Isaiah 37:29

37:29 Because you rage against me

and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ¹ 

I will put my hook in your nose, ² 

and my bridle between your lips,

and I will lead you back

the way you came.”

Jeremiah 16:16

16:16 But for now I, the Lord, say: ³  “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 39:4-5

39:4 You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the people who are with you. I give you as food to every kind of bird and every wild beast. 39:5 You will fall dead in the open field; for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.

Habakkuk 1:15-16

1:15 The Babylonian tyrant ⁵  pulls them all up with a fishhook;

he hauls them in with his throw net. ⁶ 

When he catches ⁷  them in his dragnet,

he is very happy. ⁸ 

1:16 Because of his success ⁹  he offers sacrifices to his throw net

and burns incense to his dragnet; ¹⁰ 

for because of them he has plenty of food, ¹¹ 

and more than enough to eat. ¹² 

¹ tc Heb “and your complacency comes up into my ears.” The parallelism is improved if שַׁאֲנַנְךָ (sha’anankha, “your complacency”) is emended to שְׁאוֹנְךָ (shÿ’onÿkha, “your uproar”). See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 237-38. However, the LXX seems to support the MT and Sennacherib’s cavalier dismissal of Yahweh depicts an arrogant complacency (J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:658, n. 10).

² sn The word-picture has a parallel in Assyrian sculpture. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 238.

³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” The Lord has been speaking; the first person has been utilized in translation to avoid a shift which might create confusion.

⁴ tn Heb “Behold I am about to send for many fishermen and they will catch them. And after that I will send for many hunters and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the cracks in the rocks.”

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Babylonian tyrant) has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. NASB “The Chaldeans”; NIV “The wicked foe”; NRSV “The enemy”). Babylonian imperialism is here compared to a professional fisherman who repeatedly brings in his catch and has plenty to eat.

⁶ tn Apparently two different types of fishing nets are referred to here. The חֵרֶם (kherem, “throw net”) was used by fishermen standing on the shore (see Ezek 47:10), while the מִכְמֶרֶת (mikhmeret, “dragnet”) was used by men in a boat. See R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 165.

⁷ tn Heb “and he gathers.”

⁸ tn Heb “Therefore he is happy and rejoices.” Here two synonyms are joined for emphasis.

⁹ tn Heb “therefore.”

¹⁰ sn The fishing implements (throw net and dragnet) represent Babylonian military might. The prophet depicts the Babylonians as arrogantly worshiping their own power (sacrifices…burns incense, see also v. 11b).

¹¹ tn Heb “for by them his portion is full [or, “fat”].”

¹² tn Heb “and his food is plentiful [or, “fat”].”