Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 42:13

13 And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan: and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not .

(i. e.) Is dead, as that phrase oft signifies both in Scripture, as Gen. 37. 30. and 44. 2[illegible: 1+ letters]. I[illegible: 1+ letters]r. 31. 15. Mat. 2. 18, 18. and in other Authors, as Homer, E[illegible: 1+ letters]ripides, &c. They concluded with great probability that he was dead, chap. 44. 20. because for 20 years together they had heard nothing either of him, or from him; which may seem strange considering the nearness of Egypt and Canaan: but this came to pass partly from his own long imprisonment and afterward from his great and high employments; partly from his loathness to bring so much mischief to his father and brethren as the discovery of his case might have produced; and principally from the overruling Providence of God, which for its own glorious design disposed of Iosephs mind and affairs so that he either did not send to his fathers house, or that the messages were intercepted, there being not then those conveniencies for mutual correspondencies which now there are. And it is not improbable that Ioseph might be further acquainted with the mind of God in this matter by dreams, which may seem to have been familiarly afforded to him together with the interpretation of them. See Gen. 40. 8. and 41. 16.

Marginal references: Iam. 5. 7.