A MEASURING LINE — the surveyor's cord, stretched to lay out a building. Its direction is the whole point: a qav can be stretched to mark a city for DEMOLITION (2 Kings 21:13, 'the measuring line of Samaria'; Lamentations 2:8, God 'stretching the line' to tear Zion down; Isaiah 34:11, 'the line of chaos'), or, as in Zechariah 1:16, for RE-CONSTRUCTION: 'a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,' the cord of rebuilding. The very next vision is 'a man with a measuring line in his hand' going out to measure Jerusalem for its restoration. → first discussed at Zechariah 1:16