Hosea 12:12

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

This was spoken by way of reminder to Ephraim who now styled himself as a rich man, that he was, in fact, descended from a man who was a servant, not much better off than a slave, in Padan-Aram, where he served his uncle Laban for fourteen years for his wife. With an experience like that in his great ancestor, Ephraim should have been willing to acknowledge the providence of God in his temporary prosperity. "The tending of cattle was one of the hardest and lowest descriptions of servitude."[21]