Hunting

Hunting in Scripture is mostly a picture rather than a pastime. David asks Saul why the king of Israel has come out “to seek a flea” and hunt a partridge in the mountains, a way of saying he is no threat (1 Samuel 26:20). The psalmists feel hunted themselves: the proud have laid snares, nets and gins, and the prayer is to be kept from them. Ecclesiastes compares people to birds caught in a snare, and Jeremiah 16:16 has the LORD sending hunters after a scattered people. Psalm 141 is a good place to see it.

8 verses

1 Samuel

1 Samuel 26:20

Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.

Psalms

Psalms 140:5

The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.

Psalms 141:9

Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

Psalms 141:10

Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.

Proverbs

Proverbs 1:17

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 9:12

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 16:16

Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Lamentations

Lamentations 3:52

Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Mentioned first in Gen. 10:9 in connection with Nimrod. Esau was “a cunning hunter” (Gen. 25:27). Hunting was practised by the Hebrews after their settlement in the “Land of Promise” (Lev. 17:15; Prov. 12:27). The lion and other ravenous beasts were found in Palestine (1 Sam. 17:34; 2 Sam. 23:20; 1 Kings 13:24; Ezek. 19:3-8), and it must have been necessary to hunt and destroy them. Various snares and gins were used in hunting (Ps. 91:3; Amos 3:5; 2 Sam. 23:20).

War is referred to under the idea of hunting (Jer. 16:16; Ezek. 32:30).

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

Hunting, as a matter of necessity, whether for the exterminatiOn of dangerous beasts or for procuring sustenance betokens a rude and semi-civilized state; as an amusement, it betokens an advanced state. The Hebrews as a pastoral and agricultural people, were not given to the sports of the field; the density of the population, the earnestness of their character, and the tendency of their ritual regulations, particularly those affecting food, all combined to discourage the practice of hunting. The smaller of catching animals was, first, either by digging a pitfall; or, secondly, by a trap which was set under ground, (Job 18:10) in the run of the animal, (Proverbs 22:5) and caught it by the leg, (Job 18:9) or lastly by the use of the net, of which there were various kinds, as or the gazelle, (Isaiah 51:20) Authorized Version, "wild bull," and other animals of that class.