A Syrian was my father That is, Jacob; for though born in Canaan, he was a Syrian by descent, his mother Rebecca, and his grandfather Abraham, being both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which in Scripture is comprehended under the name of Syria. His wives and children, by their mothers' side, and his relations, were Syrians, and he himself had lived twenty years in Syria with Laban. Ready to perish Through want and poverty, or through the rage of his brother Esau, and the treachery of his father-in-law Laban: see Genesis 28:11; Genesis 28:20; Genesis 32:10.
Or perhaps this refers to the state of Jacob a little before he went down into Egypt, when he and his family were in danger of perishing by famine, had he not been sustained by his son.