The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 31:6
And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. The term Jacob here uses for power is derived from an unused onomatopoetic root, signifying to pant, and hence to exert one's strength. If, therefore, the assertion now made to his wives was not an unblushing falsehood, Jacob could not have been the monster of craft and deception depicted by some (Kalisch); while, if it was, it must have required considerable effrontery to appeal to his wives' knowledge for a confirmation of what... read more
The Pulpit Commentary - Genesis 31:5
And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before ( vide supra ) ; but the God of my father —literally, and the Elohim of my father , the term Elohim employed by Jacob not being due to " the vagueness of the religious knowledge" possessed by his wives (Hengstenberg), but to a desire on his own part either to distinguish the God of his father from the gods of the nations, or the idols which Laban worshipped ('Speaker's Commentary'), or... read more