Hosea 12:12,13

Hos. 12:12, 13, "And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved."

1. Israel are here put in mind of their former meanness, in the same two instances that they were commanded every year to remember and confess anew, when they offered the basket of first-fruits. Deuteronomy 26:5, "And thou shalt speak, and say, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few." God puts them in mind from what small beginnings he raised them. Their father served and kept sheep for their mothers. He came to Syria a poor fugitive, and lived there a servant. He came to Syria with nothing; he had nothing to endow a wife with, and therefore was forced to serve for a wife; and again they were poor slaves in a strange land in Egypt.

2. They are put in mind of God's great mercies of old to their forefathers in twice bring them out of banishment, and out of servitude, vid. Hosea 12:9. And he brought them out of Egypt, and led and preserved them in the wilderness; it was by a prophet, which shows their ingratitude in their despising and rejecting the prophets, the successors of Moses. Verse 10.

Amos

Amos 1:6-13