The standard Torah tells us that Jacob traveled to Beersheba and offered sacrifices before heading down to Egypt. But Targum Jonathan, the ancient Aramaic translation dating to the early centuries CE, transforms this migration story into something far stranger. It fills the genealogical lists with hidden backstories, secret identities, and at least one woman who cheated death entirely.
God speaks to Jacob in what the Targum specifically calls "a prophecy of the night"—not just a dream, but a genuine prophetic experience. And God does not simply promise to accompany Jacob to Egypt. The Targum adds a pointed reminder: "Fear not to go down into Egypt on account of the servitude I have decreed with Abraham." God is acknowledging, up front, that the coming slavery was planned all along (Genesis 15:13).
The genealogy lists get remarkable upgrades. Issachar's sons are identified as "sages and masters of reasoning." Zebulun's sons are called "merchants, masters of commerce nourishing their brethren, the sons of Issachar, and receiving a reward like theirs"—establishing the famous partnership where one tribe studies Torah and the other funds it.
The most astonishing addition involves Serach bat Asher. The Torah simply lists her name among the descendants. But the Targum says she "was carried away while alive into the Garden of Eden, because she had announced to Jacob that Joseph still lived." She never died. The Targum also credits her with saving the inhabitants of the city of Abel from death during the days of Joab—linking her to the wise woman of 2 Samuel 20.
Asenath, Joseph's Egyptian wife, gets a dramatic identity change. The Targum identifies her as "the daughter of Dinah, educated in the house of Potiphera." She was not Egyptian at all—she was Jacob's own granddaughter, raised in an Egyptian household. This solved a theological problem: how could righteous Joseph marry a foreign woman?
Each of Benjamin's ten sons receives a name interpreted as a reference to Joseph's suffering. Bela means "swallowed up from him." Gera means "sojourner in a foreign land." Muppim means "sold into Egypt." Benjamin named every single child as a memorial to his missing brother.
When Joseph finally meets his father in Goshen, the Targum adds a disturbing detail absent from the Torah. Jacob, before recognizing Joseph, "worshipped him, and thus became liable to be shortened in his years." Bowing to his own son—even unknowingly—carried a spiritual penalty. Jacob's years were literally cut short because he prostrated himself before a human being.
And Israel journeyed with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Izhak.
And the Lord spake to Israel in a prophecy of the night, and said, Jakob! and he said, Behold me.
And He said, I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Mizraim on account of the servitude I have decreed with Abraham: for a great people will I make thee there.
I am He who in My Word will go down with thee into Mizraim; I will regard the affliction of thy children, and My Word shall bring thee up from thence, and cause thy children to come up; but Joseph shall lay his hand upon thine eyes.
And Jakob arose from Beer de Sheba; and the sons of Israel journeyed, with Jakob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the waggons which Pharoh had sent to carry him.
They took their possessions and the substance which they had gotten in the land of Kenaan, and came into Mizraim, Jakob and all his sons with him,
his sons and his sons' children with him, his daughters, and the daughters of his sons; and all his seed came with him to Mizraim.
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Mizraim. Jakob and his sons. The firstborn of Jakob, Reuben.
And the sons of Reuben, Hanok and Phallu Hetsron and Karmi.
The sons of Shimeon, Jemuel and Jamin, Ochad, Jakin, Sochar and Shaul: he is Zimri, who made the work of the Kenaanites in Shittim.
And the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kehath and Merari.
The sons of Jehuda, Er, Onan, Shelah, Pherets, and Zarach. But Er and Onan died, on account of their evil work in the land of Kenaan; and Shelah and Zarach had no children in the land of Kenaan; but the sons of Pherets who went down to Mizraim were Hetsron and Chamul.
The sons of Issakar, sages, and masters of reasoning, their names were Tola, Phua, Job, and Shimron.
The sons of Zebulon, merchants, masters of commerce nourishing their brethren, the sons of Issakar, and receiving a reward like theirs; and their names were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
These are the sons of Leah, whom she bare unto Jakob in. Padan Aram, with Dinah his daughter; all the souls of his sons and his daughter; thirty and three.
And the children of Gad, Sephon, Haggi, Suni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
The children of Asher, Yimna, Yishvah, Yishvi, Beriah and Serach their sister, who was carried away while alive into the Garden (of Eden), because she had announced to Jakob that Joseph still lived. It was she who saved the inhabitants of (the city) Abel from the judgment of death, in the days of Joab. The sons of Beriah who went down into Mizraim were Heber and Malkiel.
These are the children of Zilpha, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and she bare them to Jakob; sixteen souls.
The sons of Rahel, wife of Jakob, Joseph and Benjamin.
And to Joseph were born two sons in the land of Mizraim, whom Asenath the daughter of Dinah, educated in the house of Potiphera prince of Tanis, bare, Menasheh and Ephraim.
The sons of Benjamin, ten; and their names, according to the interpretation of Joseph his brother: Bela, who was swallowed up from him; Beker, who was the chosen of his mother; Eshbal, who went into captivity; Gera, who became a sojourner in a foreign land; Naaman, who was pleasant and honourable; Achi, who had a (twin) brother, the son of his mother; Rosh, who was a chief in his father's house; Muppim, who was sold into Muph; Chuppim, because at the time that he was separated from him he was the son of eighteen years and was eligible for marriage (Chupha, thalamus nuptialis); and Ared, who descended into Mizraim.
These are the children of Rahel who were born unto Jakob, all the souls fourteen.
The sons of Dan, able men (or armed) and merchants, of whose numbers there is no end (or sum).
And the sons of Naphtali, Jakzeel, Guni, Jetser, and Shillem.
These are the sons of Bilhah whom Laban gave to Rahel his daughter; and she bare them unto Jakob, all the souls seven.
All the souls which went into Mizraim with Jakob which had come forth from his thigh; besides the wives of Jakob's sons, all the souls were sixty and six.
But the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Mizraim were two souls; and Joseph who was in Mizraim, and Jokebed the daughter of Levi, who was born among the hills in their journey to Mizraim, the sum of all the souls of the house of Jakob who came into Mizraim, seventy.
And he sent Jehuda before him to Joseph to indicate the way before him, to subdue the pillars of the earth, and to provide him a house of dwelling in Goshena. And they came to the land of Goshen.
And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen; and his father, before he recognised him, worshipped him, and thus became liable to be shortened (or cut off) in his years. And he wondered, and beheld him, and fell upon his neck, and wept still upon his neck, because he had worshipped him.
And Israel said to Joseph, If at this time I die, I am Comforted: for with the death that the righteous die shall I die, after seeing thy face, because thou art yet alive.
And Joseph said to his brethren and his father's house, I will go up and tell Pharoh, and say to him, My brethren and my father's house from the land of Kenaan have come to me.
The men are pastors of sheep; for they are men, the masters of flocks; and their sheep and oxen and all which they have, they have brought.
And it must be, when Pharoh calleth you, and saith, Tell me, what is your work?
you must say, Thy servants have been masters of flocks from our youth until now: that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; because the Mizraee reject all shepherds.
