Genesis 42:5-7

"And the sons of Israel came to buy among those that came; for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over the land; he it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves to him with their face to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly with them; Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food."

"Came to buy among those that came ..." Keil gave the literal meaning of this as, "they came in the midst of the comers."[3] The narrative indicates that a large number of people were arriving from many different places. The ready access to Joseph by the brethren has been made the occasion of some very snide remarks by some scholars. Simpson charged the narrator here with total ignorance of "the administrative problems in such an office as Joseph's."[4] All such views are unjustified, because, as we have noted, many of the details are here omitted. While true enough that Joseph did not personally handle all of the details of so many sales, any group of strangers who might have been suspected of being spies would inevitably have been referred to Joseph, and this would appear to have been exactly what occurred here. Neither should it be overlooked that the hand of God was moving in all the events of the Bible.

Regarding Genesis 42:7, "according to a truly Semitic style of narrative, is a condensation of what is more circumstantially related in Genesis 42:8-17."[5] This explains the repetition of key statements."