Genesis 43:6-7

"And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so with me, as to tell the man whether ye had a brother? And they said, The man asked straitly concerning ourselves, and concerning our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we in any wise know that he would say, Bring your brother down?"

"Wherefore dealt ye so with me ..." Skinner stated that this reproachful question is "intelligible only on the understanding that Jacob has just heard for the first time that he must part with Benjamin";[6] however, we believe that it is Skinner's statement that in not intelligible.

Also, we note the quibble that the account given in the previous chapter says nothing about the particular direct questions relating to Benjamin that are mentioned here. This, of course, is perfectly in the manner of Biblical narrative. Another example is in Jonah, the fact of his having told the mariners that he was fleeing from Jehovah did not occur in the first of the narrative but was revealed as something that occurred earlier, only after the lots had been cast and after the identification had fallen upon Jonah (Jonah 1:10). That what the brothers told Jacob here was absolutely true may not for a moment be doubted. Due to Joseph's great curiosity about his natural brother Benjamin, he most certainly would have inquired directly concerning him, a fact flatly stated here. After this explanation to Jacob, Judah took charge.