Habakkuk 1:16. They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag.
These fishing implements are used figuratively to represent the weapons of war by means of which the Chaldeans designed to take the Jews. It was customary among some ancient nations to offer sacrifices to their weapons. The Scythians offered sacrifices to a sword which was set up as a symbol of Mars. Herodotus says: “Yearly sacrifices of cattle and of horses are made to it, and more victims are offered thus than to all the rest of their gods” (Book 4, chap. 62). Grote, in speaking of the same people, says: “The Sword, in the literal sense of the word, was their chief god—all iron scimitar solemnly elevated upon a wide and lofty platform, which was supported on masses of fagots piled underneath to whom sheep, horses, and a portion of their prisoners taken in war, were offered up in sacrifice” (History of Greece, part 2, chap. 17). The Hindus, to this day, make offerings to their fishing tackle, to their weapons, and to their tools of various kinds.