By himself... by themselves. — These caste distinctions were common in ancient times, and still exist in India. Joseph probably had his food served separately because of his high rank; but the word “abomination” shows that eating with foreigners was shunned by the Egyptians for religious considerations. Herodotus (ii. 41) says that the Greeks were equally the objects of their dislike, and that the use even of a Greek knife would render food, otherwise clean, polluted in the eyes of the Egyptians.
Related Commentaries of Genesis 43:32
Genesis 43:32
32 And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.