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Hos_12:12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept [sheep].
Ver. 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria] Jacob, in whom ye glory, was a poor forlorn fugitive, glad to run for his life, and to take hard on for his livelihood, Gen_28:1-22; Gen_29:1-35. This they were bound by the law to make confession of ever when they offered their basket of firstfruits, and to say, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father," &c., Deu_26:5; that, considering the meanness of their origin, they might not boast of their ancestry, but magnify God’s free grace in their present enjoyments; and say, as that noble Athenian general, Iphicrates, did, in the midst of all his triumphs, åî ïéùí åéò ïéá , from how great baseness and misery to what great blessedness and glory are we exalted! King Agathocles would be served in earthen vessels, to remind him of his father, who was a poor potter. Willigis, Archbishop of Mentz, A.D. 1011, being a wheelwright’s son, hanged wheels and wheel wrights’ tools round about his bedchamber, and underwrote in capital letters, Willigis,!! Willigis,!! recole unde veneris, Remember thine origins (Bucholcer). How low and mean were we of this nation at first! Brith signifieth blue-coloured, sc. with woad; hence our name Britains. This was their fine clothing; their food was bark of trees and roots. Holinshed saith, that some old men he knew, who told of times in England, that if the good man of the house had a mattress, or a flock bed, and a sack of chaff to rest his head on, he thought himself as well lodged as the lord of the town; for ordinarily, they lay upon straw pallets covered with canvas, and a round log under their heads instead of a bolster; they said pillows were fit only for women in childbed; and in a good farmer’s house it was rare to find four pieces of pewter; and it was accounted a great matter that a farmer should show five shillings, or a noble, together in silver. There are those who render the text thus: Thither fled Jacob out of the country of Syria, after Israel had served for a wife, and for a wife had kept sheep.
And Israel served for a wife] He had nothing to endow her with, he would therefore earn her with his hard labour; wherein he showed singular humility, patience, meekness, waiting upon God’s providence; none of all which graces were found in his degenerate posterity, who yet prided themselves in their father Jacob.
And for a wife he kept sheep] q.d. Jacob, that he might obey his father, was content to serve his uncle, and to suffer a great deal of wrong from him; but ye refuse to serve me though a liberal lord, a bountiful benefactor, He held close to me in that hard service; but you, abusing your liberty, enslave yourselves to false gods. He in his misery kept his confidence of the blessing; but you in your prosperity cast it clean away, &c. Luther upon this text speaketh much about the blessing of a good wife (a commodity that cannot be too dearly bought), and the plague of a scold that is always railing and wrangling, Cum qua perpetuo rixandum. The heathen well saith, that every man when he marrieth bringeth either a good or an evil spirit into his house; and so maketh it either a heaven or a hell. Pareus well observeth here, the great use of histories and holy examples, according to Rom_15:4. Plato (in Cratylo) thinks that historia comes ðáñá ôï éóôáíáé ôïí ñïõí , of stopping the flux of errors and enormities.