to ascend · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
angle
בְּחַכָּ֣הbe.cha.Kah
H2443
a hook (as adhering) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
catch
יְגֹרֵ֣הוּye.go.Re.hu
H1641
to drag off roughly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
net
בְחֶרְמ֔וֹve.cher.Mo
H2764
physical (as shutting in) a net (either literally or fi… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
gather
וְיַאַסְפֵ֖הוּve.ya.'as.Fe.hu
H622
to gather for any purpose · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
drag
בְּמִכְמַרְתּ֑וֹbe.mikh.mar.To
H4365
a (fisher's) net · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
rejoice
יִשְׂמַ֥חyis.Mach
H8055
probably to brighten up · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
glad
וְיָגִֽילve.ya.Gil
H1523
properly · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt…
Amos 4:2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity w…
Psalms 10:9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net…
John 21:6-11 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to dra…
Isaiah 19:8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall lan…
Jeremiah 50:11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as…
Lamentations 2:15-16 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call…
Ezekiel 25:6 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite ag…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:12–end
The prophet, having received of the Lord that which he was to deliver to the people, now turns to God, and again addresses himself to him for the ease of his own mind under the burden which he saw. And still he is full of complaints. If he look about him, he sees nothing but violence done by Israel; if he look before him, he sees nothing but violence done against Israel; and it is hard to say which is the more melancholy sight. His thoughts of both he pours out before the Lord. It is our duty to be affected both with the iniquities and with the calamities of the church of God and of the times and places wherein we live; but we must take heed lest we grow peevish in our resentments, and carry…
they take up all of them--all kinds of fishes, that is, men, as captives, and all other prey that comes in their way.
with the angle--that is, the hook. Some they take up as with the hook, one by one; others in shoals, as in a "net" and "drag" or enclosing net.
therefore--because of their successes.
they rejoice--They glory in their crimes because attended with success (compare Hab 1:11).
Adam Clarke on Habakkuk 1:14
Makest men as the fishes of the sea - Easily are we taken and destroyed. We have no leader to guide us, and no power to defend ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar is here represented as a fisherman, who is constantly casting his nets into the sea, and enclosing multitudes of fishes; and, being always successful, he sacrifices to his own net - attributes all his conquests to his own power and prudence; not considering that he is only like a net that after having been used for a while, shall at last be thrown by as useless, or burnt in the fire.
John Gill on Habakkuk 1:15
They take up all of them with the angle,.... The prophet continues the metaphor of fishing, and observes the different ways of taking fish; which is to be applied to the case he is speaking of: as fishermen take all they can with their angles, so "they" or "he", for it is in the singular number, Nebuchadnezzar and his army, take up all out of the sea of the world; are ambitious of getting all kingdoms and nations of the world under their power and dominion; particularly all Judea, and all the inhabitants of it, good and bad, without any distinction; for all were fish which came to their net: this may design the artful and alluring methods they first made use of to get the people into their h…
The Church Fathers
(Verses 15 and following) He lifted the whole thing on his hook, he pulled it into his net, and gathered it into his seine: over this he will rejoice and exult. Therefore he sacrifices to his seine, and offers to his net, for in them his portion has become fat, and his food is choice: because of this he spreads out his seine, and never stops killing nations. LXX: He lifted the completion onto his hook, and drew it into his net, and gathered it into his seines: because of this he will rejoice and be glad: therefore he sacrifices to his seine, and burns incense to his net, for in them he has fattened his portion, and his food is choice: therefore he spreads out his net, and never ceases to kill nations. Because above he had named fish, saying: And you will make men like fish of the sea, and like creeping things, which is more significant in Hebrew, Remes (), that is, moving, everything namely that which can be moved, therefore it preserves the metaphor of fish in the other things, just as a fisherman throws a hook, and a net, and a dragnet, so that what the hook could not catch may be surrounded by the wider nets that the escaping one will enclose: thus also the Babylonian king will lay waste to everything, and will make all people his prey (Dan. III). Furthermore, what he says: he will rejoice and be glad, and will sacrifice to his net and offer incense to his drag, signifies the idol that he made in the field of Dura (also known as Duram) and the statue of Bel, to which he sacrificed the fattest victims like a great drag, coercing all the nations he had conquered to worship it. For in them, that is, in his idols, he believed that he had become enriched, and his share, that is, he considered himself to possess all the riches, as if he had conquered even the great fish, princes and kings, under his own rule, whom he calls select delicacies. And because once he was satiated by the most abundant fishing, and he filled his net, that is, his army, therefore he does not cease to kill nations, that is, to always fight and slaughter. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, the impious devil (who oppresses the just and has men like fishes of the sea, and devastates all things as if they were reptiles without a leader) sent his hook opposite to that hook, by which the fish was first caught through the apostle Peter, in whose mouth a stater was found (Matthew 17). And…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Hook — (1.) Heb. hah, a “ring” inserted in the nostrils of animals to which a cord was fastened for the purpose of restraining them (2 Kings 19:28; Isa. 37:28, 29; Ezek. 29:4; 38:4). “The Orientals make use…
Happiness Of The Wicked, The · Is derived from: Successful oppression — Is derived from: Successful oppression
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Habakkuk 1:14, 15
14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
14. Facis hominem quasi pisces maris, quasi reptile, quod caret duce (ad verbum, non est dux in illo.)
15. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
15. Totum hamo suo attrahet, colliget in sagenam suam, et congregabit in rete suum; propterea gaudebit et exultabit (hoc est, gaudet et exultat.)
He goes on, as it has been said, in his complaint; and by a comparison he shows that the judgement would be such as though God turned away from men, so as not to check the violence of th…
The believing confidence expressed in this verse does not appear to be borne out by what is actually done by God. The prophet proceeds to lay this enigma before God in Hab 1:13-17, and to pray for his people to be spared during the period of the Chaldaean affliction. Hab 1:13. "Art Thou too pure of eye to behold evil, and canst Thou not look upon distress? Wherefore lookest Thou upon the treacherous? and art silent when the wicked devours one more righteous than he? Hab 1:14. And Thou hast made men like fishes of the sea, like reptiles that have no ruler. Hab 1:15. All of them hath he lifted up with the hook; he draws them into his net, and gathers them in his fishing net; he rejoices therea…
fish . . . hooks . . . nets: Habakkuk portrays the Babylonians as fishermen, drawing in conquered peoples.
Rashi on Habakkuk 1:15
He takes all of them up with the fishhook This wicked man takes up all people with his fishhook.
catches them an expression of (Prov. 6:8) “Gathers (אָגְרָה) her food in the harvest,” and (Joel 1: 17) “Granaries (מַמְּגֻרוֹת) are demolished.”
