The standard book of Exodus says an angel appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation composed in the land of Israel, names that angel: Zagnugael. This is a detail found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible—a specific heavenly being assigned to the most pivotal encounter in Israelite history.
But the Targum's additions do not stop there. When God tells Moses to remove his sandals because he stands on holy ground, the standard text leaves it at that. The Targum adds a stunning reason: this is the place where Moses will receive the Torah. The burning bush is not just a one-time miracle. It is a preview of Sinai itself.
When Moses asks God's name, the Hebrew Bible delivers the famously enigmatic "I Am That I Am" (Exodus 3:14). The Targum expands this into a theological declaration: "He who spake, and the world was; who spake, and all things were." Then comes a phrase that bridges past, present, and future—"I AM HE WHO IS, AND WHO WILL BE." The Aramaic translators refused to leave God's self-revelation as a riddle. They turned it into a creed about divine creation and eternal existence.
The Targum also reframes how God perceives Israel's suffering. Where Exodus says God "saw" and "heard," the Targum uses the passive: their oppression "is manifest before Me," their cry "is heard before Me." This subtle shift protects God's transcendence—the Aramaic translators consistently avoided any language that might make God seem too human, replacing direct perception with a formula of divine awareness. Even the promised land is described not just as flowing with milk and honey, but as an "unclean land" that Israel must leave—a moral judgment the Hebrew text does not make about Egypt.