Commentary for Genesis 42:12

כי ערות הארץ באתם לראות BUT TO SEE THE NAKEDNESS OF THE LAND YE ARE COME — I still insist that you are spies, for what you have just said bears this out for you have entered by ten different gates of the city; why did you not all enter by the same gate if you are really brothers and travelled together? (Genesis Rabbah 91:6).

ויאמר אליהם לא, כי ערות הארץ באתם לראות, if it were as you said, how could you not even leave one of you at home to attend to the needs of your father? Joseph said all this in order to find out if his full brother Binyamin was alive. As a result of his probing they elaborated that in fact they were a total of twelve brothers, one, the youngest having remained at home and one having been lost. They did not know his whereabouts or if he was even alive. We know that there were several questions and answers as when the brothers returned home and their father was reprimanding them for volunteering uncalled for information about their family status, they replied that the “man” had kept asking more and more questions. (compare 43,7)

לא. It is simply not true that you are brothers.

ויאמר אליהם לא. He said to them: "NO!" "Your words are not convincing since your actions contradict what you have said. You have demonstrated by your actions that you were searching for weak points in the land. I know this because you have each entered the country by a different border point (compare Bereshit Rabbah 91,6). The only reason for this is that you wanted to spy.

Why did you not all enter through one gate? Yoseif knew his brothers would come to buy food, and he told the guards of the gates to write the name and father’s name of whoever came to the city, and show it to him. Ten guards came and he found here, “Reuven son of Yaakov,” and there, “Shimon ben Yaakov,” and so in every record book. Thus he knew they entered through ten gates. You might ask: Why did Rashi not explain this before, on: “You have come to see where the land is exposed” (v. 9)? The answer is: The proof for it is here, because it is written in the next verse, “Your servants are twelve brothers... and one is no more.” How did this refute his assertion that they were spies? Perforce, Yoseif had said, “[You are spies,] for you entered through ten different gates of the city,” to which they replied, “No, rather we are all the sons of one man... and one is no more.” And it was because of the one who is no more that we scattered throughout the city in order to search for him, [as Rashi explains on v. 9].

כי ערות הארץ באתם לראות, “for you came to seek out the country’s nakedness.” Rashi comments on this that the brothers had used ten different border crossing points when entering Egypt. If you want to know how Joseph knew all this, Midrash Tanchumah explains that Joseph had issued 3 decrees. 1) No slave was to be allowed entry into Egypt in order to buy grain on behalf of his master. 2) No person was allowed to walk behind two donkeys; 3) no one was to be allowed entry unless he registered with his own name and that of his father and grandfather. Moses collected this information day after day, and examined if any of his brothers had registered. Seeing his brothers had entered at ten different border crossings, he had knowledge of this, and could challenge them, so that they would reveal in self defense that they were all brothers of one father. Their father had instructed them not to draw attention to themselves; when each one came to the border crossing and the border guard would ask about his name and the name of his father and grandfather, he would answer truthfully: Reuven son of Yaakov and grandfather Yitzchok.

כי ערות הארץ באתם לראות, you have agreed among your selves to claim to be brothers so that this would provide you with a pretext to act as spies in the land and to find weak spots in our security system.