Plumb line

The plumb line was a weight suspended on the end of a string, used by builders to determine, for example, if all the stones in a wall were vertically straight.

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In many cultures the only tool similar to the plumb line is the water-level, and the Pidgin English word “wataplan” has often become part of the vocabulary. This measures the horizontal plane rather than the vertical one, but might serve the purpose. Where there is no word for plumb line or where an existing word would not be understood by most readers, it may be necessary to use a descriptive phrase, as does CEV at AMO 7:7 by saying “a weight tied to the end of it. The string and weight had been used to measure the straightness of the wall.” In addition, some kind of illustration to show the shape and use of the tool might be helpful. In AMO 7:8CEV translates “plumb line” as “measuring line.” “Measuring line” is also used by CEV at ISA 28:17 (see Measuring rod, measuring line).

In 2KI 21:13 the Hebrew text is literally “And I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab.” Here both “the measuring line” and “the plumb line” are used symbolically, so translators may convey the meaning without actually referring to them. GNT may serve as a model: “I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants.” Compare CEV: “Jerusalem is as sinful as Ahab and the people of Samaria were.”

AMO 7:7: The LORD is seen as standing on or by a wall, which in Hebrew is called “a wall of a plumb line.” The translation “plumb line” is not fully certain but no other suggestion is as good. GNT tries to make sense out of the phrase “a wall of a plumb line” by saying “a wall that had been built with the use of a plumb line” (similarly RSV, The Translator’s Old Testament [TOT]). On the other hand, it may be better to follow most modern English translations (AT, Mft, NAB, NEB) as well as many commentators who have something like “standing by a wall with a plumb line in his hand” for the last half of this verse. They consider “of a plumb line” to be the result of a copying mistake. A possible model for the whole verse is “The LORD caused me to see again in a vision. I saw him on the top of a wall stretching out a cord to see whether the wall was straight.”