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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 mantl...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 9:24 adds a detail that quietly reshapes the whole story. The biblical Hebrew simply says Noah awoke and knew what his younger son had done to him...
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 — tho...
Abraham had asked for Ishmael to be the heir of the promise (Genesis 17:18). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 17:19 preserves the Lord's answer, and it is not what Abraham request...
Genesis 17:20 is the Lord's answer to the previous verse's quiet sadness. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with full warmth. Concerning Ishmael I have heard thy prayer. Behold, I ...
The Hebrew says simply that Sarah was listening at the tent door. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 18:10 puts a second listener behind her. And Sarah was hearkening at the door of...
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 ...
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 no ...
Genesis 19:33 is one of the most uncomfortable scenes in Torah, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not look away. "And they made their father drink wine that night, and he was drunk. ...
Genesis 19:34 is a verse most readers speed past. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan slows down and lets us hear the elder daughter plan. "And it was the day following, and the elder said to t...
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; and...
Genesis 19:38, in the Targum's rendering: "And the younger also brought forth a son, and she called his name Bar-Ammi, because he was the son of her father. He is the father of the...
The biblical verse is blunt. Sarah tells Abraham to cast out the handmaid and her son. But in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 21:10, the Aramaic adds a sentence that changes ever...
Here is one of the strangest verses in the Targum, and one of the most historically suggestive. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 21:21, Ishmael grows up in the wilderness of Ph...
One of the most painful verses in the Torah is also one of its shortest. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 22:6, Abraham lays the wood of the offering on Isaac's shoulder. Fathe...
The single most heartbreaking exchange in Genesis is seven words long. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 22:7, Isaac says abba — my father. Abraham answers ha-ana — I am here.Th...
The Torah's bookkeeping of Abraham's later life is precise. He had taken another wife after Sarah, Keturah, and by her and his concubines there were sons. The inheritance had to be...
This is one of the Targum's most surprising explanations. Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 25:11 asks the question the Torah leaves hanging: why, in all the final chapters of his life, d...
The moment Jacob hesitates is the moment Rebekah makes her most astonishing offer. "If with blessings he bless thee, they shall be upon thee and upon thy sons; and if with curses h...
Isaac's answer to his weeping elder son is one of the saddest sentences in the Torah. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves its resignation with a quiet Aramaic cadence. "Behold, I ...
Rebekah's instruction to Jacob is urgent, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a Genesis-deep lament to the end of it. "Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day: thou being s...
The Torah says the Lord saw that Leah was hated and opened her womb, and Rachel was barren (Genesis 29:31). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan softens and sharpens the verse in the same br...
When Leah named her firstborn Reuben, she said the Hebrew phrase ra'ah Adonai b'onyi — "the Lord has seen my affliction" (Genesis 29:32). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan hears the phras...
Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, bears Jacob a son whom Rachel names Dan, from the Hebrew din, "judgment" (Genesis 30:6). Rachel says, God has judged me and heard my prayer.The Targum Ps...
Leah names the second son of her handmaid Zilpah Asher, from osher, "happiness" or "praise" (Genesis 30:13). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan translates the name into a prophecy about th...
The Torah says Reuben went out in the days of the wheat harvest and found dudaim, mandrakes, in the field (Genesis 30:14). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan specifies the month: Sivan, th...
The exchange between Leah and Rachel over the mandrakes is one of the rawest sibling arguments in Genesis. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the Aramaic bite.Is it a little thin...
A small Targumic detail in Genesis 30:16 captures how Leah knew her husband had returned from the fields.She heard the voice of the braying of the ass. Jacob's donkey. Leah recogni...
The fifth son of Leah is Issachar, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 30:18 gives his name a remarkable explanation.Leah says, The Lord hath given me my reward, for that I g...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 30:21 preserves one of the most startling moments in the entire tribal genealogy.Originally, says the Aramaic tradition, the baby in Leah's wo...
After years of infertility, the Torah says God remembered Rachel (Genesis 30:22). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan expands the verb.The remembrance of Rachel came before the Lord, and th...
Rachel finally bore a son. She named him Joseph, from the Hebrew asaph, "to gather away" (Genesis 30:23). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan turns her naming into a prophecy about a river ...
Cornered, Laban made the last argument of a man who cannot let go. The children whom thou hast received of thy wives are my children, and the children whom they may bear will be re...
Here is why Jakob's fear was so great. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives the reason the plain Hebrew only hints at: he was greatly afraid, because for twenty years he had not been mindf...
Jacob lifted his eyes and saw what he had feared for twenty years: Esau, and with him four hundred men of war (Genesis 33:1). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not soften the number. Fou...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan speaks plainly about what many readers would rather leave implicit (Genesis 33:2). Jacob "placed the concubines and their sons foremost." And the Targum even...
Esau looked at the caravan and asked the question any returning brother might ask: "Who are these with you?" (Genesis 33:5). In the plain text Jacob answers simply, "the children w...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves a small, piercing detail from the moment the family bowed before Esau (Genesis 33:7). The handmaids and their children came forward. Leah and her c...
Esau offered to travel alongside Jacob, and Jacob declined. The reason he gave, preserved in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (Genesis 33:13), sounds like a note from a shepherd's almanac. "...
"I will lead on quietly alone, according to the foot of the work which is before me, and according to the foot of the instruction of the children; until the time that I come to my ...
When Joseph told his father the dream of the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, Jacob rebuked him. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:10) reports the rebuke: What dream is thi...
When Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers in Shechem, the Torah gives no reason for the trip other than routine concern. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:13) reveals a f...
The Torah says Jacob refused to be comforted and declared he would go down to the grave mourning. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:35) adds a heartbreaking line the Hebrew onl...
The verse is simple, but the timing is everything. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 41:50 reports that Joseph fathered two sons "before the year of famine arose," born to Asenath,...
The old man counted his losses aloud. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 42:36 preserves Jacob's lament word by word: "Of Joseph you said, An evil beast hath devoured him; of Simeon...
Reuben tried the one guarantee that could possibly move his father. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 42:37 preserves the oath: "Slay my two sons with a curse if I do not bring him...
Jacob draws the line. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 42:38 preserves his refusal: "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone remains of his mother...
Joseph has been holding a pose for three chapters. Stern vizier. Egyptian potentate. Accuser, examiner, power. Then he lifts his eyes and sees, standing among his brothers, the boy...
