lit., "something thrown around" (amphi, "around," ballo, "to throw"), denotes "a casting net," a somewhat small "net," cast over the shoulder, spreading out in a circle and made to sink by weights, Matthew 4:18 (in some mss. in Mark 1:16 : the best have the verb amphiballo alone).
a general term for a "net" (from an old verb diko, "to cast:" akin to diskos, "a quoit"), occurs in Matthew 4:20,21; Mark 1:18,19; Luke 5:2,4-6; John 21:6,8,11 (twice). In the Sept. it was used for a "net" for catching birds, Proverbs 1:17 , in other ways, e.g., figuratively of a snare, Job 18:8; Proverbs 29:5 .
denotes "a dragnet a seine;" two modes were employed with this, either by its being let down into the water and drawn together in a narrowing circle, and then into the boat, or as a semicircle drawn to the shore, Matthew 13:47 , where Nos. 1 and 2 would not have suited so well. The Greek historian Herodotus used the corresponding verb sageneuo of a device by which the Persians are said to have cleared a conquered island of its inhabitants.