My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’
We have here a most ingenious and pathetic speech which Judah made to Joseph on Benjamin's behalf, to obtain his discharge from the sentence passed upon him. Perhaps Judah was a better friend to Benjamin than the rest were, and more solicitous to bring him off; or he thought himself under greater obligations to attempt it than the rest, because he had passed his word...
Commenting on Genesis 44:18-34
My lord asked his servants,.... The first time they came down to Egypt to buy corn; he puts him in mind of what passed between them at that time: saying, have ye a father or a brother? which question followed upon their saying that they were the sons of one man, Gen 42:11.
Gen 44:18-20 But that the brothers could not do. Judah, who had pledged himself to his father for Benjamin, ventured in the anguish of his heart to approach Joseph, and implore him to liberate his brother. “I would give very much,” says Luther, “to be able to pray to our Lord God as well as Judah prays to Joseph here; for it is a perfect...
Commenting on Genesis 44:18-20