John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 42:16
Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother ,.... He proposes that one of them might be sent by them to their father's house, and bring, Benjamin down to Egypt: and ye shall be kept in prison ; the rest of them till he came: that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you ; by this it would be seen whether they were men of truth and honesty or not; and should their brother be brought they would appear to be good men and true: or else, by the life of Pharaoh,... 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