Gen 42:7 | JFB | STEP | 7-8. Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, ... but they knew not him-- This is not strange. They were full-grown men--he was but a lad at parting. They were in their usual garb--he was in his official robes. They never dreamt of him as governor of Egypt, while he had been expecting them. They had but one face; he had ten persons to judge by. made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly-- It would be an injustice to Joseph's character to suppose that this stern manner was prompted by any vindictive feelings--he never indulged any resentment against others who had injured him. But he spoke in the authoritative tone of the governor in order to elicit some much-longed-for information respecting the state of his father's family, as well as to bring his brethren, by their own humiliation and distress, to a sense of the evils they had done to him.

‏ Genesis 42:7

7-8. Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, ... but they knew not him--This is not strange. They were full-grown men--he was but a lad at parting. They were in their usual garb--he was in his official robes. They never dreamt of him as governor of Egypt, while he had been expecting them. They had but one face; he had ten persons to judge by.

made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly--It would be an injustice to Joseph's character to suppose that this stern manner was prompted by any vindictive feelings--he never indulged any resentment against others who had injured him. But he spoke in the authoritative tone of the governor in order to elicit some much-longed-for information respecting the state of his father's family, as well as to bring his brethren, by their own humiliation and distress, to a sense of the evils they had done to him.