I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down — the oracle uses the language of architectural measurement and demolition: measuring line and plumb line refer to destruction surveys. The reference to 'Samaria' and 'the house of Ahab' invokes Israel's destroyed capital and its most wicked northern dynasty. The climactic image—'I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down' (וָאֶמְחֶה אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלַם, *va-emcheh et Yerushalayim*)—represents complete destruction and subjugation. Jerusalem, the city of David, faces annihilation comparable to Samaria's fall.

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