Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 12:13

"And by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved." — Hosea 12:13 (ASV)

By a prophet he was preserved—or “kept.” Jacob “kept sheep” out of love of God, rather than unite himself with one alien from God. His posterity, in turn, “was kept” like a sheep by God, as the Psalmist said, He led His people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron (Psalms 77:20).

They were “kept” from all evil, need, and danger by the direct power of God. They were “kept” from all the might of Pharaoh in Egypt and at the Red Sea, “not through any power of their own, but by the ministry of a single prophet.” They were “kept” in that great and terrible wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:15), where there were fiery serpents, scorpions, and drought; where there was no water, except what God brought out of the rock of flint; and no bread, except what He sent them from heaven.

All this God did for them by a single prophet. Yet they had many prophets, early and late, calling upon them in the name of God, but they would not listen to them.