Yehezkiel 12:13

12:13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans ¹  (but he will not see it), ²  and there he will die. ³ 

Habakuk 1:15

1:15 The Babylonian tyrant ⁴  pulls them all up with a fishhook;

he hauls them in with his throw net. ⁵ 

When he catches ⁶  them in his dragnet,

he is very happy. ⁷ 

[12:13]  ¹ tn Or “Babylonians” (NCV, NLT).

[12:13]  sn The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah, while Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel, uses both terms.

[12:13]  ² sn He will not see it. This prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 52:11, which recount how Zedekiah was blinded before being deported to Babylon.

[12:13]  ³ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

[1:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Babylonian tyrant) has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. NASB “The Chaldeans”; NIV “The wicked foe”; NRSV “The enemy”). Babylonian imperialism is here compared to a professional fisherman who repeatedly brings in his catch and has plenty to eat.

[1:15]  ⁵ tn Apparently two different types of fishing nets are referred to here. The חֵרֶם (kherem, “throw net”) was used by fishermen standing on the shore (see Ezek 47:10), while the מִכְמֶרֶת (mikhmeret, “dragnet”) was used by men in a boat. See R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 165.

[1:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he gathers.”

[1:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “Therefore he is happy and rejoices.” Here two synonyms are joined for emphasis.