John Gill Bible Commentary

And Jacob their father said unto them, me have ye bereaved of my children,.... Which looks as if Jacob suspected that they had either sold or slain Joseph, and had done one or the other by Simeon: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not: neither of them were with him, and both were given up by him as dead, or, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,"of Joseph ye have said an evil beast hath devoured him; and Simeon, ye say, the king of the country hath bound him;''as for Joseph he knew not but he was dead, he feared he was; and as for Simeon, he being in the hands of so rough a man as they had represented the lord of the land to be, and especially as his release depended upon sending Benjamin, which he was determined at present not to do; he was reckoned by him as a lost or dead man: and ye will take Benjamin away; they were desirous of it, and what their design was he could not tell; he seems to have a strong suspicion that it was not good: all these things are against me; against his will, his peace, and comfort, and happiness, though they were all working and would work as they did for his good, and for the good of his family, for the preservation of it during the seven years of famine; or are "upon me" (f), as heavy burdens, too heavy for him to bear, ready to sink him down to the earth. (f) "super me", Montanus, Schmidt; "vel. in me", V. L. Vatablus.