Gen. 42:23

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he spake unto them by a interpreter. Heb. an interpreter wasbetween 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 Hatz�} "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.

John 16:13; John 16:14; 2Cor 5:20