The scriptural symbols of the plummet and the line are closely related to the symbolism of the cross. The plummet is a weight attached to a line used by builders to measure vertical lines. The line is a tool to measure whether a surface is horizontal. Each tool projects the ideal, against which the actual progress can be measured.
In the scriptures, the line is justice,1 or the measure of how closely you match your understanding of the ideal, and the plummet is righteousness, or how much you know about God while continuing to live like him.
For the Lord to stretch the line and the plummet2 over a person, group, or nation is for him to hold them accountable to what they ought to think about him given their opportunities to learn about and obey him.
Footnotes
- 1. Justice and judgment are words used interchangeably by scripture translators, even though they have significantly different meanings in English. ↩
- 2. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. (2 Kings 21:13) Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. (Isaiah 28:17) For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:10) ↩