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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 9:10) widens the covenant after the Flood to include every creature, without exception. With every living soul that is with you, of birds, and of...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 9:23) captures one of the quiet, careful acts of love in Torah. After Noah has fallen asleep in the shame of the wine, Shem and Japhet took a man...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 10:9) gives us the first great villain after the Flood. He was a mighty rebel before the Lord; therefore it is said, From the day that the world ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 10:26) hides one of the loveliest details in the whole genealogy. Joktan begat Elmodad, who measured (or lined) the earth with lines; and Shaleph...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 10:32) closes the Table of Nations with a sentence that should make every reader pause. These are the houses of the sons of Noah, according to th...
The Hebrew Bible in (Genesis 13:7) says only that there was strife between the shepherds. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells you what the strife was about, and the answer is an ethics le...
The Hebrew Bible in (Genesis 13:13) says simply that the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Lord, exceedingly. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan refuses that generality. The Ara...
A roster of kings is usually a place where readers skim. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:2) will not let you skim. It reads the names. The Aramaic treats each royal name as a...
After tithing to Shem-Malkizedek, Abram turns to the other king on the race-course — the king of Sodom — and refuses him. (Genesis 14:22) records the oath, and Targum Pseudo-Jonath...
After Abraham routed the four kings and rescued his nephew Lot, the king of Sedom came out to meet him with an offer that looked generous and was actually a trap. Take the spoil, t...
Having refused the king of Sedom's gift, Abraham was not done speaking. One refusal can become self-righteousness if you are not careful. So in the very next breath, according to T...
There is a detail in the Hebrew of (Genesis 16:2) that the Targum will not let pass quietly. Sarah sends her husband to her handmaid Hagar. The Hebrew says simply go in unto my mai...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 16:6) is terse, almost stenographic. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan keeps the brevity but sharpens one word: authority. Behold, thy handmaid is under thy authority, ...
When the Lord lays down the sign of the covenant, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:10) catches a case the Hebrew leaves implicit. Every male among you shall be circumcised — t...
Chapter 18 of Genesis opens with one of the most intimate moments in the Torah, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives it a medical detail the Hebrew leaves implicit. The glory of the Lo...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 18:3) is famously ambiguous. Is Abraham speaking to the angels, or to God? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan answers with a confident rearrangement. Abraham addresses t...
(Genesis 18:5) in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan turns a simple meal into a moment of blessing. Abraham will bring bread so that the travelers may strengthen their hearts — and, the Targum...
(Genesis 18:8) contains one of the Torah's most curious moments, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with an almost comic precision. Abraham takes rich cream, milk, and the calf ...
Why did God decide to let Abraham in on the destruction of Sodom? The Targum answers with one Aramaic word: chasidutha — piety, devotion, loving-kindness. His chasidut, the Targum ...
Evening falls over Sedom, and two angels arrive. The Hebrew of (Genesis 19:1) says Lot was sitting "in the gate of Sedom." The Targum catches a detail the plain reading hides. "Two...
"Turn now hither," Lot says to the two angels, "and enter the house of your servant, and lodge, and wash your feet" (Genesis 19:2). The angels refuse. "No; for in the street we wil...
(Genesis 19:3) has one of the most charming details in all of Torah, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan doubles down on it. "And he persuaded them earnestly, and they turned aside to be wi...
Some verses in Torah are hard to carry, and (Genesis 19:8) is one of them. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translates it without softening. "Behold, now, I have two daughters who have had n...
The crowd at Lot's door is done bargaining. (Genesis 19:9), in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan's Aramaic, records the exact accusation they throw at him. "Did not this come alone to sojourn...
(Genesis 19:35) completes the pattern begun two nights earlier. "And they made their father drink wine that night also, and he was drunk, and the younger arose, and lay with him; a...
(Genesis 20:5) continues Abimelech's defense: "Did he not tell me, She is my sister? and did not she also say, He is my brother? In the truthfulness of my heart and the innocency o...
Listen to how carefully Abimelech phrases his request. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 21:23), the king asks Abraham to swear by the Word of the Lord that he will not act fal...
A well in the Negev. Seven ewe lambs set apart. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 21:32), the Aramaic preserves the ancient name of the place — Beira de-Sheva, the Well of the ...
The negotiation for Sarah's burial unfolds with legal care. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:8), Abraham approaches the gathered Hittite elders not with authority but with ...
The request is precise. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:9), Abraham names exactly what he wants: his double cave which is built in the side of his field, for the full pric...
Listen to how Ephron performs generosity. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:11), the Hittite landowner makes his first move: the field I give thee, and the cave which is in ...
Abraham has no interest in Ephron's performance. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:13), the patriarch addresses Ephron before the people of the land — the witnesses must hea...
The deal closes with a detail that tells you this verse was written by someone who knew markets. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:16), the Aramaic paraphrase describes the ...
The deed is recorded with the care of a surveyor. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 23:17), the Aramaic lists what Abraham now owns: the field, and the cave that is therein, an...
Abraham is old, and the question of Isaac's wife must be settled. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:2), the Aramaic makes explicit what the Hebrew only hints at: Abraham tel...
The command is unambiguous. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:3), Abraham makes Eliezer swear by the Word of the Lord God, whose habitation is in heaven on high, the God who...
Rivekah had only just finished her story, gold still on her hand, when her brother Laban moved. The Torah's text is brief, but Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:30) notices the...
A small verse. A large courtesy. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:32) describes the moment after the greeting: the servant enters, the camels are unharnessed, straw and proven...
A careful reader notices the sequence. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 24:47), Eliezer describes what he did at the well in a very particular order. First, he asked Rivekah w...
Some births announce their children. Esau's birth, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:25), announces an entire character. "The first came forth wholly red, as a garment of ha...
Two brothers. Two careers. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:27) gives the contrast in parallel sentences. Esau grew up a "man of idleness to catch birds and beasts, a man goin...
Abimelech's second sentence to Isaac is sharper than his first. "Why hast thou done this to us? It might have been that the king, who is the principal of the people, had lain with ...
The promise to Jacob at Bethel scales. From a single man sleeping on stones, the Word of God opens outward: sons as many as the dust, spreading west, east, north, and south (Genesi...
Jacob's vow at Bethel is, in the plain Torah text, a conditional prayer: if God keeps me and feeds me, then the Lord will be my God (Genesis 28:20–21). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan r...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 29:3) describes the mechanism of the Haran well with the precision of a halachic note. The flocks gathered. The stone was rolled from the mou...
In the plain Torah, Laban hears that Jacob has arrived and runs to meet him (Genesis 29:13). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan unpacks exactly what Laban had already heard — and the list ...
Laban tried to buy him off. What shall I give thee? he asked — the question of a man who believes everything has a price (Genesis 30:31). Jakob, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan's telling...
Jakob added one more clause to the contract, and it is the most striking line of the whole negotiation. My righteousness shall testify for me tomorrow, when my wages shall be broug...
