![]() ![]() ![]() 8And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said,ĩthe high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,Īnd the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,Īnd I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’ġ0Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel the land is not able to bear all his words.ħThis is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand.7This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. 11For thus Amos has said,ġ2And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there 13but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’ġ4Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore trees, 15and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”Īncient architects faced a rather serious difficulty. How does one know if a building, a wall, or other structure is truly vertical-truly “plumb”? Certainly, one can eyeball it, but there are distinct limitations to sight. On unlevel ground or juxtaposed to a less-than-straight surface, it can be genuinely difficult to determine a true vertical. The ingenious solution employed by these ancient architects, already by the fourth Egyptian dynasty (c. Due to the force of gravity, this line will be pulled tight, establishing a vertical or plumb point of reference for construction.Ģ500 BCE), was the “plumb line” or “plumb-bob.” The plumb line is a remarkably simple tool-one merely attaches a heavy weight to the end of a cord, attaching the other end at an appropriate height. In the world of the Hebrew scriptures, plumb lines were a common occurrence, being used in the construction of city-walls and important structures. Thus, in Zechariah’s vision of the construction of the second temple, one reads: “then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple his hands will also complete it. … the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel’” (Zechariah 4:8-10). However, despite their commonality, this rather literal usage of plumb line is a remarkably uncommon occurrence in the Hebrew texts. Rather, from the period of the 8th century prophets forward, the plumb line became a consistent image for the judgment of God. Just as a plumb line can be used to judge the relative verticality of a wall, so too does God judge the relative uprightness of a community. Thus, for example, when Manasseh succeeded Hezekiah as king of Judah, and turned from his father’s religious reforms to many idols-desecrating the temple and doing “what was evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 21:2), the prophets of the LORD receive a harsh word of judgment: “I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 Kings 21:13).īut this metaphor is not unique to the historians who composed 2 Kings. Half a century earlier, and in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Amos employed the same imagery in a vision condemning Jeroboam II. “This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ![]()
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