Amos 7:7-8, “Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall [made] by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:”

This is the only place in Scripture that you will find the word anak (plumb line).  It is an old Semitic word meaning lead. Since we are talking about a wall and lead,  translators and tradition concludes it is a reference to plumb line as builders usually use a piece of lead attached to the end of a string to determine if the wall is straight. The most obvious conclusion we read when reading this verse is that God is examining His people and finding they are not on the straight and narrow and hence judgment was coming.

The Book of Amos is set in a time when Israel had reached their peak in prosperity but hit an all-time low in their devotion to God.  Assyria, the main threat to Israel, was suffering from internal conflicts and thus their ambitions of conquest had cooled down leaving Israel to carry on a very prosperous trade business.  However, there was no middle class, only the wealthy elite who were becoming rich at the expense of a poor peasant farming class.  Farmers who once farmed to support their own lives were now being forced to farm for what was best for foreign trade which meant oil and wine. You cannot live off of wine and oil and hence people were living almost in slavery like conditions experiencing extreme depravation.

I read an article the other day about a single mother who lost her job in Silicon Valley and ended up homeless.  She finally found a place to live which was a garage for which she had to pay $1,000 a month in rent.  That is sort of the condition in Israel at this time. The wealthy ruled the roost and could demand what they wanted  no matter how it oppressed the poor.  Keep that word oppressed in your mind.

The Lord says that he is sitting a wall and measuring the wall with a plumb line and found them out of sync and hence judgment was coming.  The followers of God understood judgment was coming and they actually looked forward to the judgment for anything was better than what they were experiencing at the hand of the wealthy elite.  They called it the Day of the Lord.  To them this judgment was their deliverance from the oppression of the elite and the destruction of the elite. Indeed when Assyrian finally conquered Israel and took the people into captivity their lives were much better in captivity than it was in their own homeland under the oppression of the godless, selfish elite. To the oppressed the Assyrians were deliverers and not conquerors.

This wall that God is sitting upon is a chomah.  It is a wall of protection. The Septuagint uses the Greek word adamantin which is an indestructible wall.  In its Semitic origins the chomah is in a feminine form and is a reference to a husband’s mother or mother in law.  A rather forcible image, but it does portray a caring a loving form of protection.  So the picture is one of God sitting upon this wall of protection with love and caring.

Then we have Him measuring the wall with an ‘anak which Christian translators render as a plumb line. However, Jewish literature takes a different approach to ‘anak.  In the Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature compiled by Marcus Jastrow we find this concept ‘anak being a plumb line called into question. Jastrow takes into account the extra Biblical use of the word ‘anak and its use in other Semitic languages including the Aramaic as it is used in the Talmud, Mishnah and Midrash. He traces this word to its origins  where it is used for finishing or polishing. The main idea of this word is that to polish a vessel one must oppress that vessel, rub it hard to remove it all its impurities so it will shine again. Indeed ‘anak is used for shining or bringing out a shine or glow through a polishing procedure. Another use of the word ‘anak is to express someone who is being wronged or suffering grief as the result of oppression.

I once had a rabbi tell me that we Christians are just so one dimensional. We see ‘anak as a plumb line and that is it, God is measuring us up for destruction and his wrath and it means nothing else, don’t you dare even suggest anything else, that is what it means and so there.  We in the Western world apply our one dimensional, unemotional application and end up with a God who is carefully measuring us out and as soon as we go a bit offline God shouts out, “Ah ha, ok angels let’s go get ‘em.”

Yet, if we trace the very origins of ‘anak we discover that a plumb line may not be our best rendering.  In fact using the Jewish concept of this word we see God sitting on that solid impregnable wall a wall of oppression and his holding in his hand this oppression over His people.

The Babylonian Talmud in Baba Mezia has a much different take on this verse that our Christian commentators have.  The sages  would render Amos 7:7-8 as, “Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall [made] by oppression, with oppression in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, Oppression. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a oppression in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:” Their interpretation is this, His people are under oppression by the wealthy elite, they have been wronged by this oppression. But God is going to take this oppression and turn it to something good. He will polish his oppressed people and  make them shine while bringing the same oppression upon the elite.

That last phrase is curious, I will set oppression in the midst of my people, I will not again pass by them any more:  Seems the Lord sort of fudged on that one as he did pass by his people again and again.  That word for midst is yasaph which has the idea adding to something. God is saying that he will add the oppression of the people to the oppressors.  That word pass by is ‘avor which means to pass over in the sense of overwhelming. It is sort of like highlighting a paragraph on your computer.  You are passing your arrow over the paragraph, but as it passes it leaves behind a highlighting. In a sense you are overwhelming that paragraph.  The Lord is saying that he will no longer overwhelm his people in other words he will no longer overwhelm his people with His protective hand, he will remove His overwhelming presence so the enemy can enter and do their worst. God in His righteousness and holiness cannot continue to protect those who are oppressing others, He is a God of justice as well and the oppressed people need justice.  I take issue with the syntax of that word  anymore. It is the word ‘od which means further.  I believe God is saying that I can no longer offer anymore protection or I cannot offer further protection.

The picture is not one of a vengeful God oppressing his people for their sins, but one of vindicating his people, protecting them and administering justice to the ones doing the oppression.  I know, lately it seems I really have been throwing rocks at our English translation which depicts an angry, wrathful, vengeance seeking God ready to enslave his people for their sins. Maybe the reason is that I have been spending more time in Jewish literature, the people who are masters and guardians of the Hebrew language and I am finding that they have a much more benevolent view of God as a loving, caring parent, ready to forgive and longing for a restored relationship with the people he fashioned out of a heart of love.  Forgive me if I step on the toes of you who believe in an angry vengeful God.  I have just spent too much time studying Jewish literature to see anything but a loving benevolent God who is ready to forgive us and receive us into his arms and give us a devekut (a hug).