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Jacob in Aram, Israel in Egypt, and Ephraim in Trouble

12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram,
then Israel worked[a] to acquire a wife;
he tended sheep to pay for her.
13 The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet,
and due to a prophet[b] Israel[c] was preserved alive.[d]

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 12:12 tn Heb “served” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); cf. NLT “earned a wife.”
  2. Hosea 12:13 tn Heb “by a prophet” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
  3. Hosea 12:13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  4. Hosea 12:13 tn Heb “was protected”; cf. NASB “was kept.” The verb שָׁמַר (shamar, “to watch, guard, keep, protect”) is repeated in 12:13-14 HT (12:12-13 ET). This repetition creates parallels between Jacob’s sojourn in Aram and Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness. Jacob “tended = kept” (שָׁמַר) sheep in Aram, and Israel was “preserved = kept” (נִשְׁמָר, nishmar) by Moses in the wilderness.