Комментарий к Берешит 42:13

'ויאמרו שנים עשר עבדיך וגו AND THEY SAID, THY SERVANTS WERE TWELVE BRETHREN — [AND ONE IS NO MORE], and it is on account of that one who is no more that we dispersed ourselves through the city in order that we might search for him (Genesis Rabbah 91:6).

שנים עשר עבדיך אחים, בני איש אחד בארץ כנען, what we have said before can easily be proven. After all, our father is still alive in the land of Canaan. Both he and his neighbours will confirm what we have told you, i.e. that we used to be twelve brothers, that one went missing, and that the youngest remained to look after the affairs of our father’s household. You can confirm that we have spoken the truth by checking out all these details.

ויאמרו שנים עשר עבדיך אחים, They said: "Your servants are twelve brothers, etc." They explained that they had split up in order to locate the missing brother. They added that the youngest brother remained at home with his father. They volunteered this information as it was something that could be proved and would help establish their credibility.

ויאמרו...בני איש אחד, they now felt the need to assert further that they were in fact honest and forthcoming by revealing that actually there were twelve of them, all sons of the same father, etc.

שנים עשר עבדיך אחים אנחנו, “we, your servants, are actually twelve brothers.” Originally they had said that they were twelve men all the sons of a single father (verse 11). They had done so in order to explain why they were traveling together and keeping company all the time. They also explained that their traveling together reduced the chance of their being robbed of their food purchases.

Sie erklärten ihm ihr Zusammenkommen aus ihrer Brüderlichkeit und gingen in die Spezialitäten ein, damit er sich eventuell erkundigen könne.

את אבינו, they had left one brother to attend to the needs of their father during their absence

איננו; the reason why they chose this ambiguous way of referring to the fate of their missing brother was to avoid being trapped. If they had said that their missing bother was dead, Joseph could have accused them of lying –in the event Joseph was alive and this ruler had knowledge of the fact.- They knew that Joseph had been sold to Egypt but had no knowledge beyond this. They had reason to fear that while a slave in Egypt and wanting to obtain his freedom he might have revealed his origins, implicating the brothers in having sold him. The fact that this slave, like they themselves was of Hebrew origin, may well have become known as he had been bought from Hebrews. Even the wife of Potiphar, when thwarted in her advances too him, suddenly refers to him in a derogatory fashion as “the Hebrew man her husband had brought into the house to belittle them, etc.” (39,14) The Chief of the cup-bearers had also referred to him as Hebrew slave. (41,12) However, while Joseph may have revealed or may not have been able to conceal that he was a Hebrew, it was by no means certain that he had also revealed details about his family, his father, etc. Neither would he have had reason to reveal how many brothers he had\, etc. Therefore, when referring to him, they decided to use the non committal ואיננו, meaning that they had no knowledge of where he was if he was still alive.