Genesis 43:4-5 - Exposition

If thou wilt send —literally, if thou art sending, i.e. if thou art agreeable to send (cf. Genesis 24:42 , Genesis 24:49 ; 6:36 )— our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: but (literally, and) if thou wilt not send him (a similar form of expression to the above, the two words יֵשׁ , being, and אַיִן , not being, including the substantive verb, and being conjoined with a participle for the finite verb), we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. Judah's peremptory language receives sufficient justification from the fact that he believed the Egyptian governor to be in thorough earnest when he declared that without Benjamin they should sue a second time in vain.