Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Yep. Well spotted.

This would seem to apply two 3 things.

a) the language of the Egyptians and the language of the Hebrews were  
significantly different to warrant the use of an interpreter and that  
Joseph's brothers could assume he didn't understand them
b) that Joseph had learned the language of the Egyptians
c) that his brother's probably hadn't yet

However, I'm not sure we can take it for granted that Abraham used an  
interpretter. He was, after all, a seasoned traveller. Joseph and his  
brothers, on the other hand, were born and raised in Canaan it would  
seem.

James Christian



Quoting 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
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