Hosea 12:12

‘And Jacob fled into the field of Aram, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.'

He reminds them that just as Israel had gone into Egypt, and had been delivered by redemption so as to be YHWH's wife, so had Jacob fled to the countryside of Aram and had made a marriage payment for his wife. There, outside the promised land, he had had to work as a servant tending sheep in order to make this marriage payment for his wife, whom of course he would bring back with him to the promised land. Thus he was typical of the fact that Israel would now flee from the land (either to Egypt for refuge, or to Assyria in exile) where they would be subjected to hard living until YHWH again redeemed them to be His wife (Hosea 3:1) and brought them back to the land. The idea of ‘shepherding' is then paralleled in the next verse.