445. Bird Snares

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Several different words are used in the Hebrew to denote various snares which were employed in fowling. The word path, which is used in the text, denoted a spring, or trap-net, “in two parts, which, when set, were spread out upon the ground, and slightly fastened with a stick, (trap-stick;) so that as soon as a bird or beast touched the stick, the parts flew up and enclosed the bird in the net, or caught the foot of the animal (Job 18:99The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. (Job 18:9))” (Robinson's Gesenius). The word mokesh is also used to denote a snare of the same sort; though it is also sometimes used to signify a circle of nets for capturing beasts. See note on 2 Samuel 22:66The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; (2 Samuel 22:6) (#289).
Snares which were spread on the ground and caught the bird by the feet, or, loosing a spring, encircled it with a net, are often referred to by biblical writers as illustrative of the dangers which beset men. See Job 18:8-108For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare. 9The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him. 10The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way. (Job 18:8‑10), where several varieties seem to be named. The same is true of Psalm 140:55The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah. (Psalm 140:5). See also Psalm 124:7; 141:9; 142:37Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. (Psalm 124:7)
9Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. (Psalm 141:9)
3When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me. (Psalm 142:3); Proverbs 7:23; 22:523Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. (Proverbs 7:23)
5Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. (Proverbs 22:5); Hosea 9:88The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. (Hosea 9:8); Amos 3:55Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? (Amos 3:5).