And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.
Who are those with thee? It might have been enough to say, They are my children; but Jacob was a pious man, and he could not give even a common answer but in the language of piety (Psalms 127:3; Psalms 113:9; Psalms 107:41).
Which God hath graciously given - 'Elohiym (H430), God; to avoid reminding Esau of the Blessing of Yahweh, which had occasioned his absence (Delitzsch).
Thy servant. The practice observed by individuals of respectable station in life, when speaking of themselves to other personages of superior rank, to use the phrase "thy servant," instead of the personal pronoun I and me, is an Oriental peculiarity.