HUNTING, To Hunt. Hunting is a kind of apprenticeship to war, and an imitation of it. Nimrod was a mighty Hunter before God. He was a warrior, a conqueror, a tyrant, who subdued free people, and put those to death who would not submit to his dominion. The Prophets sometimes express War under the name of Hunting. I will send for many hunters, says Jeremiah, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. He speaks of the Chaldæans or Persians, who took the Jews, and held them under their dominion. Some are of opinion, that the Hunters mentioned by Jeremiah are the Persians, who set the Hebrews at liberty; and in a more elevated sense, the Apostles, who are, as it were, Hunters, that endeavour to take men with their preaching. Ezekiel speaks likewise of the Kings, who were persecutors of the Jews, under the name of Hunters; Principes aquilonis omnes, & universi venatores. He places them in hell, with the Kings who were not circumcised.
The Psalmist thanks God for having delivered him from the snares of the Hunters. Micah complains, that every one lays ambuscades for his neighbour, and that one brother hunts after another to destroy him. Vir fratrem suum ad mortem venatur. Ezekiel inveighs against the false Prophets, who place cushions under the elbows of sinners, and lay nets to catch them in the chase. Jeremiah in his Lamentations represents Jerusalem as complaining of her enemies, who have taken her like a bird in their nets.
As for Hunting with Dogs, the Reader may see Dogs.