Tafsiran Kejadian 42:14: Rashi, Kli Yakar, Sforno & Or HaChaim

הוא אשר דברתי THAT IS IT THAT I SPAKE UNTO YOU — The statement which I made — that you are spies — is true and certain. This is the meaning according to the literal sense of the words. A Midrashic explanation is: he said to them, “And if you find him (your brother) and they demand of YOU a large sum, would you redeem him?” They answered him, “Certainly!” He asked them, “If they tell you that they will not restore him to you for any sum of money, what would you do?” They replied, “That is what we have come for — to kill or to be killed”. Whereupon he retorted:הוא אשר דברתי אליכם THAT IS JUST WHAT I SAID TO YOU — you have come to kill the people of this city. I have divined by my goblet that two of you destroyed the great city of Shechem (Genesis Rabbah 91:7).

And Joseph said, “It is as I told you, saying you are spies.” And now a second proof of this has become clear to me, for I find it difficult to understand why this younger brother is not with you. Rather, it must be that he was here with you and has gone away because he already heard some news in this place, and you sent him back to your handlers to report what he had already heard, while you remained here to continue spying. By this you shall be tested: bring your younger brother here, and I will investigate whether others have seen him in this place before or not. For if they have not seen him here, then your words are true. But if you do not bring him, by Pharaoh’s life, you are spies! For you fear that others will testify that they have already seen him in this city and that he went away alone. According to this interpretation, it is possible to explain that this was all one accusation supported by two proofs. Initially, he said you are spies because you hid yourselves among those who came, and then he gave a second proof that you have come to see the nakedness of the land, as evidenced by your entering through 10 different city gates. They responded, No, my Lord… we are all sons of one man. With this, they addressed the issue of hiding, explaining that they feared the evil eye. He replied to them, No, for you have come to see the nakedness of the land. The word for [ki] here serves as “because.” He told them: Even if you explain away the hiding, how can you claim you are not spies when you have clearly come to see the nakedness of the land — from where the city is vulnerable to conquest? Therefore, they returned to address both issues: We are all sons of one man — to explain the hiding, and one is no more — to explain their entry through 10 city gates. This is the matter of which I spoke, as explained in the first approach. This interpretation is more satisfactory than the explanations of the Akeidah [Arama] and Abarbanel in resolving all the questions and about the matter of the test through the younger brother. Some say that he accused them of being spies because he feared they would investigate who the ruler was and discover that he was Joseph.

הוא אשר דברתי אליכם, the very one of whom you have said that he is no longer, whereas you refused to be specific about what happened to him, is the one who went back to report all that you have seen here, or that you have decided to stay a while in order to engage in spying.