WORD STUDY – THE SNARE OF THE
HUNTER ‫מפח יקושׁ‬
Psalms 91:3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the
fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence.
The word for snare mipach could come from two different root
words.
It could be pachach or pachad.
Pachach means to
entrap, either by a net or a snare. It is also used to express
the idea of causing to ruin or destroy something or someone.
It is also used for crooked lightning which expressed
impending danger.
When you see the lightning you brace
yourself for the coming thunder as light travels faster than
sound and all that. Pachad means to tremble or fear or to be
afraid of an impending danger. It also means to reverence. It
is also used for dangling testicles. When two men made an
oath to each other they would touch each other’s privates. It
was a sign of reverence for that person. It was also a sign
of trust. For someone to come that close to a man’s sexual
organ creates a sense of impending danger and fear and thus to
allow it would show great trust.
The intended root is most likely pachach which means an
entrapment by snare or net although the idea of pachad may be
a play on the word pachach to say that this snare represents
impending danger from making yourself vulnerable.
I recall watching a television program years ago where an
American sportsman was visiting an English nobleman on his
estate.
The nobleman offered to take the American bird
hunting. The American was surprised when the nobleman gave
him a net instead of a rifle. They went hunting and the
nobleman showed how he was able to capture a bird with the
net. As he picked up the terrified bird, he stoked it and
calmed and showed it to the American and said: “You see, you
Americans are so barbaric with your guns blowing the poor
creature apart.
Look here not a feather on his head is
harmed.” The American, somewhat charmed by the bird began to
stroke his head to help calm him and asked; “So what do you do
with him now?” The nobleman looked at the American like he
had no power of understanding and said: “Why wring its
blooming neck, of course.”
I think being caught in a snare or net is the perfect
illustration. You get yourself trapped in a net of sin and
you panic and are fearful and terrified of impending doom. But
then you find it is not so bad and you start to become
comfortable in your entrapment of sin. That’s when it wrings
your blooming neck.
Ancient Egyptian hunters used a snare. They would take a vine
and form a loop so when the bird steps in the loop the hunter
pulls the vine and closes the loop tightening it around the
poor creature’s legs. The bird is usually terrified and the
ancient hunters often calmed the creatures before they did –
that thing to them. They would only hunt for food and the
hunters believed that if you killed the bird while it was
terrified you would absorb that terror when you ate the bird.
Actually, I read that there might be some scientific fact
behind that which is why there is a move to be more humane to
animals breed for slaughter.
In fact in Judaism only a
shochet who was trained in how to slaughter an animal in one
swift blow so the animal suffers no fear or terror could be
used for kosher meat. There may be a spiritual reason behind
it.
This may be why the Psalmist is speaking of being delivered
from the snare of the hunter and not the hand of the hunter
for in the hand of the hunter he will become complacent and
calm before the final blow. It is best to call on God when
you are first ensnared in sin, if you wait you may become too
complacent to call on God and that is when sin will wring your
blooming neck.
Pachad (fear) is different from the fear of yara’ which is
related to the fear of the Lord. The fear yara’ of the Lord
is not a fear for one’s own safety but for the welfare of
another. To yara’ or fear the Lord is to fear wounding his
heart or bringing sorrow to Him. Pachad is the fear for your
own gizzard. That is not bad. It is fear that will make you
cautious. It is pachad fear that will cause you to call upon
God. But once that fear has left and you are in the hand of
the hunter, you would not be as incline to call upon God.
While all the time sin is preparing to ring your blooming
neck.
This verse ends by saying God will deliver us from the noisome
pestilence. Whatever that is, it sounds bad. In the Hebrew it
is madavah havvah. It is interesting that the word madavah is
used. It comes from the root word debar for speech, to speak
from one’s heart, an intimate speaking. It takes on the idea
of a plague, according to my study partner, because a plague
is contagious, no one is immune to it. When you speak your
heart to someone they respond almost likewise and often will
share intimately with you. The word havvah means to desire in
a bad sense. It is a desire that leads to destruction. Thus
a madevah havvah could mean a destructive plague and it also
could mean, according to my study partner, that if you have
evil in your heart and you davar or speak it out it could
cause destructive desire in someone, a desire for revenge or
destruction. Such a desire can spread like a plague.
The Psalmist is probably making an allusion to Numbers 11
where the people of Israel were belly aching about the manna
and wanted meat. So God sent quail, more quail than they could
handle such that they started to eat the dead quail (against
kosher law). We know today bird meat goes bad real quick.
Many became sick and died. Had they followed God’s kosher
laws they would have lived.
microbes in those days.
They did not know anything about
Someone pointed out to me just now in an email that the word
in the prior verse for fortress could also come from the root
word tsud which means hunting or catching a prey.
The
Psalmist is following a hunter’s motif here and thus this last
phrase of being delivered from the destruction of plague is
most likely a reference to spoiled meat and following the
dietary laws of God. If you follow God’s laws you would not
suffer from eating spoiled bird meat.
So whether you are the hunted, God will free you from the trap
before the hunter or sin wrings your blooming neck and if you
are the hunter, God will protect you from eating spoiled meat
which could prove fatal and did for those who ignored God’s
laws.