Genesis 42:1-27
Jacob ........ he <03290> [when Jacob.]
heard ............... looking <07200> [saw. i.e, heard, from the report of others, that there was plenty in Egypt.]
The operations of one sense are frequently put for those of another in Hebrew; (see the Parallel Passages.)
heard ............... looking <07200> [Why do ye.]
down <03381> [get you.]
live <02421> [that we.]
Benjamin <01144> [Benjamin.]
if <06435> [Lest.]
famine <07458> [for.]
ruler <07989> [governor.]
{Shallit,} an intendant, protector, ruler, from {shalat,} to be over or a protector, to rule: hence the Arabic {salita,} to obtain and exercise dominion, rule; and {sultÆ’n,} ruler, lord, prince, and king.
sold <07666> [he it was.]
bowed down <07812> [bowed.]
harshly ... asked ........ answered <07186 0559> [roughly unto them. Heb. hard things with them.]
recognized ........ recognize <05234> [but they knew.]
remembered <02142> [remembered.]
spies <07270> [Ye are spies.]
Persons who, under the pretence of wishing to buy corn, desire only to find out whether the land be so defenceless that the tribes to which you belong may attack it successfully, drive out the inhabitants, and settle themselves in it; or, having plundered it, retire into their deserts. This is a frequent custom among the Arabs to the present day.
vulnerable <06172> [nakedness.]
honest <03651> [We are, etc.]
We do not belong to different tribes; and it is not likely that one family would make a hostile attempt upon a whole kingdom; nor, if any serious design had been intended, that one man would have sent his sons on so hazardous an expedition.
honest .... servants <03651 05650> [true men.]
vulnerable <06172> [nakedness.]
servants <05650> [Thy servants.]
one .................. one <0259> [one is not.]
lives <02416> [By the life.]
youngest <06996> [except.]
prison <0631> [kept in prison. Heb. bound.]
imprisoned <0622> [put. Heb. gathered.]
imprisoned <04929> [ward.]
God <0430 03373> [I fear God.]
prison ............... families <01004> [house.]
take grain back <07668 0935> [carry corn.]
bring <0935> [bring.]
did <06213> [And they.]
said <0559> [they said.]
saw <07200> [we saw.]
distressed .................... distress <06869> [this distress.]
said ...... say <0559> [Spake I.]
blood <01818> [his blood.]
[he spake unto them by a interpreter. Heb. an interpreter was between them.]
The {mailitz} does not seem to have been an interpreter in our sense of the term; as we have many evidences in this book that the Egyptians, Hebrews, Canaanites, and Syrians, could understand each other in a general way; and it appears from several passages in this very chapter, (particularly ver. 24,) that Joseph and his brethren understood each others' language, as his brethren and Joseph's steward also did (ch. 43:19, etc; compare ch. 39; 49.) It seems to denote an officer who is called in Abyssinia, according to Mr. Bruce, {Kal Hatz‚,} "the voice or word of the king," who always stands at the side of a lattice window of a balcony, within which the king sits; who is never seen, but who speaks through a hole in the side of it, covered in the inside with a curtain, to this officer, by whom he speaks to the persons present.
wept <01058> [wept.]
Simeon <08095> [Simeon.]
orders <06680> [commanded.]
give ... provisions <05414 06720> [to give them.]
orders <03651> [and thus.]
resting place <04411> [the inn.]
resting place <04411> [inn.]
{Malon,} from {loon,} to stay, abide, lodge, denotes any place to stay and lodge in, particularly a place where travellers usually stop to lodge, which is generally near a well, where they fill their {girbehs,} or leathern bottles, with fresh water, and having unladen and clogged their camels, asses, etc., permit them to crop any little verdure there may be in the place, keeping watch over them by turns. Our word inn here gives us a false idea, there were no such places of entertainment in the desert which Joseph's brethren had to pass; nor are there any at the present day. The only accommodation such a place affords is either a well, or a {khan,} or {caravanserai,} which is generally no more than four bare walls, perfectly exposed, the place being open at the top, and furnishing a wretched lodging: and even these, it is probable, were not in use at this early period.
