Description and usage
Included in this entry are a wide variety of devices used to trap and catch animals and birds.
Translation
JOB 18:8; JOB 18:9; JOB 18:10 uses six different words for various kinds of traps. The present discussion will follow the wording of RSV:
“Net” (resheth; see Net): The net usually ensnared its quarry by entangling the feet, although the one mentioned here seems to be large enough to hold the entire person.
“Pitfall” (svakah): This word indicates a network of branches and twigs which covers and hides a hole or pit. When the quarry steps on this network, its weight breaks through, and it falls into the pit and is trapped.
“Trap” (pach): This is a general word for a device used to trap animals or especially birds. Here it is explicitly identified as a trap that catches the bird by its foot (literally “heel”).
“Snare” (tsamim): This word may refer to some kind of woven material or mesh that entangles the feet.
“Rope” (chevel): This most likely refers to a hidden noose that is attached at the other end to a bent bough or small tree that springs upright and tightens the noose around the victim when the trap is sprung.
“Trap” (malkodeth): This is a general word for any kind of trap.
Because of the repetition in these three verses, some translations are considerably condensed. NCV reduces the six words for traps to only three different words: “(8) Their feet will be caught in a net when they walk into its web. (9) A trap will catch them by the heel and hold them tight. (10) A trap for them is hidden on the ground, right in their path.” CEV condenses these verses even further: “(8) Before they know it, (9) they are trapped in a net, (10) hidden along the path.” See also the lengthy discussion on these verses in A Handbook on The Book of Job, pages 339–340.
For the Hebrew word mazor in OBA 1:7, see the comments in A Handbook on The Books of Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah, page 15.
In ROM 11:9 the Greek words thēra and skandalon are treated as having literal meanings, whereas the passage as a whole is figurative. The three words there for various kinds of traps (including pagis; see Net) would all seem to be completely parallel in structure and meaning. As a result, in a number of languages the three terms are reduced often to two, for example, “snare” and “trap.” If there are three different kinds of traps, then, of course, three terms can be used. In some cases, however, it may be preferable to use words to express the acts of catching and trapping as in GNT, which has “May they be caught and trapped at their feasts; may they fall, may they be punished!”
Hook: See Hook.