply says Potiphar threw Joseph in prison in anger, the Targum reveals that Potiphar first "took counsel of the priests," and these priests determined that Joseph should not be executed. This explains a longstanding puzzle: why would a master not kill a slave accused of assaulting his wife? The answer, according to the Targum, is that a priestly tribunal intervened and commuted the sentence. They may have suspected the truth. Joseph was sent to prison, not the executioner's block, because the evidence did not add up.
But Joseph was brought down into Mizraim; and Potiphar, … a man of Mizraim, a chief of Pharoh, a chief of the executioners, bought him with the pledge of the Arabians who had brought him down thither.
And the Word of the Lord was Joseph's Helper, and he became a prosperous man in the house of his Mizraite master.
And his master saw that the Word of the Lord was his Helper, and that the Lord prospered in his hand all that he did;
and Joseph found favour in his eyes, and he served him, and he appointed him superintendent over his house, and all that he had he delivered in his hands.
And it was from the time he appointed him superintendent over his house, and over all that he had, the Lord prospered the house of the Mizraite for the sake of the righteousness of Joseph, and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field.
And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and took no knowledge of anything of his, except his wife with whom he lay. And Joseph was of goodly form and beautiful aspect.
And it was after these things that the wife of his master lifted up her eyes to Joseph, and said, Lie with me.
But he refused to come near her, and said to his master's wife, Behold, my master taketh no knowledge of what is with me in the house, and all he hath he delivereth into my hand;
there is none in the house greater than I nor hath he restricted me from anything but thyself, because thou art his wife: and how can I do this great wickedness, and become guilty before the Lord ?
And it was when she spake with Joseph this day and the next, and be hearkened not to her to lie with her, lest with her be should be condemned in the day of the great judgment of the world to come;
it was on a certain day that he entered the house to examine the tablets of his accounts, and there was no man of the house within;
that she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and went forth into the street.
And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had gone forth into the street,
that she called the men of the house and said, See this, ___ which the Hebrew man hath done whom your master hath brought to mock us. He came in to lie with me, and I cried with a high voice.
And when he heard that I lifted up my voice, he left his garment with me, and went forth into the street.
And she let the garment remain until his master came into his house;
and she spake to him according to these words, saying The Hebrew servant whom thou broughtest to us came in to me to mock me.
And when his master heard the words which his wife spake with him, saying, According to these things did thy servant to me, his wrath became strong.
And Joseph's master took counsel of the priests, who ____ put him not to death, but delivered him into the house of the bound, where the king's prisoners were bound; and he was there in the house of the bound.
And the Word of the Lord was Joseph's Helper, and extended mercy to him, and gave him favour in the eyes of the captain of the prison.
And the captain of the prison confided all the prisoners who were in the house to Joseph's hands, and whatsoever was done there he commanded to be done.
It was not needful for the captain of the prison to watch Joseph, after the custom of all prisoners, because he saw that there was no fault in his hands; for the Word of the Lord was his Helper, and that which he did the Lord made it to prosper.
