Comentários de Citação sobre Gênesis 45:13

גשו נא אלי, ויגשו, “please come physically closer to me; they did so.” Seeing that prior to this Joseph had ordered everybody in the hall with them to leave the hall, (45,1) and the Egyptians outside now trying very hard to listen to what went on inside, Joseph now tried to put more physical distance between them and himself and the brothers. He did not mind them to hear him ask the brothers: “is my father still alive?” He did not want them to hear the words: “you have sold me,” however, in order not to embarrass them publicly, and because he intended to settle Yaakov’s whole family in Egypt. If his employees had heard him refer to this, they would have objected to such wicked people settling in Egypt. They would conclude that if these people had been capable of selling their own brother, how much worse would they deal with Egyptian neighbours that were not related to them by blood? This is why he asked them to step closer so that the balance of the conversation could be conducted in whispers. An alternate interpretation: first Joseph told his brothers that he was their brother; next he asked if his father was still alive; He did not want to raise the subject of their having sold him in the presence of his brother Binyamin who had been unaware of that. He knew that this would greatly embarrass his brothers, and that Binyamin upon hearing of this would surely report it to their father. He therefore motioned the brothers to move over so that he could continue the conversation where Binyamin could not overhear it. [This editor cannot believe that Binyamin was in the same hall, as surely he had been taken into custody after the goblet had been found in his sack. He only released him in verse 13 when he instructed the brothers to return forthwith to the land of Canaan. Ed.]