And they said, The man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? Though not appearing in the preceding narrative of the historian (Genesis 42:13, Genesis 42:32), it must yet be held as accurate that the information given to Joseph about Jacob and Benjamin was supplied in answer to direct inquiries, since Judah afterwards gives the same account of it (Genesis 44:19) when pleading before Joseph in behalf of Benjamin.
And we told him according to the tenor of these words—literally, according to these words, i.e. either in conformity to his questions (Ainsworth, Rosenmüller, Keil), κατὰ τὴν ἐπερώτησιν ταύτην (LXX.
), juxta id quod fuerat sciscitatus (Vulgate), or like those words we have told thee (Kalisch). Could we certainly know (literally, knowing could we know) that he would say, Bring your brother down?