Hosea 12:12-13

As Ewald remarks, -this is probably the oldest instance of a spiritualizing of the ancient history, though the way to it had been long prepared by the conception, so familiar to Hosea himself (chaps, 1 3), of the community of Israel as Jehovah's bride." The verses however come in very abruptly, and are really, as Rashi long ago observed, a continuation of the didactic survey of the life of Jacob interrupted at Hosea 12:6 (comp. on Hosea 12:14).