The man questioned us carefully about …: questioned us carefully is another use of the intensive verb construction used in Gen 43.3. Examples of the way it is rendered in different translations are “That man asked us many questions” and “He kept on asking us questions about….”

The statement that The man questioned us does not agree with what happened in the interview with Joseph in chapter 42. There the brothers gave this information to Joseph in order to convince him that they were not spies but rather a family unit. The discrepancy is considered by some interpreters to be due to different text sources; however, in many parts of the world, readers will naturally understand it as the brothers changing their story to show themselves in the best light.

Kindred refers to relatives in general, as in 31.3 and 32.9, but in this context the reference is to their close family, in particular their father and another brother.

Saying, which here serves as an introduction to the question, must often be adjusted to say, for example, “He asked us…,” “What he asked us was ‘Is your father…?’ ” If it is not natural to use direct speech here, we may say, for example, “He asked us if our father was still alive and if we had another brother.”

What we told him was in answer to these questions: this is literally “We said to him upon the mouth of these words.” We may translate this, for example, “We had to answer the questions he asked us.” See Good News Translation. Some translations say “We only answered his questions.”

Could we in any way know that he would say…?: in any way know is a further use of the intensive verb construction noted above. This question assumes a negative reply and may be rephrased; for example, “we could not know that he would say…” or “we didn’t know that he was going to tell us to….” As a “how” question we may translate “How could we [be expected to] know that he would say…?”

Bring your brother down: Revised Standard Version makes this direct speech. Note that Good News Translation uses indirect speech. Both are possible. Bring … down is spoken from the point of view of Egypt. It may be more natural to say “Bring your brother here,” or “Bring your brother to me.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .