ٱرۡجِعُوٓاْ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِيكُمۡ فَقُولُواْ يَٰٓأَبَانَآ إِنَّ ٱبۡنَكَ سَرَقَ وَمَا شَهِدۡنَآ إِلَّا بِمَا عَلِمۡنَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِلۡغَيۡبِ حَٰفِظِينَ ٨١
Return to your father and say, 'O our father, indeed your son has stolen, and we did not testify except to what we knew. And we were not witnesses of the unseen.1
Translation: Saheeh International (English)
1 i.e., We could not have known when we gave you the oath that he would steal and be apprehended.
Each word's meaning and sound
The oldest brother told them to return to their father and tell him that his son had stolen, and the minister of Egypt had taken him as a slave as a punishment for his theft, and that they only related to him what they knew from seeing the bowl produced from his bag. They did not know that he stole things, and if they had known this they would not have made a promise to their father to return him.
Al-Mukhtasar in interpreting the Noble Quran