1,983 texts · Page 32 of 42
In the dream, the voice said, Lift up now thine eyes and see. And Jakob saw exactly what had been promised: every goat rising upon the flock was spotted in its feet, streaked, or w...
Between Laban's hot pursuit and his morning confrontation, something happened in a dream that the plain Hebrew text only hints at. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan makes it vivid: an angel c...
Unexpectedly, Laban confessed. There is sufficiency in my hand to do evil with thee, he said — the words of a man who has just reviewed his own forces and knows he could crush the ...
Jakob named two patriarchal witnesses in one breath. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and He whom Izhak feareth had been in my help, even now hadst thou sent me awa...
The treaty had one more clause. Laban said to Jakob, If thou shalt afflict my daughters, doing them injury, and if thou take upon my daughters, there is no man to judge us, the Wor...
The moment Jacob heard that Esau was coming with four hundred armed men, he did what his grandfather and father had done before him: he prayed. But notice the opening he chose. He ...
"Save me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him." Jacob's plea in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:12) names two things most ancient prayers leave imp...
"But You promised." This is the hinge of Jacob's prayer in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:13). After naming his fears, after invoking his fathers, after shrinking himself into ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves one of the strangest accounts in all of Jewish tradition (Genesis 32:25). Jacob was left alone across the Jabbok, and an angel wrestled him in the ...
"And he saw that he had not power to hurt him." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:26) pauses to notice something the plain verse whispers but does not say outright: the angel lost...
"And the sun rose upon him before his time." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 32:32) preserves one of the tenderest details in the whole Jacob cycle: the sun itself rearranged its s...
"And the sons of Jacob had come up from the field when they heard. And the men were indignant, and very violently moved, because Shekem had wrought dishonour in Israel in lying wit...
"And it was on the third day, when they were weak from the pain of their circumcision, two of the sons of Jacob, Shimeon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, took each man his sword, a...
"You have made my name to go forth as evil among the inhabitants of the land, among the Kenaanites and Phezerites. And I am a people of small number, and they will gather together ...
Simeon and Levi answered their father Jacob with a question that has rung through every generation since. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 34:31) gives them a longer speech than the...
"And they journeyed from thence, offering praise and prayer before the Lord. And there was a tremor from before the Lord upon the people of the cities round about them, and they pu...
The Torah gives us one sentence, and it is a scandal: Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine (Genesis 35:22). The sages could not bear to leave it there. Reuben was...
The Torah says simply that Esau took his wives, his sons, his flocks, and moved to another land. It sounds like a practical decision — too many cattle, not enough grass. The verse ...
The Torah closes its long list of Edomite chieftains with two final names: Magdiel and Iram. For most readers, they are just names. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 36:43) pauses...
The Torah says Jacob sent Joseph from the Valley of Hebron. The word valley — emek — also means depth. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:14) pounces on the double meaning. Jaco...
The conspiracy speech of Joseph's brothers, preserved in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:20), ends with a sentence that is, in its own dark way, one of the most revealing lin...
After the brothers threw Joseph into the pit, they sat down to eat. Then they looked up and saw a caravan. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:25) gives the caravan an unexpected...
The Torah tells us Reuben came back to the pit, found it empty, and tore his clothes. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:29) answers the question readers have always wanted to a...
The brothers had to produce evidence. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:31) explains their choice of weapon-of-deception with clinical precision: they killed a kid of the goats...
The Torah says Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. Readers have wondered for centuries: evil in what way? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Gen...
When Er died, the custom of yibbum — levirate marriage — required his brother Onan to marry Tamar and father a child who would legally carry Er's name and inherit Er's portion. The...
The Aramaic preserves two small words that change a life. Judah, standing at the place of judgment with his own seal, mantle, and staff in front of him, does not argue. He says: Tz...
The biblical text says only that Potiphar was furious and imprisoned Joseph. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us something remarkable the Hebrew leaves unstated. Joseph's master to...
The Targum closes the chapter with a line that the Sages read as the key to the whole Joseph narrative. It was not needful for the captain of the prison to watch Joseph, after the ...
Joseph's promise to the butler is both specific and ordinary. At the end of three days the memory of thee will come before Pharoh and he will lift up thy head with honour, and rest...
This is one of the most searching moments in the Targum. After interpreting the dream, Joseph adds a request. The Aramaic frames it with a quiet rebuke: Joseph, leaving his higher ...
The Targum does not soften the sentence. At the end of three days, Pharoh with the sword will take away thy head from thy body, and will hang thee upon a gibbet, and the birds will...
On the third day, as Joseph had said, the prophecy lands. The Targum reports it with ceremonial quietness. It was on the third day, the nativity of Pharoh that he made a feast to a...
The Targum supplies the theological punchline the Torah leaves whispered. Because Joseph had withdrawn from the mercy that is above, and had put his confidence in the chief butler,...
The Targum opens chapter 41 with a subtle theological edit. The Hebrew says it was at the end of two years, and Pharaoh dreamed. Pseudo-Jonathan adds a single phrase that rearrange...
The Targum gives us the theological architecture of Pharaoh's sleepless morning. In the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called all the magicians of Mizraim and all...
The Targum records the butler's long-delayed memory. There was with us a Hebrew youth, a servant of the chief executioner; and we recounted to him, and he explained the dream to us...
When Joseph stood before Pharaoh, he did not hedge. The seven wasted cattle and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind were not two dreams but one, doubled for emphasis. Tar...
The words are almost shocking in their starkness. After seven years of surplus, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 41:30) warns that the coming famine will "make all the plenty tha...
The moment is cinematic. Pharaoh pulls his signet ring from his own finger and slides it onto Joseph's. He drapes him in fine linen. He fastens a collar of gold around his neck. Ta...
Pharaoh's grant of power to Joseph sounds almost absurd when read slowly. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 41:44) renders it: "without thy word a man shall not lift up his hand t...
The number is almost casual in the text, but the sages could not stop noticing it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 41:46) records it: "And Joseph was a son of thirty years when ...
The seed itself failed. That is the detail Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 41:55) adds to the Torah's account: the famine in Egypt was not merely the absence of rain but the ref...
The moment the famine deepened, Joseph opened the storehouses. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 41:56) records the mechanics: "Joseph opened all the treasures and sold to the Miz...
How can someone recognize his brothers if they cannot recognize him? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:8) answers with a very physical explanation: the beard. The mathematics o...
Ten brothers stood before him, and Joseph picked Simeon. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:24) preserves the reason the Torah leaves quiet: Simeon "had counselled them to kill ...
The silver fell out, and the brothers' hearts stopped. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:28) preserves their reaction: "knowledge failed from their hearts, and each wondered wi...
They emptied their sacks in front of Jacob, and the family saw the problem grow worse. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:35) reports it plainly: every man's bundle of money was...
