This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will spread My net over you with a company of many peoples, and they will draw you up in My net.
Parallel translations
- WEB Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net.
- KJV Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.
- NKJV ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will therefore spread My net over you with a company of many people, And they will draw you up in My net.
- NASB This is what the Lord God says: “Now I will spread My net over you With a contingent of many peoples, And they will lift you up in My net.
- NLT Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will send many people to catch you in my net and haul you out of the water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will spread His net over Pharaoh, using a coalition of peoples to haul him out. The mighty monster is caught like a hunted beast by the Lord's hand.
Overview
The Lord pictures Himself as a hunter casting a net to capture the great sea-creature, employing 'many peoples'—the armies of Babylon and its allies—as His means. The net imagery, used elsewhere against Pharaoh (Ezekiel 29:4), shows that no power escapes God's reach. The seemingly untouchable monster is helpless before its Maker.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezek 12:13But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.
- Jer 16:16But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
- Ezek 17:20I will spread My net over him and catch him in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment upon him there for the treason he committed against Me.
- Hab 1:14–17You have made men like the fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler.
- Hos 7:12As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them when I hear them flocking together.
- Eccl 9:12For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
- Lam 1:13He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 32:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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