Hebrew word · H4365
מִכְמֶ֫רֶת
mikhmoret
net
A fishing net, most likely a seine: a long net spread in the water and hauled to shore with everything inside it. A related word, makmōr, is used for a hunter's net (Ps 141:10).
Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
net, fishing net
Also means: mikh.mo.ret (מִכְמֹ֫רֶת "net" H4365B)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Habakkuk 1:15
- Range of meaning
A fishing net, most likely a seine: a long net spread in the water and hauled to shore with everything inside it. A related word, makmōr, is used for a hunter's net (Ps 141:10).
- Against the English
BSB: 'fishing net'. KJV: 'drag'. WEB, ESV and NIV: 'dragnet'.
- How it drifted
KJV's 'drag' meant a dragnet. A modern reader would not hear it as a net at all.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Isaiah 19:8 ('those who spread nets on the water will languish'), describing Egypt's Nile fishermen. The Greek Septuagint here uses sagēnē, the same word as Jesus' dragnet parable (Matt 13:47), which pulls in 'fish of every kind'.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 19:8 מִכְמֹ֛רֶת <of> a fishing net
Then the fishermen will mourn, all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.
Habakkuk · 2
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Habakkuk 1:15 בְּמִכְמַרְתּ֑וֹ in fishing net his
The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.
Here: "In his seine": another large net, probably the kind spread on the water and pulled to shore (Isa 19:8). It is the last and widest tool in the list, sweeping in the whole shoal.
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Habakkuk 1:16 לְמִכְמַרְתּ֑וֹ to fishing net his
Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet and burns incense to his fishing net, for by these things his portion is sumptuous and his food is rich.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.