Hosea 12:13

"Jacob fled into the country of Aram. Israel served to get a wife. For a wife he tended flocks and herds."

Key Reflection

In these verses, Jacob's flight to Aram symbolizes his escape from familial strife, while his service and labor in tending flocks and herds before finding a wife illustrate his humble journey of devotion and provision. This narrative foreshadows the themes of exile and eventual return that are central to Israel’s covenant with God, highlighting the process of spiritual growth through adversity and obedience.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

By a prophet was he preserved -Or “kept.” Jacob “kept sheep” out of love of God, sooner than unite himself with one, alien from God; his posterity “was kept” like a sheep by God, as the Psalmist said, “He led His people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron”Psalms 77:20. They were “kept” from all evil and want and danger, by the direct power of God; “kept” from all the might of Pharaoh in Egypt and the Red Sea , “not through any power of their own, but by the ministry of a single prophet; “kept, in that great and terrible wilderness”Deuteronomy 8:15, wherein were “fiery serpents and scorpi

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