The third vision (7:7–9) shows the Lord standing beside a wall, ready to inspect it in his role as the Master Builder. He has a plumbline, and Amos is invited to identify the object. God informs Amos that he will use this to measure the Israelites, to see the extent to which they match his specifications. The vision is an ominous one for Amos, because he knows full well that the nation that had been built up in the Lord at Sinai has long since failed to conform to the Architect’s plan.

God acknowledges his relationship to Israel by calling the nation “my people,” but the reference is by no means one of affectionate possession. They are his in order to be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and consequent punishment for their many deviations. The plumbline is symbolic of God’s revealed law, which provides a standard for both personal faith and daily life in society. The “holy nation” had been expected to set an example of upright, godly living in a pagan society, but through the ages they had become conformed to the world in which they lived. The tragedy of Israel’s existence is that the nation had indulged in persistent apostasy and idolatry, despite the succession of divinely appointed prophets sent to call them back to the spiritual standards of the Sinai covenant.

c. Vision report: plumb-line (7:7–8)

The central feature of this vision is the plumb-line, mentioned four times in the two verses. Not events—divinely formed locusts or heaven-called fire—but a simple metal object (the Akkadian cognate of ’ǎnāk means lead or tin) dominates the scene. Found only here in the Old Testament, the word has sometimes been interpreted as an instrument of judgment, whether a sword made of tin or a bucket of molten lead. The mention of the wall, however, and the hand holding the metal object have pointed most interpreters and virtually all translations to a device used in measurement or construction, therefore, a plumb-line.

This interpretation shifts the thrust of the visions from the fact of judgment to the necessity or ground of judgment. God is the Masterbuilder; the plumb-line is the covenant standard of obedience to his call for justice and righteousness, proclaimed and demonstrated by the prophet himself; the wall is ‘my people Israel’ whose lives are being tested for conformity to that standard; Amos who appeared in visions one and two as intercessor, pleading for forgiveness from sin or at least cessation of judgment, now is called to bear witness with his own eye to the message of the plumb-line: Israel’s life is too crooked to warrant either pardon or relief.

The change in form of the vision report signals a sharp change in emphasis. Yahweh now has taken the initiative. Amos, what do you see? put Yahweh in charge of the discussion. He grasped the lead and set the agenda. No longer would he respond to Amos’ question, ‘How can Jacob stand?’ Amos had to respond to Yahweh’s question. This change in form, then, set God free to declare the meaning of the plumb-line to the prophet in verse 8, a meaning not left to the prophet’s own understanding as was the meaning of the first two visions. Yahweh was putting Israel to the test of the plumb-line. Forbearance was no longer possible. Whatever compassion or covenant obligations may have sparked God’s repentance have been overwhelmed by the magnitude of Israel’s rebellion. Judgment was now inevitable. This seems to be what God indicated by his promise I will never again pass by them, i.e. never again overlook their sins and give them additional opportunity to repent (cf. 8:2).