Ezekiel 12:13

12:13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans ¹  (but he will not see it), ²  and there he will die. ³ 

Ezekiel 32:3

32:3 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘I will throw my net over you ⁴  in the assembly of many peoples;

and they will haul you up in my dragnet.

Joshua 10:16-18

10:16 The five Amorite kings ⁵  ran away and hid in the cave at Makkedah. 10:17 Joshua was told, “The five kings have been found hiding in the cave at Makkedah.” 10:18 Joshua said, “Roll large stones over the mouth of the cave and post guards in front of it. ⁶ 

Joshua 10:2

10:2 All Jerusalem was terrified ⁷  because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai and all its men were warriors.

Joshua 18:9

18:9 The men journeyed ⁸  through the land and mapped it and its cities out into seven regions on a scroll. Then they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh.

Joshua 18:2

18:2 seven Israelite tribes had not been assigned their allotted land. ⁹ 

Joshua 1:11

1:11 “Go through the camp and command the people, ‘Prepare your supplies, for within three days you will cross the Jordan River and begin the conquest of the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to you.’” ¹⁰ 

Job 10:16

10:16 If I lift myself up, ¹¹ 

you hunt me as a fierce lion, ¹² 

and again ¹³  you display your power ¹⁴  against me.

Ecclesiastes 9:12

9:12 Surely, no one ¹⁵  knows his appointed time! ¹⁶ 

Like fish that are caught in a deadly ¹⁷  net, and like birds that are caught in a snare –

just like them, all people ¹⁸  are ensnared ¹⁹  at an unfortunate ²⁰  time that falls upon them suddenly.

Jeremiah 39:5-7

39:5 But the Babylonian ²¹  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ²²  and captured him. ²³  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ²⁴  in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there. 39:6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death. 39:7 Then he had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains ²⁵  to be led off to Babylon.

Lamentations 1:13

מ (Mem)

1:13 He sent down fire ²⁶ 

into my bones, and it overcame ²⁷  them.

He spread out a trapper’s net ²⁸  for my feet;

he made me turn back.

He has made me desolate;

I am faint all day long.

Lamentations 4:20

ר (Resh)

4:20 Our very life breath – the Lord’s anointed king ²⁹  –

was caught in their traps, ³⁰ 

of whom we thought, ³¹ 

“Under his protection ³²  we will survive among the nations.”

Hosea 7:12

7:12 I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying,

I will bring them down like birds in the sky;

I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together.

Luke 21:35

21:35 For ³³  it will overtake ³⁴  all who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁵ 

[12:13]  ¹ tn Or “Babylonians” (NCV, NLT).

[12:13]  ² sn He will not see it. This prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 52:11, which recount how Zedekiah was blinded before being deported to Babylon.

[12:13]  ³ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

[32:3]  ⁴ tn The expression “throw my net” is common in Ezekiel (12:13; 17:20; 19:8).

[10:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “these five kings.”

[10:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “and appoint by it men to guard them.”

[10:2]  ⁷ tn This statement is subordinated to v. 1 in the Hebrew text, which reads literally, “When Adoni-Zedek…they feared greatly.” The subject of the plural verb at the beginning of v. 2 is probably the residents of Jerusalem.

[18:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “went and passed through.”

[18:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “there were left among the sons of Israel who had not divided up their inheritance seven tribes.”

[1:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to enter to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving to you to possess it.”

[10:16]  ¹¹ tn The MT has the 3rd person of the verb, “and he lifts himself up.” One might assume that the subject is “my head” – but that is rather far removed from the verb. It appears that Job is talking about himself in some way. Some commentators simply emend the text to make it first person. This has the support of Targum Job, which would be expected since it would be interpreting the passage in its context (see D. M. Stec, “The Targum Rendering of WYG’H in Job X 16,” VT 34 [1984]: 367-8). Pope and Gordis make the word adjectival, modifying the subject: “proudly you hunt me,” but support is lacking. E. Dhorme thinks the line should be parallel to the two preceding it, and so suggests יָגֵּעַ (yagea’, “exhausted”) for יִגְאֶה (yig’eh, “lift up”). The contextual argument is that Job has said that he cannot raise his head, but if he were to do so, God would hunt him down. God could be taken as the subject of the verb if the text is using enallage (shifting of grammatical persons within a discourse) for dramatic effect. Perhaps the initial 3rd person was intended with respect within a legal context of witnesses and a complaint, but was switched to 2nd person for direct accusation.

[10:16]  ¹² sn There is some ambiguity here: Job could be the lion being hunted by God, or God could be hunting Job like a lion hunts its prey. The point of the line is clear in either case.

[10:16]  ¹³ tn The text uses two verbs without a coordinating conjunction: “then you return, you display your power.” This should be explained as a verbal hendiadys, the first verb serving adverbially in the clause (see further GKC 386-87 §120.g).

[10:16]  ¹⁴ tn The form is the Hitpael of פָּלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be surpassing; to be extraordinary”). Here in this stem it has the sense of “make oneself admirable, surpassing” or “render oneself powerful, glorious.” The text is ironic; the word that described God’s marvelous creation of Job is here used to describe God’s awesome destruction of Job.

[9:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “man.” The term is used here in a generic sense and translated “no one.”

