אֲנָךְ

From the study of Amos 7:7

Range of meaning

The word appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Its best match is Akkadian annaku, the ordinary word for tin. The word was itself borrowed from Sumerian AN.NA. Older lexicons (BDB) related it instead to an Arabic word for lead and so took it as 'lead weight, plummet.' Modern specialist lexicons (HALOT) and most technical commentaries accept that the word itself means tin. They still disagree about what the tin stands for in the vision.

Against the English

Almost all English versions say 'plumb line,' a builder's cord with a weight used to check that a wall is vertical. In 7:7 they add words like 'made by,' 'built with' or 'true to plumb' to make 'wall of ʾanak' read smoothly. A few modern versions (e.g. the NET Bible) and many technical commentaries render 'tin.'

How it drifted

Plumb lines were made with lead weights, so medieval Jewish interpreters, and later the KJV tradition, took 'lead' to mean the plumb bob and then the whole plumb line. Where Hebrew elsewhere describes a measuring line or plummet, it uses different words: qav 'line' and mishqelet 'plummet' (2 Kgs 21:13; Isa 28:17). B. Landsberger's study of the Akkadian metal words (1965) moved scholarship toward 'tin.'

Used elsewhere in the period

Akkadian annaku 'tin' is well attested in Old Assyrian trade texts and the Mari archives, where tin was an expensive import needed to make bronze. The ancient translators already struggled with the word. The Septuagint has adamas, 'adamant,' a legendary hardest metal or stone. The Vulgate has a 'plastered wall' and a 'mason's trowel.' The Aramaic Targum reportedly turns it into a symbol of judgment.

From the study of Amos 7:8

Range of meaning

The word occurs only in Amos 7:7–8, four times, so Hebrew usage elsewhere cannot fix its meaning. The clearest outside evidence is Akkadian annaku, 'tin', which is well attested in Mesopotamian texts. Since Landsberger's study (1965), most Semitic specialists accept that anakh comes from it and means 'tin'. The older sense 'lead', hence a lead weight on a cord, hence 'plumb line', comes from medieval Jewish interpreters and from BDB. It does not rest on any other ancient Hebrew text.

Against the English

Almost every English version has 'plumb line' (KJV, BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV, NASB, NLT). That is a guess, not established usage. The word-by-word data supplied with this verse gives 'tin' as the sense in context.

How it drifted

'Plumb line' entered the tradition through medieval Jewish commentators, who took anakh as lead, the metal of a plumb weight. It was fixed in English by the KJV. Later sermons built on it the picture of God measuring how straight his people are. The phrase 'a wall of anakh' (v. 7) was then read as 'a wall built true to plumb'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Akkadian annaku ('tin') is common in Old Assyrian trade texts and later sources. Tin was imported over long distances and was needed to make bronze, the metal of weapons and armour. The ancient translators did not know the word either. The Septuagint has adamas ('adamant', a very hard metal or stone), the Vulgate has trulla ('trowel'), and the Aramaic Targum seems to interpret it as 'judgment'. None of them knew a 'plumb line' sense.