The Torah tells us that Moses was born, hidden, found by Pharaoh's daughter, and eventually fled to Midian. Targum Jonathan fills in the gaps with miracles, secret identities, and a ten-year imprisonment the Bible never mentions.
Moses' mother Jochebed gets an astonishing backstory. Amram had divorced her "on account of the decree of Pharaoh"—he refused to bring children into a world where they would be killed. But he returned to her, and "she was the daughter of a hundred and thirty years when he returned to her; but a miracle was wrought in her, and she returned unto youth." Her body reversed its aging entirely. The Targum then explains the timeline: Moses was born "at the end of six months," and Jochebed hid him for three months, "which made the number nine"—a full-term pregnancy compressed into six months, then concealed for three.
When Pharaoh's daughter comes to the river, the Targum provides a reason not found in the Torah. "The Word of the Lord sent forth a burning sore and inflammation of the flesh upon the land of Egypt." She came to the Nile to find relief from a plague. When her handmaids touched the ark containing baby Moses, "they were immediately healed of the burning and inflammation." The child was already performing miracles.
Moses' killing of the Egyptian taskmaster receives a remarkable justification. Before striking, Moses "considered in the wisdom of his mind, and understood that in no generation would there arise a proselyte from that Egyptian man, and that none of his children's children would ever be converted." He looked into the future—every future generation—and saw no righteous descendant. Only then did he act. The Targum also names the two quarreling Hebrews: Dathan and Abiram, the same troublemakers who would later rebel against Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 16).
The Midian section is where the Targum diverges most dramatically from the Torah. When Moses arrives at Reuel's house—here identified as Jethro's father, the girls' grandfather rather than their father—things take a dark turn. "When Reuel knew that Moses had fled from before Pharaoh he cast him into a pit." Moses was imprisoned for ten years. Zipporah, Reuel's granddaughter, "maintained him with food, secretly, for the time of ten years; and at the end of ten years brought him out of the pit."
What follows is one of the most mystical passages in all of Targum Jonathan. Moses entered Reuel's chamber, "gave thanks and prayed before the Lord, who by him would work miracles and mighty acts. And there was shown to him the Rod which was created between the evenings"—that is, at twilight on the sixth day of Creation, one of the miraculous objects God prepared before the first Sabbath. On this Rod "was engraven and set forth the Great and Glorious Name"—the Shem HaMeforash, the Ineffable Name of God. This was the rod "with which he was to do the wonders in Egypt, and to divide the Sea of Reeds, and to bring forth water from the rock." The Rod was fixed immovably in the chamber. Moses "stretched forth his hand at once and took it"—effortlessly, where presumably others had failed.
The chapter's final verses contain a horrifying detail. The Torah says Pharaoh died and the Israelites cried out. The Targum says "the king of Egypt was struck with disease, and he commanded to kill the firstborn of the sons of Israel, that he might bathe himself in their blood." He was murdering children as medicine. And God's response came because "the repentance was revealed before Him which they exercised in concealment, so as that no man knew that of his companion"—each Israelite repented secretly, privately, not knowing their neighbor was doing the same.