2 Kings 13:4-7

13:4 Jehoahaz asked for the Lord’s mercy ¹  and the Lord responded favorably, ²  for he saw that Israel was oppressed by the king of Syria. ³  13:5 The Lord provided a deliverer ⁴  for Israel and they were freed from Syria’s power. ⁵  The Israelites once more lived in security. ⁶  13:6 But they did not repudiate ⁷  the sinful ways of the family ⁸  of Jeroboam, who encouraged Israel to sin; they continued in those sins. ⁹  There was even an Asherah pole ¹⁰  standing in Samaria. 13:7 Jehoahaz had no army left ¹¹  except for fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 foot soldiers. The king of Syria had destroyed his troops ¹²  and trampled on them like dust. ¹³ 

2 Kings 13:23

13:23 But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them. ¹⁴  He extended his favor to them ¹⁵  because of the promise he had made ¹⁶  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day. ¹⁷ 

Amos 7:6-8

7:6 The Lord decided not to do this. ¹⁸  The sovereign Lord said, “This will not happen either.”

7:7 He showed me this: I saw ¹⁹  the sovereign One ²⁰  standing by a tin ²¹  wall holding tin in his hand. 7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,

“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.

I will no longer overlook their sin. ²² 

[13:4]  ¹ tn Heb “appeased the face of the Lord.”

[13:4]  ² tn Heb “and the Lord heard.”

[13:4]  ³ tn Heb “for he saw the oppression of Israel, for the king of Syria oppressed them.”

[13:5]  ⁴ sn The identity of this unnamed “deliverer” is debated. For options see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 143.

[13:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and they went from under the hand of Syria.”

[13:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel lived in their tents as before.”

[13:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “they did not turn away from.”

[13:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “house.”

[13:6]  ⁹ tc Heb “in it he walked.” The singular verb (הָלַךְ, halakh) is probably due to an error of haplography and should be emended to the plural (הָלְכּוּ, halÿku). Note that a vav immediately follows (on the form וְגַם, vÿgam).

[13:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “an image of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “the Asherah”; NCV “the Asherah idol.”

[13:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Indeed he did not leave to Jehoahaz people.” The identity of the subject is uncertain, but the king of Syria, mentioned later in the verse, is a likely candidate.

[13:7]  ¹² tn Heb “them,” i.e., the remainder of this troops.

[13:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and made them like dust for trampling.”

[13:23]  ¹⁴ tn Or “showed them compassion.”

[13:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he turned to them.”

[13:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “because of his covenant with.”

[13:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “until now.”

[7:6]  ¹⁸ tn Or “changed his mind about this.”

[7:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “behold” or “look.”

[7:7]  ²⁰ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here and in the following verse is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[7:7]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew word אֲנָךְ (’anakh, “tin”) occurs only in this passage (twice in this verse and twice in the following verse). (Its proposed meaning is based on an Akkadian cognate annaku.) The tin wall of the vision, if it symbolizes Israel, may suggest weakness and vulnerability to judgment. See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 233-35. The symbolic significance of God holding tin in his hand and then placing tin among the people is unclear. Possibly the term אֲנָךְ in v. 8b is a homonym meaning “grief” (this term is attested in postbiblical Hebrew). In this case there is a wordplay, the אֲנָךְ (“tin”) of the vision suggesting the אֲנָךְ (“grief”) that judgment will bring upon the land. See F. I. Andersen and D. N. Freedman, Amos (AB), 759. Another option is to maintain the meaning “tin” and understand that the Lord has ripped off a piece of the tin wall and placed it in front of all to see. Their citadels, of which the nation was so proud and confident, are nothing more than tin fortresses. The traditional interpretation of these verses (reflected in many English versions) understands the term אֲנָךְ to mean “lead,” and by extension, “plumb line.” In this case, one may translate: “I saw the sovereign one standing by a wall built true to plumb holding a plumb line in his hand. The Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ I said, ‘A plumb line.’ The sovereign one then said, ‘Look, I am about to place a plumb line among my people…’” According to this view, the plumb line symbolizes God’s moral standards by which he will measure Israel to see if they are a straight or crooked wall.

[7:8]  ²² tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”