Genesis 25:27 - "When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents."

Proverbs 6:5 - "save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler."

The hunter or fowler was one of the earliest of occupations. Although the strictly hunting phase of man’s cultural development had been long gone before the biblical period began, still the hunt provided supplementary food for the diet, and as such, it was important. Hunting with dogs is known for the immediately pre-Israelite period in Palestine; we find this in the Egyptian story The Tale of Sinuhe. However, dogs don’t seem to have been used much in Israel itself.

Two hunters from the early time are mentioned by name in the Old Testament: Nimrod an…