Tanach · Acharonim on Tanach · Or HaChaim · Torah
Or HaChaim on Genesis 42:5/אור החיים על בראשית מ״ב:ה׳
אוַיָּבֹאוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְגוֹ׳ כִּי הָיָה הָרָעָב וְגוֹ׳. הֻצְרַךְ לַחְזֹר לוֹמַר כִּי הָיָה הָרָעָב וְגוֹ׳. נִתְכַּוֵּן לָתֵת טַעַם לְהַבָּאִים, שֶׁלֹּא תֹּאמַר הֵיכָן הֻזְכְּרוּ הַבָּאִים לוֹמַר בְּתוֹכָם, לָזֶה אָמַר כִּי הָיָה וְגוֹ׳ וְיֶשְׁנָם לַבָּאִים.
1 ויבאו בני ישראל…כי היה רעב, The children of Israel arrived…for there was a famine in the land of Canaan. The fact that there was a famine had to be repeated. This is to explain why the Torah first wrote בתוך הבאים. You should not ask where these הבאים have been mentioned previously so that the Torah could describe the brothers as "being amongst them." Once we are told that there was a famine in Canaan it becomes obvious that many other people from Canaan must have been going to Egypt to buy grain there.
בעוֹד נִתְכַּוֵּן לוֹמַר שֶׁנִּתְחַכְּמוּ לְהַחְבִּיא עַצְמָם, וּבָאוּ בְּתוֹךְ אוֹתָם שֶׁבָּאִים לִשְׁבּוֹר, מִטַּעַם שֶׁהָיָה הָרָעָב בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, שֶׁבָּזֶה לֹא יִכָּנְסוּ בַּחֲשַׁד מְרַגְּלוּת שֶׁחֲשָׁדָם יוֹסֵף. וְזֶה שִׁעוּר הַכָּתוּב: וַיָּבֹאוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְדֶרֶךְ בִּיאָתָם הָיְתָה בְּתוֹךְ הַבָּאִים, שֶׁבִּיאָתָם הִיא כִּי הָיָה הָרָעָב וְגוֹ׳:
2The Torah also wanted to indicate that the brothers devised a clever scheme to disguise themselves "among the other travellers." They created the impression that they were in Egypt for the same purpose as all the other travellers from Canaan, whereas in reality they were searching for Joseph. In other words: the brothers' disguise was to appear as shoppers for grain. This ought to have been an easy way to camouflage their real purpose because of the famine in the land of Canaan.