Genesis 43:3-5

"And Judah spake unto him saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: but if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down; for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you."

The fact that Judah takes the leadership here, whereas, in the previous chapter Reuben had attempted to do so by his ridiculous proposal that Jacob could slay Reuben's two sons as a surety for Reuben's responsibility, is no evidence whatever of "two contradictory accounts from different `documents'" allegedly lying behind the history here. All such allegations are merely demonstrations of the remarkable blindness that characterizes such criticisms. The last chapter made it plain that Jacob rejected Reuben's proposal out of hand, "My son shall not go down with you!" That closed the matter of Reuben's leadership of the second expedition into Egypt. Here, as the narrative absolutely demands, Judah took charge. The Biblical account does not explain fully why Jacob consented to what Judah said, but Josephus tells us that Judah pointed out to him that Benjamin also could die without food, and appealed to Jacob on the basis of faith in God, saying, "Nothing can be done to thy son, but by the appointment of God."[4]; Genesis 43:14, below, supports this.

"The man ..." is used repeatedly here as a designation for Joseph. If they had learned his name, they had not become familiar with it.

"Ye shall not see my face ..." This expression meant that the sons of Jacob would not be permitted in Joseph's presence at all without Benjamin. Willis pointed out that, "To see Joseph's face, in court language, meant to get an audience with him or to be permitted in his presence."[5] Only ministers of the very highest rank were permitted to be in the ruler's presence, except by special permission. Jesus declared of the angels of little children, "Their angels, do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 18:11), the same being a recognition of the fact that "angels of the face," were the highest-ranking ministers in ancient kingdoms.