Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 2:18 PM, James Read wrote:
> As a venture to start answering them we see that Abraham seems to have
> no problem communicating when he goes to Egypt. That seems to suggest
> one of the following possibilities to me:

You might want to consider Gen 42:23.  The text describes them as
talking and only because of a special circumstance notes that there
was an interpreter.  Just because it seems they understood each
other doesn't mean tיhe author meant that they did so.  In his view,
they could employ interpreters and it was so obvious to the author
that it need not have been stated.

Yitzhak Sapir