ANGLE (an'g'I) (Heb. khak-kaw', Is. x ix :8; Hab. i:15), mediaeval English for "hook" (Job xli:1). It is connected with the idea of piercing. ANGLING (an'gling). The word (Heb.
khak-kaw', angle or hook) which the Auth. Vers. renders 'angle,' in Is. xix:8; Hab. i:15, is the same that is rendered 'hook' in Job xlia, 12.
In fact, 'angling' is described as 'fishing with a hook.' The Scripture contains several allusions to this mode of taking fish. The first of these occurs as early as the time of Job: 'Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook ; or his tongue (palate, which is usually pierced by the hook) with a cord (line), which thou lettest down? Canst thou put a hook into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn?' (Job :1, 2). This last phrase obviously refers to the thorns which were some times used as hooks, and which are long after mentioned as the thorns of fishing (Amos iv :2), in the Auth. Vers. 'fish-hooks.' Of the various passages relating to this subject, the most remarkable is that which records, as an important part of the 'burden of Egypt,' that the fishers also shall mourn : and all they that cast angle (the hook) into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish' (Is. xix :8). In this poetical description
of a part of the calamities which were to befall Egypt we are furnished with an account of the various modes of fishing practiced in that country, which is in exact conformity with the scenes de picted in the old tombs of Egypt. Angling ap pears to have been regarded chiefly as an amuse ment, in which the Egyptians of all ranks found much enjoyment. They constructed within their ground spacious sluices or ponds for fish (Is. xix : io), like the vivaria of the Romans, where they fed them for the table, where they amused them selves by angling, and by the dexterous use of the bident.