The standard Bible tells you Rachel stole her father's household gods when Jacob fled Laban's house. The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation from roughly the 1st-2nd century CE, tells you exactly what those gods were—and it is far stranger than any idol on a shelf.
According to the Targum (Genesis 31:19), Laban's household images were made from a slaughtered firstborn man. They cut off his head, salted it with salt and balsams, inscribed incantations on a plate of gold, placed the plate under the severed tongue, and mounted the head on a wall. The head spoke to them. This is what Rachel stole—a necromantic oracle, a talking skull that her father worshipped and consulted for guidance.
The Targum also transforms Jacob's escape into something far more dramatic than a quiet departure. When Jacob left, the well that had miraculously overflowed for twenty years—sustained by his righteousness alone—suddenly went dry (Genesis 31:22). The shepherds waited three days, hoping it would return. It did not. Only then did they report to Laban that Jacob had fled. The Targum is making a theological claim here: Jacob's mere presence generated blessing for everyone around him, and they only noticed when it vanished.
Two more additions stand out. First, the Targum identifies the messenger Jacob sent ahead as Naphtali, specifically described as a swift runner—a detail absent from the Hebrew Bible but preserved in other rabbinic traditions about Naphtali's legendary speed. Second, when God warned Laban not to harm Jacob, the Targum specifies that an angel appeared with a drawn sword in Laban's dream, transforming a verbal warning into armed divine enforcement.
Jacob's destination gets a prophetic upgrade too. He headed toward Mount Gilead not just for practical reasons, but because he foresaw through the Holy Spirit that his descendants would one day find deliverance there—in the days of Jephthah the Gileadite (Judges 11). The Targum constantly ties Jacob's physical journey to Israel's future history, collapsing centuries into a single act of prophetic navigation.