Genesis 31:5 - Exposition

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 perhaps, while using an expression exactly equivalent to Jehovah, to bring out a contrast between the Divine favor and that of Laban (Quarry)— hath been with me —literally, was with me; not the night before simply, but during the past six years, as he explains in Genesis 31:7 .