Do this: the king expects Joseph to carry out his orders to the letter and to say to the brothers exactly what the king says to Joseph. Good News Translation and others prefer to make these instructions to the brothers indirect speech: “Tell your brothers to….” Translators should use the form that is most natural in their own language. We may translate Do this as “Here is what I want you [plural] to do,” “You [plural] must do like this,” or “This is what you [plural] must do.”

Load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan: beasts generally refers to any animal of burden such as a camel, ox, or donkey. In this context it probably refers to donkeys. See 42.26; 43.18; 44.3. In some languages it will be necessary to indicate what is to be loaded on the donkeys; for example, “Load your donkeys with grain.”

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 .