404 ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONS 
chine of pork. The line, then and now (ex necessitate ret), 
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!! Behold him “ casting,’ with a 
Rod of ancient normal length, about six feet, with a rope line 
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 
implication. 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, sivéth digah, 
means only hooks, plain and simple, while that for the first, 
zinnath, 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 line. 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 lips. This conception is 
strengthened by the fact that hakkdah in its primary etymological 
sense implies merely something connected with the jaws.? 
1 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. 
2 Cf. Isaiah xxxvii, 29, ‘‘ Therefore will I put my hook (sof) in thy nose, 
and my bridle in thy lips,” and 2 Chron. xxxiii, 11, ‘‘ Which took Manasseh with 
hooks ”’ (R.V. margin). 
