Amos 8:13

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst - namely, thirst for hearing the words of the Lord, being destitute of all other comfort.

It is probable these in their strength and rigour would seek earnestly to know what end they might expect, whether they should outlive this famine of the word, and the famine of bread and water, but both should faint with thirst and hunger; neither finding the word of the Lord for their comfort, they should faint with despair, nor finding bread and water, should faint and die with weakness: so Israel should be extinguished.

Amos 8:13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.Ver. 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst] When God depriveth a People of his ordinances, and so withdraweth his gracious presence from them, what wonder though temporal judgments come rushing in as by a sluice? "Persecute and take him" (said David’ s enemies), "for God hath forsaken him, and there is none to deliver him," Psalms 71:11. "The Philistines are upon me," saith Saul, "for God hath forsaken me." "Behold, I am cast out from thy presence," said Cain (that is, from my father’ s house where thine ordinances are administered), "and therefore every one that findeth me shall slay me," Genesis 4:14. In that day of the want of the word, in the day of spiritual famine and thirst, behold, aliud ex alio malum, another thirst shall seize upon the choicest and fairest; as flies settle upon the sweetest perfumes, when they are cold, and corrupt them. Shall the fair virgins] Whom all men favour for their comeliness, οτικαλονφιλονεστι. Beauty is of itself lovely and attractive, it needeth no letters of commendations: but God is no respecter of persons, and beauty abused is like a fair house with an ill inhabitant, said Diogenes; like a jewel of gold in a swine’ s snout, said Solomon, Proverbs 11:22. Some are Helenas without, but Hecubas within, painted sepulchres, Egyptian temples; like Aurelia Orestilla, of whom Sallust saith, that she had nothing in her praise worthy but her beauty: fair she was and foolish, not καληκαισοφη, beautiful and wise, as it is reported of Aspasia, Cyrus’ s concubine (Athenaeus). Now these fair maids, together with the choice young men, best able to endure thirst a long season, Shall faint for thirst] Heb. shall be overcovered with grief, shall be troubled and perplexed, shall faint and swoon, shall find by experience that all flesh is grass, and the glory thereof as the flower of the field, that "even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint," Isaiah 40:30-31.

(13) Faint.—That fair virgins and strong brave youths should faint by reason of their raging thirst suggests that the less vigorous would suffer even more keenly. It is sad when old men stumble into the darkness of unbelief amid the shining of the noon-day sun, seeing that they can remember the brightness of their morning, but there is always hope that their child-like spirit may return to them, and that at the evening time it may be light; but if fair virgins and strong youths are covered with the inward veil, what will become of them in their westering days? and where will the elders be if they have had no youth?

13. In the day of agony and distress then coming upon Israel, the young men and fair maidens, the strength and pride of the population, will faint for thirsty, exhausted by the privations of a siege, or the sufferings involved in the sack of a city by the foe (cf. especially Lamentations 2:11-12; Lamentations 2:19; Isaiah 51:20).

In this hopelessness as to all relief, those too shall fail and sink under their sufferings, in whom life is freshest and strongest and hope most buoyant. Hope mitigates any sufferings.

11-14. Some effects of the judgment. In the agony and despair of the judgment people will hunger and thirst for the word of Jehovah, but they will not find it.