[9:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “time.” BDB 773 s.v. עֵת 2.d suggests that עֵת (’et, “time”) refers to an “uncertain time.” On the other hand, HALOT 901 s.v. עֵת 6 nuances it as “destined time,” that is, “no one knows his destined time [i.e., hour of destiny].” It is used in parallelism with זְמָן (zÿman, “appointed time; appointed hour”) in 3:1 (HALOT 273 s.v. זְמָן; BDB 273 s.v. זְמָן). Eccl 3:9-15 teaches God’s sovereignty over the appointed time-table of human events. Similarly, Qoheleth here notes that no one knows what God has appointed in any situation or time. This highlights the limitations of human wisdom and human ability, as 9:11 stresses.

[9:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “bad, evil.” The moral connotation hardly fits here. The adjective would seem to indicate that the net is the instrument whereby the fish come to ruin.

[9:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[9:12]  ¹⁹ tn The Masoretes pointed the consonantal form יוקשׁים (“are ensnared”) as יוּקָשִׁים (yuqashim, Pual participle mpl from ַָיקֹשׁ, yaqosh, “to be ensnared”). This is an unusual form for a Pual participle: (1) The characteristic doubling of the middle consonant was omitted due to the lengthening of the preceding short vowel from יֻקָּשִׁים to יוּקָשִׁים (GKC 74 §20.n and 143 §52.s), and (2) The characteristic prefix מְ (mem) is absent, as in a few other Pual participles, e.g., Exod 3:2; Judg 13:8; 2 Kgs 2:10; Isa 30:24; 54:11 (GKC 143 §52.s). On the other hand, the consonant form יוקשים might actually be an example of the old Qal passive participle which dropped out of Hebrew at an early stage, and was frequently mistaken by the Masoretes as a Pual form (e.g., Jer 13:10; 23:32) (GKC 143 §52.s). Similarly, the Masoretes pointed אכל as אֻכָּל (’ukkal, Pual perfect 3rd person masculine singular “he was eaten”); however, it probably should be pointed אֻכַל (’ukhal, old Qal passive perfect 3rd person masculine singular “he was eaten”) because אָכַל (’akhal) only occurs in the Qal (see IBHS 373-74 §22.6a).

[9:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “evil.” The term רָעָה (ra’ah, “evil; unfortunate”) is repeated in v. 12 in the two parts of the comparison: “fish are caught in an evil (רָעָה) net” and “men are ensnared at an unfortunate (רָעָה) time.”

[39:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ²² map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ²³ sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

[39:5]  ²⁴ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[39:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.

[1:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “He sent fire from on high.” Normally God sends fire from heaven. The idiom מִמָּרוֹם (mimmarom, “from on high”) can still suggest the location but as an idiom may focus on the quality of the referent. For example, “to speak from on high” means “to presume to speak as if from heaven” = arrogantly (Ps 73:8); “they fight against me from on high” = proudly (Ps 56:3) (BDB 928-29 s.v. מָרוֹם). As a potential locative, מִמָּרוֹם (mimmarom, “from on high”) designates God as the agent; idiomatically the same term paints him as pitiless.

[1:13]  ²⁷ tc The MT reads וַיִּרְדֶּנָּה (vayyirdennah, “it prevailed against them”), representing a vav (ו) consecutive + Qal preterite 3rd person masculine singular + 3rd person feminine plural suffix from רָדָה (radah, “to prevail”). The LXX κατήγαγεν αὐτό (kathgagen auto, “it descended”) reflects an alternate vocalization tradition of וַיֹּרִדֶנָּה (vayyoridennah, “it descended against them”), representing a vav (ו) consecutive + Hiphil preterite 3rd person masculine singular + 3rd person feminine plural suffix from יָרָד (yarad, “to go down”), or הֹרִידָהּ (horidah, “it descended against her”), a Hiphil perfect ms + 3rd person feminine singular suffix from from יָרָד (yarad, “to go down”). Internal evidence favors the MT. The origin of the LXX vocalization can be explained by the influence of the preceding line, “He sent down fire from on high.”

[1:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “net.” The term “trapper’s” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[4:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the anointed one of the Lord.” The term “king” is added in the translation to clarify the referent of the phrase “the Lord’s anointed.”

[4:20]  ³⁰ tn Heb “was captured in their pits.”

[4:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “of whom we had said.”

[4:20]  ³² tn Heb “under his shadow.” The term צֵל (tsel, “shadow”) is used figuratively here to refer the source of protection from military enemies. In the same way that the shade of a tree gives physical relief and protection from the heat of the sun (e.g., Judg 9:15; Job 40:22; Ps 80:11; Song 2:3; Ezek 17:23; 31:6, 12, 17; Hos 4:13; 14:8; Jon 4:5, 6), a faithful and powerful king can provide “shade” (= protection) from enemies and military attack (Num 14:19; Ps 91:1; Isa 30:2, 3; 49:2; 51:16; Jer 48:45; Lam 4:20).

[21:35]  ³³ tn There is debate in the textual tradition about the position of γάρ (gar) and whether v. 35 looks back to v. 34 or is independent. The textual evidence does slightly favor placing γάρ after the verb and thus linking it back to v. 34. The other reading looks like Isa 24:17. However, the construction is harsh and the translation prefers for stylistic reasons to start a new English sentence here.

[21:35]  ³⁴ tn Or “come upon.”

[21:35]  ³⁵ sn This judgment involves everyone: all who live on the face of the whole earth. No one will escape this evaluation.