Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 44:20

20 And we said unto ray Lord, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one , and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him.

So they call him comparatively to themselves who were much elder; and withal to signifie the reason why he came not with them because he was young and tender and unfit for such a journey.