Genesis 42:13 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

i.e. Is dead, as that phrase often signifies both in Scripture, as Genesis 37:30, Genesis 44:20 Jeremiah 31:15 Matthew 2:17,18, and in other authors, as Homer, Euripides, &c. They concluded with great probability that he was dead, Genesis 44:20, because for twenty years together they had heard nothing, either of him or from him; which may seem strange, considering the nearness of Egypt and Canaan: but this came to pass partly from his own long imprisonment, and afterwards from his great and high employment; partly, from his lothness to bring so much mischief to his father and brethren, as the discovery of his case might have produced; and principally, from the overruling providence of God, which for its own glorious design disposed of Joseph's mind and affairs, so that he either did not send to his father's house, or that the messages were intercepted, there being not then those conveniencies for mutual correspondencies which now there are. And it is not improbable that Joseph might be further acquainted with the mind of God in this matter by dreams, which may seem to have been familiarly afforded to him, together with the interpretation of them. See Genesis 40:8, Genesis 41:16.