Amos 5:2

The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. THE VIRGIN OF ISRAEL IS FALLEN - the Israelite state, heretofore unsubdued by foreigners. Compare ; ; ; ; ("What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion?") may be interpreted, Thou who wast once the "virgin daughter of Zion." Rather, "virgin," as applied to a state, implies its beauty, and the delights on which it prides itself, its luxuries, power, and wealth (Calvin). She shall no more rise...

This was substantially the vengeance which was now nigh the Israelites, though they rested securely, and even scorned all the threatening of God. _The virgin of Israel, _he says, _has fallen _Expounders have too refinedly explained the word virgin; for they think that the people of Israel are here called a virgin, because God had espoused them to himself, and that though they ought to have observed spiritual chastity towards God, they yet abandoned themselves to all kinds of pollutions: but a virgin, we know, is a title given for the most part by the Prophets to this or that people on account of their delicacies; for Babylon, no less than Samaria or the people of Israel, is called a virgin. Certainly this refined interpretation cannot be applied to Babylon, to Egypt, to Tyre, and to other places. I have therefore no doubt but the Prophet here arraigns the Israelites, because they, relyin...

1-6 The convincing, awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; for whether we hear or forbear, the word of God shall take effect. The Lord still proclaims mercy to men, but they often expect deliverance from such self-invented forms as make their condemnation sure. While they refuse to come to Christ and to seek mercy in and by him, that they may live, the fire of Divine wrath breaks forth upon them. Men may make an idol of the world, but will find it cannot protect....

Verse Amos 5:2. _THE VIRGIN OF ISRAEL_] The kingdom of Israel, or the _ten_ tribes, which were carried into captivity; and are now totally lost in the nations of the earth....

SHE HATH FALLEN, SHE SHALL RISE NO MORE, THE VIRGIN OF ISRAEL; SHE HATH BEEN DASHED DOWN UPON HER LAND, THERE IS NONE TO RAISE HER UP - Such is the dirge, a dirge like that of David over Saul and Jonathan, over what once was lovely and mighty, but which had perished. He speaks of all as past, and that, irremediably. Israel is one of the things which had been, and which would never again be. He calls her tenderly, “the virgin of Israel,” not as having retained her purity or her fealty to God; still less, with human boastfulness, as though she had as yet been unsubdued by man. For she had been faithless to God, and had been many times conquered by man. Nor does it even seem that God so calls her, because He once espoused her to Himself For isaiah so calls Babylon. But Scripture seems to speak of cities, as women, because in women tenderness is most seen; they are most tenderly guarded; the...

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-CH. 6:14 § 8. _Third address_:_ the prophet utters a lamentation over the fall of Israel_. (Amos 6:1.) He calls her to repentance, while he shows wherein she has declined from the right way. To make this plain, he contrasts God's power and majesty with the people's iniquity, instances of which he gives (Amos 6:4). The only condition of safety is amendment (Amo 6:13 -15); and as they refuse to reform, they shall have cause to lament (verses 16, 17). This threat is enforced by the two emphatic "woes" that follow, the first of which demonstrates the baselessness of their trust in their covenant relation to God (verses 18-27); the second denounces the careless lives of the chiefs, who, revelling in luxury, believed not in the coming judgment ...

THE VIRGIN OF ISRAEL IS FALLEN,.... The kingdom of Israel, so called, because it had never been subdued, or become subject to a foreign power, since it was a kingdom; or because, considered in its ecclesiastic state, it had been espoused to the Lord as a chaste virgin; and perhaps this may be ironically spoken, and refers to its present adulterate and degenerated state worshipping the calves at Dan and Bethel; or else because of its wealth and riches and the splendour and gaiety in which it appeared; but now, as it had fallen into sin and iniquity, it should quickly fall by it, and on account of it, into ruin and misery; and because of the certainty of it it is represented as if it was already fallen: SHE SHALL NO MORE RISE; and become a kingdom again, as it never has as yet, since the ten tribes were carried away captive by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, to which calamity this prophecy r...

CHAPTER 5 The Third Discourse _ 1. The lamentation (Amos 5:1) _ 2. Seek the Lord and ye shall live (Amos 5:4) 3. The wailing (Amos 5:16) 4. The captivity announced (Amos 5:21) Amos 5:1. This chapter begins with a lamentation over the fallen daughter of Israel. “She shall no more rise” has been used as an argument against the future and literal restoration of Israel. The prophet has only the present government of God over that generation in view and does not deny at all a future rising as so abundantly predicted in the prophetic Word. “The

THE IMPENDING PUNISHMENT. The prophet gives his next few words the form of a dirge (_kî nah_,_ Amos 5:1_). This (Amos 5:2) is characterised by the peculiar _kî nah-metre_, consisting of three beats or stresses followed by two. In the prophetic vision Israel appears as already overthrown irretrievably. She lies forsaken on the ground, and nothing can raise her. How she has come to this pass is explained in the following verse (Amos 5:3). Her army is almost annihilated in war. This must inevitably happen if Israel will not take warning, but there is still time to seek Yahweh and live (Amos 5:4). Let the corrupt worship at Bethel and Beersheba be forsaken ...

VIRGIN. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for the house of Israel,. young girl who is beloved, as in Hosea. Compare Isaiah 37:22; Isaiah 47:1.Jeremiah 14:17; Jeremiah 46:11, &c. SHE. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Syriac and Vulgate, read "and shall not": i.e. cannot rise again. LAND. soil. Hebrew. _'adamah._ THERE. Some codices read "and [there]"....