Exodus chapter 4 tells how Moses received miraculous signs to convince Israel of his mission. The Targum Jonathan transforms this chapter into something far stranger—especially when it comes to the rod.
The Hebrew Bible simply says Moses took his staff. The Targum says he took the rod "from the chamber of his father-in-law," and then drops a bombshell: the rod was made from the sapphire of <strong>God's</strong> Throne of Glory. It weighed forty seah. Engraved on it was the Great and Glorious Name—the divine Name by which miracles would be performed. This is not a shepherd's walking stick. This is a cosmic weapon forged from the very seat of God.
When Moses begs God to send someone else (Exodus 4:13), the Hebrew text is vague about who he means. The Targum is explicit: "Send now Thy sending by the hand of Phinehas, by whom it is to be sent at the end of the days." The Aramaic translators believed Moses was asking God to send the future redeemer—and they identified that figure with Phinehas, the zealous priest, who in rabbinic tradition never died and would return as the herald of the final redemption.
The most dramatic expansion comes in the terrifying inn scene (Exodus 4:24-26). The Hebrew text is notoriously cryptic—God "sought to kill" someone, and Zipporah circumcises her son. The Targum explains everything. The angel who attacked was a Destroyer. Gershom had not been circumcised because Moses's father-in-law Jethro had forbidden it, though the second son Eliezer had been circumcised by prior agreement. Zipporah brought the severed foreskin to the feet of the destroying angel and declared that the blood of circumcision should atone for her husband. The angel withdrew. Zipporah then praised the covenant, saying, "How lovely is the blood of this circumcision that hath delivered my husband."