The unsolved murder ritual in (Deuteronomy 21) is already strange in the Torah—elders break a heifer's neck in a barren valley. Targum Jonathan makes it stranger and more spectacular. It adds a detail found nowhere in the Hebrew text: after the priests pray for atonement, "straightway there will come forth a swarm of worms from the excrement of the heifer, and spread abroad, and move to the place where the murderer is, and crawl over him." The worms become divine detectives. They physically lead the authorities to the killer.
The measurement ritual gets legal precision the Torah lacks. Not just "elders" but "two of the sages from the chief court of judgment, and three of thy judges" go out. They measure to cities "on the four quarters." The nearest city is explicitly called "the suspected one." This is the Targum transforming narrative into courtroom procedure.
The captive woman passage reveals the Targum's moral discomfort with the original law. Where the Torah simply says she may shave her head and mourn, the Targum adds that she must be "dipping herself, become a proselyte in thy house." She weeps specifically "on account of the idols of the house of her father and mother." And crucially, the captor "shall wait three months to know whether she be with child." The Targum imposes a waiting period the Torah never mentions.
The rebellious son receives a remarkable escape clause. The parents must confess: "We had transgressed the decree of the Word of the Lord; therefore was born to us this son." They blame themselves. And if the son "brought to fear and receive instruction, and beg that his life may be spared, you shall let him live." Only if he continues rebellious does stoning proceed. The hanging of a criminal's body must happen before sunset so "wild beasts" do not abuse it—because the criminal "was made in the image of God."