Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 42

When Jacob saw. — This means he learned and understood that there was grain in Egypt. As we have seen (Genesis 37:25), there was extensive caravan trade between Palestine and Egypt, and the report would gradually spread that food could be purchased there.

Why do you look ... — In the second rainless season, not only would the flocks and herds begin to weaken, but the numerous retainers of Jacob and his sons would also become feeble from insufficient nourishment and begin to die from low fever and those other diseases that accompany famine. Jacob’s words, therefore, mean: Why are you irresolute and uncertain what to do? And then he encourages them to undertake this journey as a possible means of providing for the needs of their households.

Joseph’s ten brothers. — Either their cattle and households had already been greatly reduced by the deaths caused by the famine, or each patriarch must have taken a number of servants with him for the grain they carried home to be of any real use. We learn, however, that they still possessed flocks and herds when they went down to Egypt (Genesis 47:1), and also households of servants (Genesis 46:5; see the note on this verse). Joseph, moreover, besides the wagons and their contents, sends twenty loads of provisions for his father's use on the journey (Genesis 45:21–23), thus showing that there were very many mouths to feed. Probably, therefore, there was some small amount of rain in Palestine, though not enough to support crops of grain. There would be, however, supplies of milk and meat, but not much more.

Joseph’s brethren came and bowed down themselves before him. —Throughout the land of Egypt Joseph would sell through a deputy, and only give general directions; but the arrival of so large a party as Joseph’s ten brothers, each probably with several attendants, would be reported to the governor in person, as certainly was the case with Abraham when he went into Egypt (Genesis 12:14–15). Such visits would happen only occasionally, and the arrival of foreigners was always a matter looked upon with suspicion, especially on the Arabian frontier.

Joseph ... spake roughly unto them. —Joseph has been accused of harshness in his treatment of his brothers, and still more so of his father in forcing him to send away Benjamin. The latter was, no doubt, the result of his great longing to see his only brother, and he may not have known how dear he was to Jacob, or have reflected upon the pain which his father would feel in parting with him. Still it was but a temporary separation, to prepare for a happy reunion. As regards his half-brothers, Joseph was obliged to prove them, and he did nothing to them which they did not richly deserve.

From the first he probably wished to have his father and Benjamin to dwell with him, and share his good fortune; but if his brothers were still the cruel and heartless wretches which they had shown themselves to have been in their conduct to him twenty years before, we may well suppose that he would justly have left them to their fate. Possibly his first emotion towards them was one of indignation, but it melted away when, even in only one of them, he saw proof that they were not entirely destitute of better feeling (Genesis 42:24).

Joseph knew. — As this is twice repeated, some suppose that Joseph (Genesis 42:7) had only a suspicion, from their dress and appearance, that these Canaanites were his brethren; but that when they spoke the Hebrew tongue , every doubt was removed. They would not recognize him, as he used the Egyptian language, was dressed in a white linen dress, and being only seventeen when sold, had during the twenty years of separation changed in appearance much more than they had.