* he spake unto them by a interpreter. Heb. an interpreter was
between them.
The {mailitz} does not seem to have been an interpreter in
our sense of the term; as we have many evidences in this book
that the Egyptians, Hebrews, Canaanites, and Syrians, could
understand each other in a general way; and it appears from
several passages in this very chapter, (particularly ver.
24,) that Joseph and his brethren understood each others'
language, as his brethren and Joseph's steward also did (ch.
43:19, etc; compare ch. 39; 49.) It seems to denote an
officer who is called in Abyssinia, according to Mr. Bruce,
{Kal Hatz(822c)} "the voice or word of the king," who always
stands at the side of a lattice window of a balcony, within
which the king sits; who is never seen, but who speaks
through a hole in the side of it, covered in the inside with
a curtain, to this officer, by whom he speaks to the persons
present.
Joh 16:13,14 2Co 5:20
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