Net

The net belongs to two registers in scripture: a literal implement of fishermen, fowlers, and hunters, and a figurative trap for the soul. Both registers run together, because the fisher's mesh, the fowler's spread, and the hunter's snare are the same kind of object in the Hebrew imagination — a hidden cord that closes on the unsuspecting. From Genesis to the Gospels, the net is what catches living things; in poetry and prophecy, the net is what catches a man.

Nets in Craft and Ornament

Nets appear first as objects of fine workmanship. Hiram's bronzes for the temple include "nets of checker-work, and wreaths of chain-work, for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital, and seven for the other capital" (1 Ki 7:17). The mesh pattern was a familiar enough design that it could be cast in bronze and lifted onto the columns of Yahweh's house — a sign of how thoroughly the netting craft had entered Israelite material culture.

Fishers and the Fisher's Trade

The waters Yahweh made teem with creatures fit for the net. "[The Speech of] God created the great sea-monsters, and every living soul that moves, with which the waters swarmed" (Ge 1:21), and the dominion psalm names the catchable order — "the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas" (Ps 8:8). The Levitical food law marks out the eligible portion of that catch: "These you⁺ may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, that you⁺ may eat" (Le 11:9).

A working trade grew up around those waters. By the lake in Galilee, fishermen "had gone out of [their boats], and were washing their nets" (Lu 5:2). When Egypt's Nile is blasted by Yahweh's hand, the trade itself collapses: "the fishers will lament, and all those who cast a fishhook into the Nile will mourn, and those who spread dragnets on the waters will languish" (Isa 19:8). The fisher's net is a livelihood, not just a tool.

Hunters, Fowlers, and Game

Nets also caught land animals and birds. Hunters drove game into nets; the prophet describes Jerusalem's exhausted sons "as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh" (Isa 51:20). The fowler's spread, however, betrays its own futility when the prey can see it: "for in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird" (Pr 1:17). That common-sense observation will be inverted in the figurative passages, where the wicked spread nets that cannot be seen.

The Wicked's Net

A recurring figure in the Psalms for the schemes of the wicked is a hidden net. "For without cause they have hid for me the pit of their net; without cause they have dug [it] for my soul" (Ps 35:7). Again: "the proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set traps for me. Selah" (Ps 140:5). The wicked man "lurks in secret as a lion in his covert; he lies in wait to catch the poor: he catches the poor, when he draws him in his net" (Ps 10:9). Brother turns on brother by the same instrument: "they hunt every man his brother with a net" (Mi 7:2). The flatterer is one variant: "a [noble] man who flatters his fellow man spreads a net for his steps" (Pr 29:5). The reasoning of the wicked converges on it — "the wicked desires the net of evil men" (Pr 12:12).

The figure extends to the sage's warning about the seductive woman, "whose heart is snares and nets, [and] whose hands are bindings" (Ec 7:26), and to Sirach's caution, "do not come near to a strange woman; or else you will fall into her snares" (Sir 9:3). Hosea names a similar role for unfaithful priests and rulers: "you⁺ have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor" (Ho 5:1). Jeremiah indicts his own people: "for among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as a fowler lying in wait; they set a trap, they catch men" (Je 5:26). His enemies, in turn, "have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet" (Je 18:22).

In the Gospels, the same posture is taken toward Jesus. Pharisees, Herodians, and scribes lay traps in speech: they "send to him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, that they might catch him in talk" (Mr 12:13); they "watched him, and sent forth spies, who feigned themselves to be righteous, that they might take hold of his speech, so as to deliver him up to the rule and to the authority of the governor" (Lu 20:20); they lay "wait for him, to catch something out of his mouth" (Lu 11:54). The vocabulary is the same as the Psalmist's — concealment, speech as snare, the trap closed on the just.

The Trap Recoils

A second motif runs alongside the first: the wicked's hidden net catches the wicked. "The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken" (Ps 9:15). Of the trapper himself the Psalmist asks, "let his net that he has hid catch himself: with destruction let him fall in it" (Ps 35:8). "They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have dug a pit before me; they have fallen into the midst of it themselves. Selah" (Ps 57:6). "Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I nevertheless escape" (Ps 141:10). Job describes the principle in the abstract: the wicked "is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on the toils" (Job 18:8). Sirach distills it: "he who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who sets a snare will be taken in it" (Sir 27:26); "those who rejoice in the fall of the godly will be taken in a snare, and torment will consume them before their death" (Sir 27:29).

Sirach also widens the figure: gold can ensnare — "there are many who have been entangled through gold, and those who put their trust in pearls [have been ensnared]" (Sir 31:6); so can wine — "much wine is a snare to the fool, it diminishes strength and increases wounds" (Sir 31:30); even foolishness itself, "a stumbling-block for the foolish, and the simpleton is ensnared by it" (Sir 31:7); the wise are warned, "do not walk in a path set with snares, that you do not stumble twice at an obstacle" (Sir 32:20). The first book of the Maccabees uses the same vocabulary of weapons stored against Israel: "and laid them up there: and they became a great snare" (1Ma 1:35).

Yahweh's Net

Scripture is willing to hand the net to Yahweh himself. Job, in despair, says, "Know now that God has subverted me [in my cause], and has surrounded me with his net" (Job 19:6). The community confesses, "you brought us into the net; you laid an intense burden on our loins" (Ps 66:11). To apostate Ephraim Yahweh declares, "when they will go, I will spread my net on them; I will bring them down as the birds of the heavens; I will chastise them" (Ho 7:12). To Tyre, the oracle is the obverse of a fishing village's prosperity: "she will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, says the Sovereign Yahweh; and she will become a spoil to the nations" (Eze 26:5); and again, "I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets; you will be built no more: for I Yahweh have spoken it" (Eze 26:14). The fishing-net is at home in this oracle precisely because Yahweh's judgment leaves a city flat enough to dry mesh on.

The same image, turned the other way, becomes a vision of restoration. By the river that flows from the temple, "fishers will stand by it: from En-gedi even to En-eglaim will be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish will be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many" (Eze 47:10). The healed waters return the net to its first vocation.

Caught and Plucked Out

The pious response to the snare is petition for rescue. "My eyes are ever toward Yahweh; for he will pluck my feet out of the net" (Ps 25:15). "Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me; for you are my stronghold" (Ps 31:4). "Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, and from the traps of the workers of iniquity" (Ps 141:9). "When my spirit was overwhelmed inside me, you knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have hidden a snare for me" (Ps 142:3). "The proud have dug pits for me, who are not according to your law" (Ps 119:85), and yet, "the wicked have laid a snare for me; yet I have not gone astray from your precepts" (Ps 119:110).

The Preacher gives the figure its wide application: "for man also doesn't know his time: as the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of man snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them" (Ec 9:12).

The Draught of Fishes

The literal net rejoins the figurative in the Galilean draught. Jesus says to Simon, "put out into the deep, and let down your⁺ nets for a catch" (Lu 5:4). The result strains the working tools of the trade: "and when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fish; and their nets were breaking" (Lu 5:6). The fishermen who washed empty nets (Lu 5:2) end the day with nets that cannot hold the catch. The figure that ran through the Psalter — net spread, net hidden, net torn open — comes to rest, in the Gospel, on the side of mercy.