Passage

Amos 7.7-9

Book: Amos · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. Then said I, O Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee: how shall Jacob stand? for he is small. 6. Jehovah repented concerning this: this also shall not be, saith the Lord Jehovah.

7. Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. 8. And Jehovah 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; 9. and the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. 11. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land. (Amos 7:5-11, ASV)

WEB

5. Then I said, “Lord Yahweh, stop, I beg you! How could Jacob stand? For he is small.” 6. Yahweh relented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” says the Lord Yahweh.

7. Thus he showed me and behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8. Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the middle of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. 9. The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11. For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’” (Amos 7:5-11, WEB)

KJV

5. Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. ^{by: or, who of (or, for,) Jacob shall stand?} 6. The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD.

7. Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. 8. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: 9. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. 11. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land. (Amos 7:5-11, KJV)

YLT

5. 'Lord Jehovah, cease, I pray Thee, How doth Jacob arise, for he [is] small?' 6. Jehovah hath repented of this, 'It also shall not be,' said the Lord Jehovah.

7. Thus hath He shewed me, and lo, the Lord is standing by a wall [made according to] a plumb-line, and in His hand a plumb-line; 8. and Jehovah saith unto me, 'What art thou seeing, Amos?' And I say, 'A plumb-line;' and the Lord saith: 'Lo, I am setting a plumb-line in the midst of My people Israel, I do not add any more to pass over to it. 9. And desolated have been high places of Isaac, And sanctuaries of Israel are wasted, And I have risen against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.'

And Amaziah priest of Beth-El sendeth unto Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, 'Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words, 11. for thus said Amos: By sword die doth Jeroboam, And Israel certainly removeth from off its land.' (Amos 7:5-11, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Amos, reporting in the first person the third of his five visions; the LORD speaks within the vision.
Audience: The northern kingdom of Israel, addressed at the height of its prosperity under Jeroboam II.
Location: Delivered in the northern kingdom, principally at Bethel, the royal sanctuary and state temple (Amos 7:13).
Time period: c. 760-750 BC, in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Amos is generally reckoned the earliest of the writing prophets.

Theological reading

The plumb line. "Behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand." The Hebrew word (anak) occurs only in these verses, four times in 7:7-8, and its exact meaning is debated; "plumb line," the traditional rendering, pictures a builder testing whether a wall is true. The LORD will "set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel": Israel is being measured, and it fails.

No more passing by. The first two visions, locusts and fire, were withdrawn when Amos interceded (7:1-6). This time the LORD asks, "Amos, what seest thou?" and gives the verdict before any plea: "I will not again pass by them any more" (7:8). The same sentence is repeated after the fourth vision (8:2).

Religion and dynasty together. The judgment names both: "the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword" (7:9). The shrines and the royal house that sponsored them fall together. The dynasty ended when Jeroboam's son Zechariah was killed by Shallum after six months on the throne (2 Kings 15:8-10).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H0136 - adonai, adonai, Strong's H0136
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Passages:

Amos 7.6

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.