Amos 7:7

"Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood beside a wall made by a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand."

The proper understanding of this vision must include the recognition that the plumb-line was a symbol both of building and of destruction, the plumb-line symbolizing the testing required for the construction of a sound building, and for revealing those defects that required the destruction of a building. The figure elaborated in this vision, "represents the Lord himself as coming to examine the conduct of Israel, and finally deciding upon its entire ruin."[16] In this vision, "Amos makes no prayer, and Yahweh, on his part, confirms the meaning with an interpretative oracle."[17] It is significant that the same plumb-line used to build Israel was that which was used in their destruction. "By that law, that right, those Providential leadings, and that grace which we have received, by the same we are judged."[18]