By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
15. By the life of Pharaoh. From this formula of swearing a new question is raised; for that which is commanded in the law, that we should swear only by the name of God, had already been engraven on the hearts of the pious; since nature dictates that this honor is to be given to God alone, that men should defer to his judgment, and...
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, Gen 41:46) never made an excursion...
Commenting on Genesis 42:7-20
If ye be true men,.... As you say you are: let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison; agree among yourselves which of you (for one of you must) remain in prison where you are: and the rest being set at liberty: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses; Joseph, though he dealt with them after this...