404 ROD NOT EMPLOYED— REASONS 



chine of pork. The line, then and now {ex necessitate rei), 

 must have been of stout cord, possibly tied to a tree, with 

 probably some protective material of horn, etc., to prevent 

 erosion. 



Conjure up the picture of this Egyptian piscator — even in 

 this instance the Jew does not use the Rod, for there are no 

 Leviathans in Palestine ! i Behold him " casting," with a 

 Rod of ancient normal length, about six feet, with a rope Une 

 of ancient normal length, from six to ten feet, a bait of even 

 half the back of a porker ! Surely a picture for gods and 

 men, more especially the winners of our Casting Competitions, 

 to revere with awe and envy, as a feat of strength and skill 

 unessayable. 



From these three passages I can find no reason, contextual 

 or piscatorial, to support the contention that the Rod was 

 used, although to us moderns such use would seem but the 

 natural thing. 



Mr. Breslar maintains that Amos iv. 2 authorises the 

 imphcation. He errs either in translation or through mis- 

 conception of the tackle described. The words run, " They 

 shall take you away with hooks {zinndth), and your residue with 

 fish-hooks." The Hebrew word for the second, sTroth dugdh, 

 means only hooks, plain and simple, while that for the first, 

 zinndth, signifies also thorns and probably fish-spears, or 

 harpoons. 



Amos, however, far from thinking of or suggesting a Rod, 

 is looking contrariwise at the end of a Une. His metaphor is 

 drawn from the non-angling custom prevalent and pictured 

 in Assyrian representations of a conqueror having his captives 

 dragged by cords fastened by presumable, but naturally not 

 apparent, hooks firm fixed in their Ups. This conception is 

 strengthened by the fact that hakkdh in its primary etymological 

 sense imphes merely something connected with the jaws. 2 



^ See, however, an article in The Spectator, Feb. 14, 1920, which asserts 

 that the existence of crocodiles in the Nahr-ez-Zerka, or the River of Crocodiles 

 of the Crusaders, cannot be questioned, and also H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel 

 (London, 1865), p. 103, to similar but unconvincing effect. 



' Cf. Isaiah xxxvii, 29, " Therefore will I put my hook (ho}i) in thy nose, 

 and my bridle in thy hps," and 2 Chron. xxxiii, ii, " Which took Manasseh with 

 hooks " (R.V. margin). 



