Genesis 18:20

Hebrew Bible

19 I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then the Lord will give to Abraham what he promised him.” 20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant 21 that I must go down and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. If not, I want to know.”

Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 18:20

Targum

19 For his piety is manifest before me, so that he will command his children and the members of his household after him to observe ways that are right before the Lord, doing what is just and right, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham the good things he has promised him.” 20 The Lord said to the ministering angels, “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah—because they oppress the poor and decree that whoever gives a morsel of bread to the needy shall be burned by fire—is indeed great, and their sin has indeed increased greatly. 21 I will now be revealed, and I will see whether they have really done according to the complaint of the maiden Peletith which has come before me. If so, they deserve total destruction, but if they do penance, shall they not be righteous before me as if I did not know, and I will not take revenge.

 Notes and References

"... The fact that God’s words, “let us make,” are in the plural, and might be taken to indicate that there is a plurality in the Godhead, gave rise to the opinion that God spoke these words to the angels; compare Genesis Rabbah 8:4; b. Sanhedrin 38b. Of the four Targums (Onkelos, Neofiti, Palestinian, Pseudo-Jonathan) of Genesis 1:26, only Pseudo Jonathan has been influenced by this midrash. On other occasions, too, Pseudo Jonathan specifies that words of God which are recorded in the plural in the Bible, were, in fact addressed to angels (compare Pseudo Jonathan Genesis 3:22; 11:7; see also 18:20, where Pseudo Jonathan tells us that God spoke to the angels). Rabbinic sources explained the words “let us make” in such a way as to exclude the Christian claim that these words pointed to the Trinity ..."

Maher, Michael Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Genesis (pp. 19-20) Liturgical Press, 1992

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