No, my lord, but to buy food have your servants come: the brothers deny being spies. Some languages will need to state the negative answer more fully as, for example, “Sir, we are not spies.” They refer to themselves as your servants or “your slaves” in conversation with this powerful Egyptian ruler before them.

But to buy: that is, “Sir, we have not come to spy on your country but to buy food.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .