402 ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONS 
To account for this absence of direct mention of the Rod 
in the Bible various reasons have been adduced. 
The first: in the only two passages, Isaiah xix. 8, and 
Habakkuk i. 15, where the word “angle’’ occurs, and in 
Matthew xvii. 27, “ cast a hook,” and in Amos iv. 2, as con- 
tended by Mr. Breslar, its use is certainly implied. The validity 
of this claim remains a question (A) for Hebrew scholars, and 
(B) for practical fishermen. 
From the point of view of the latter, the “ casting,” 
‘taking,’ etc., in the above passages can be and probably were 
accomplished by a hand-line (with or without a weight attached 
to insure greater length of throw) almost as easily and as 
effectually as if a Rod were employed. As a matter of fact, 
for taking good-sized fish some of our professional sea-fishermen 
prefer the hand-line to that of the Rod. 
The words in Matthew xvii. 27, “ go thou to the sea and 
cast a hook”’ do not either in the Greek or English strongly 
suggest, much less necessarily imply, a Rod. To a professional 
fisherman of the Sea of Tiberias like Peter, the more natural, 
probably the only known method of casting would be by a 
hand-line. 
Turning now to the Hebrew passages, Isaiah xix. 8, ‘‘ The 
fishers shall also lament, and all they that cast angle in the 
Nile (A.V., brooks) shall mourn;’’ Habakkuk i. 15, “ He 
taketh up all of them with the angle, he catcheth them in his 
net, and gathereth them in his drag;’’ Job xli. x, “ Canst 
thou draw out leviathan with a fish-hook?”’ in all these we 
find the same Hebrew word hakkah. 
The R.V. in the first two renders it “ angle,’ and in Job 
“ fish-hook ;’’ in the Greek version dyxorpov, which in the 
Septuagint is the usual and in the New Testament (Matt. xvii. 
27) the only word for hook, occurs in all three passages. 
Whence or from which word can the Rod be implied, or 
even in fairness claimed? In Isaiah, it is answered, from the 
Jehovah from the Book of Esther.” This is hardly helpful: let us grant 
that the omission of a name from a short book like Esther was an accident. 
How can this be “‘ like ” the omission of all mention of or allusion to the Rod 
in the vast literature of the Old and New Testaments and of the Talmud, 
especially when we find in all three numerous passages dealing with fishing 
and the tackle employed for fishing ? 
