Amos 7:8

what seest thou? The question is addressed to Amos for the purpose of attaching the explanation of the symbol to the answer, which he is naturally expected to give correctly (exactly Song of Solomon 8:2; Jeremiah 1:11; Jeremiah 1:13; Jeremiah 24:3).

I am setting a plummet, &c. The plummet being a test of what is perpendicular, it is a standard by which either to build up, or to pull down: Jehovah is already, He says, setting(the verb in the Hebrew is a participle) a plummet in thevery midst of His people(i.e. applying to it a crucial moral test); and whatever does not conform to its standard will be destroyed: the condition of the nation is such that He will not again pass overits offences, as He has done before. For the figure, comp. Isaiah 28:17, "And I will make judgement the measuring-line, and righteousness the weight (plummet); and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies," &c.; Isaiah 34:11, "He shall stretch out upon it [Edom] the measuring-line of wasteness, and the stones (plummet) of emptiness"; 2 Kings 21:13, "And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring-line of Samaria, and the weight (plummet) of the house of Ahab," i.e. they will be devoted to destruction.

pass by them pardon it (the people): lit. pass over(viz. its transgressions, see Micah 7:18; Proverbs 19:11) for it:Song of Solomon 8:2. This time no opportunity is given to Amos to intercede: before he can say anything, the final doom, I will not again any more pardon it, is pronounced irrevocably.