Blue Letter Bible

Gen 42:23 (KJV) — And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.

Gen 42:23 (NIV) — They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.

Phrase from KJV (Help)		Correlating Verses

he spake unto them by an 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 Gen 42:24,) that Joseph and his brethren understood each others' language, as his brethren and Joseph's steward also did (Gen 43:19, etc; compare Gen 39; 49.) It seems to denote an officer who is called in Abyssinia, according to Mr. Bruce, Kal Hatzé, '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. Jhn 16:13,14; 2Cr 5:20

Correlated Passages Using NIV

he spake unto them by an interpreter

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