Amos 5:2

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

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.

The virgin: this name is given to her not for her purity and integrity, for she was an adulteress, but either ironically, or because her present riches, glory, and beauty seemed to be that of a virgin that had her portion, strength, and honour untouched; or else by a figure as properly may it be applied to Israel, as to Babylon, , or to Egypt, , to Zidon, . Is fallen; or shall ere long fall, the thing put as done already because of the certainty of it. Or rather, is already falling by civil wars and conspiracies, which prepared way for the final ruin of Israel: it is possible this sermon of the prophet might be about the time that Shallum or Menahem usurped the throne. Or else it may refer to the times of Jehoahaz, when that of the third verse will appear to have been fulfilled; this seems most probable. She shall no more rise; though they might by repentance have risen again, yet the prophet, considering their obstinacy, speaks of it as a thing that should never be, as eventually it proved also, for Israel never recovered the fall by Shalmaneser. She is forsaken upon her land; broken to pieces upon her own land, and so left as a broken vessel; or she shall be by home divisions first broken, and afterwards carried captive. There is none to raise her up; none at home among all her princes, counsellors, and rulers, nor any friend among her allies; all leave her to sink.

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.Ver. 2. The virgin of Israel is fallen] i.e. Though of the spouse of God she be become the devil’ s adulteress, Jeremiah 3:1 Hosea 1:2, yet she will needs be counted and called a virgin still; as Sardis, she hath a name to live, but is dead, Revelation 3:1; as the Romish crew cry themselves up the only Church Catholic, and therein (like oyster wives) do much outcry us. But what saith the Lord by his prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 18:13? "Ask ve now among the heathen; who hath heard such things?" And "the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing." And the virgin of Rome may well say, as Quartilla the strumpet in Petronius doth, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse: I can hardly remember myself a maid. Israel may also be called a virgin, because she yet subsisted and flourished in her first liberty and splendour, till taken and defloured, as it were, by the Assyrian. And in this sense we read of the virgin of Babylon, Isaiah 47:1; of Egypt, Jeremiah 46:12; of Zidon, Isaiah 23:12; and now of Venice, whose motto is, Intacta maneo, I am still a maid; as having never yet fallen into the enemies’ power. Tournay, a town in France, was ever counted so invincible, that this sentence was engraven over one of the gates, Iannes ton me perdu ton pucellage, Thou hast never lost thy maidenhead. Yet was it yielded up to our King Henry VIII, with 10,000 pounds sterling, for the the citizens’ redemption. The virgin of Israel sped not so well. She is fallen] That is, she shall fall, surely, suddenly, utterly. She shall no more rise] i.e. Return out of captivity, and be restored to her pristine splendour; yet some think otherwise. She is forsaken upon her land] Proiecta est, prostrata iacet, she is thrown hard upon her ground, and as it were dashed against it, like an earthen pot against a rock; and all this, because she had left off righteousness in the earth, Amos 5:7. Those that forsake God shall be forsaken of him, 2 Chronicles 15:2. There is none to raise her up] God will not; and then, man cannot. "Behold," saith Bildad, "God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he take the ungodly by the hand," Job 8:20, and he will bring them into trouble, and there leave them, Ezekiel 22:20; Ezekiel 29:5. His own he will not leave; or if he do, yet forsake them he will not, Hebrews 13:5; and if men do, he will relieve them the rather. "Because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after; therefore I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord," Jeremiah 30:17.

(2) Forsaken.—Or rather dashed to the earth. “Virgin” is a feminine designation of Israel poetically expressive of grace and beauty. Comp. the epithet “daughter of Zion,” nations and cities being represented by a feminine personification. She is not annihilated, but obliterated as a nation.

Verse 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.

2. The virgin of Israel is fallen, | she shall no more rise;She is cast down upon her land, | there is none to raise her up. This is the ‘ḳ ?ξnβh,’ written in a peculiar rhythm, which has been shewn (by Prof. K. Budde, now of Strassburg) to be that regularly used for Hebrew elegy. As a rule, in Hebrew poetry, the second of two parallel members balances the first, being approximately similar in length and structure, and presenting a thought either synonymous with it, or antithetic to it; but in the Hebrew elegy, the second member is shorter than the first, and instead of balancing and re-enforcing it, echoes it imperfectly, producing a plaintive, melancholy cadence. This rhythmical form prevails throughout most of the Book of ‘Lamentations,’ for instance, Amos 1:1 :— How doth the city sit solitary, | she that was full of people! She is become as a widow, | she that was great among the nations; The princess among the provinces, | she is become tributary. It is also observable elsewhere, where a ‘ḳ ?ξnβh’ is announced, as Jeremiah 9:10 b–11:— From the fowl of heaven even unto cattle, | they are fled, they are gone: And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps, | an habitation of jackals; And the cities of Judah will I make a desolation, | without inhabitant. In the verses here quoted, each line, it will be observed, consists of two unequal parts, the second halting after the first, and being (in the Hebrew) appreciably shorter. For other examples of the “ḳ ?ξnβh,” or dirge, see 2 Samuel 1:17 ff; 2 Samuel 3:33-34, Ezekiel 19:1-14; Ezekiel 26:17-18; Ezekiel 32:2-16[156]. (In A.V., R.V., the subst. and corresponding verbs are rendered lamentation, lament; but these are suited better to express nĕ ?hξ, nβhβh: see on Amos 5:16.) [156] See further the writer’s Introduction, p. 429 f.the virgin of Israel] The nation is personified, being pictured as a maiden, no longer erect and blithefully going her way, but wounded and prostrate on the ground, unable to rise by her own efforts (having none to assist her (cf. Isaiah 1:17 f. of Jerusalem). This is the earliest extant example of the personification of a nation, or community, as a woman,—a maiden or a mother, as the case may be: but it becomes common afterwards in Hebrew poetry, the figure being adopted especially with effect when it is desired to represent some keen or strong emotion, and being employed sometimes with great dramatic force.

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

1-3. A dirge. Hear ye this word — Compare Amos 3:1; Amos 4:1. Lamentation — Hebrews kinah. A technical term for a dirge in memory of a departed friend.