An INTERPRETER, go-between, spokesman — from lits, to mediate. It appears in Genesis exactly once, in the quietest and most devastating line of chapter 42: the brothers speak freely in Hebrew in front of the Egyptian governor, confessing to each other that they are guilty of what they did to their brother, 'and they did not know that Joseph was listening, FOR THE INTERPRETER WAS BETWEEN THEM' (42:23). The translator is the disguise. It also tells you what Joseph has been doing for the whole scene: speaking Egyptian, through a third party, to his own family. Elsewhere the word can mean an envoy (2 Chronicles 32:31) or an advocate who speaks for a man before God (Job 33:23). → first discussed at Gen 42:23