John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:13
And they said, thy servants are twelve brethren ,.... Or rather, "were twelve", since one afterwards is said not to be: the sons of one man in the land of Canaan ; of Jacob, who dwelt there; this is said with the same view as before, to show the improbability of their being spies: and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father : meaning Benjamin, whom Joseph was eager to hear of, and no doubt was glad to hear he was alive, and his father also, and that they were both... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 42:7-20
We may well wonder that Joseph, during the twenty years that he had now been in Egypt, especially during the last seven years that he had been in power there, never sent to his father to acquaint him with his circumstances; nay, it is strange that he who so often went throughout all the land of Egypt (Gen. 41:45, 46) never made an excursion to Canaan, to visit his aged father, when he was in the borders of Egypt, that lay next to Canaan. Perhaps it would not have been above three or four days?... read more