Pensamento Judaico sobre Amós 7:8

You must further know that the prophets see things shown to them allegorically, such as the candlesticks, horses, and mountains of Zechariah (Zech. 4:2; 6:1-7), the scroll of Ezekiel (Ezek. 2:9), the wall made by a plumb-line (Amos 7:7), which Amos saw, the animals of Daniel (Dan. vii. and viii.), the seething pot of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:13), and similar allegorical objects shown to represent certain ideas. The prophets, however, are also shown things which do not illustrate the object of the vision, but indicate it by their name through its etymology or homonymity. Thus the imaginative faculty forms the image of a thing, the name of which has two meanings, one of which denotes something different [from the image]. This is likewise a kind of allegory. Comp. Makkal shaked, “almond staff,” of Jeremiah (i. 11-12). It was intended to indicate by the second meaning of shaked the prophecy, “For I will watch” (shoked), etc., which has no relation whatever to the staff or to almonds. The same is the case with the kelub. kayiẓ, “a basket of summer fruit,” seen by Amos, by which the completion of a certain period was indicated, “the end (ha-ḳeẓ) having come” (Amos 8:2).