Concise Bible Dictionary:
Several words are employed to point out the snares or pits by which animals are caught. They are also used symbolically for the snares men lay for one another, and especially for those that Satan lays to entrap man into his power. Snares to be effectual must be hidden. It is in vain to set a net in the sight of any bird (Prov. 1:17); in like manner the hook in fishing is always concealed. The baits that Satan uses are things that men like, and which may not always be moral evils in themselves, as riches, honor, but which may end in the loss of the soul (1 Tim. 3:7; 1 Tim. 6:9; 2 Tim. 2:26). “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” (Prov. 14:27). Nehemiah, led of God, wisely avoided all the snares that were laid for him by the enemy (Neh. 6). So the Christian, taught of God, and led by the Holy Spirit, will not be ignorant of Satan’s devices, and will not fall thereby.
Trammel nets for snaring migratory quails near Gaza.
“445. Bird Snares” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Psalm 91:3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.
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 18:9)” (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 22:6 (#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 18:8-10, where several varieties seem to be named. The same is true of Psalm 140:5. See also Psalm 124:7; 141:9; 142:3; Proverbs 7:23; 22:5; Hosea 9:8; Amos 3:5.
For another mode of catching birds, see note on Hosea 7:12 (#598).
“598. Snares for Birds” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
Hosea 7:12. When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven.
Resheth, “net,” in this passage refers evidently to a net which was used to catch birds in the air. How it differed from other nets we are unable to say, and in what manner it was employed we can only surmise. From the way in which the word is used in Ezekiel 12:13; 17:20; 19:8; 32:3, the resheth is supposed to have been used to throw over animals walking on the earth, as well as to catch the inhabitants of the air. Jennings (in Kitto's Cyclopedia, article “Fowling”) intimates that the only use of this net was that represented in the texts quoted; but from other passages it is clear that the resheth was used also as a snare for the feet. See Job 18:8; Psalm 9:15; 31:4; 57:6; 140:5.
For other modes of snaring birds, see note on Psalm 91:3 (#445).
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