Genesis 31:5

Gen 31:5 And said unto them, I see your father’s countenance, that it [is] not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me.

Ver. 5. I see your father’s countenance, &c.] This is the world’s wages. All Jacob’s good service is now forgotten. Do an unthankful person nineteen kindnesses, unless you add the twentieth, all is lost {a} Perraro grati homines reperiuntur , saith Cicero. {b} Nemo beneficium in Calendarium scribit , saith Seneca. And the poet Ausonius not unfitly -

“Sunt homines humeris quos siquis gestat ad urbem

Ausoniam, domiti quae caput orbis erat:

Nec tamen ad portam placide deponat eosdem,

Gratia praeteriti nulla laboris erit”

{a} Pαλαια μεν ευδει χαρις αμνημονες δε βροτοι. - Pindar.

{b} Orat. pro Planc.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrew, as yesterday and before yesterday.

The God whom my father worshipped.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

5. I see your father’s countenance. This address consists of two parts. For first, he speaks of his own integrity, and expostulates concerning the perfidy of his father-in-law. He next testifies that God is the author of his prosperity, in order that Rachel and Leah may the more willingly accompany him. And whereas he had become very rich in a short space of time, he purges himself from all suspicion; and even appeals to them as witnesses of his diligence. And though Moses does not minutely relate everything; yet there is no doubt that the honesty of their husband had been made clear to them by many proofs, and that, on the other hand, the injuries, frauds, and rapacity of their father, were well known. When he complains that his wages had been changed ten times, it is probable that the number ten is simply put for many times. Nevertheless it may be, that within six years Laban might thus frequently have broken his agreements; since there would be twice as many seasons of breeding lambs, namely, at spring and autumn, as we have said. But this narration of the dream, although it follows in a subsequent part of the history, shows that holy Jacob had undertaken nothing but by the Divine command. Moses had before related the transaction simply, saying nothing respecting the counsel from which it had proceeded; but now, in the person of Jacob himself, he removes all doubt respecting it; for he does not intimate that Jacob was lying, in order, by this artifice, to deceive his wives; but he introduces the holy servant of God, avowing truly, and without pretense, the case as it really was. For otherwise he would have abused the name of God, not without abominable impiety, by connecting this vision with that former one, in which we see that the gate of heaven was opened unto him.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

And said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not towards me as before,.... See Gill on Gen 31:2; no notice is taken of what their brethren, the sons of Laban, had said:

but the God of my father hath been with me; not only by affording him his gracious presence with him, which supported him under all his troubles; but by his good providence prospering and succeeding him in his outward affairs, as well as he had lately appeared to him, and encouraged him to return to his own country.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Either,

1. Hath blessed me; hath stood constantly by me, when your father hath failed and deceived me. Or,

2. Hath appeared unto me, as Gen 31:13.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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 ver. 7.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ואלוקי אבי היה עמדי, he, Lavan, hates me on account of my having become wealthier than he is. This is not because I aimed to be so wealthy but because the G’d of my father was with me and made me so successful in my endeavours.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.