‘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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 12:13I will also spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, though he will die there.
- Jer 16:16“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
- Ezek 17:20I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
- Hab 1:14–17and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
- Hos 7:12When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.
- Eccl 9:12For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
- Lam 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them; He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all 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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