Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
2. The virgin of Israel is fallen, | she shall no more rise; She is
This is the ‘nh,’ 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, Amo 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 ‘nh’ is announced, as Jer 9:10 b11:
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 “nh,” or dirge, see 2Sa 1:17 ff; 2Sa 3:33-34, Eze 19:1-14; Eze 26:17-18; Eze 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 nh, nhh: see on Amo 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. Isa 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. See, for example, with virgin, Jer 18:13; Jer 31:4; Jer 31:21; with virgin daughter, Isa 37:22 (“the virgin daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head after thee”), Isa 47:1, Jer 14:17; Jer 46:11; with daughter (alone) Isa 1:8; Isa 10:30; Isa 10:32; Isa 22:4; Isa 47:5, Jer 6:26; Jer 9:1, Mic 4:10; Mic 4:13, Zep 3:14, Zec 9:9 (“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem”); and with the feminine indicated (in the Hebrew) by the termination, Isa 12:6 (see R.V. marg.), Isa 49:17 f., Isa 51:17-20, Jer 10:17 (see R.V. marg.), Jer 22:23 (see ib.).
is fallen ] The tense is the prophetic past, describing the future as the prophet in imagination sees it, already accomplished. Cf. Amo 8:14.
is forsaken ] Rather, is cast down (R.V.), or lieth forsaken (R.V. marg.), i.e. is abandoned, left to die where she had fallen: cf. Eze 29:5 (R.V. “leave thee (thrown) into the wilderness”), Eze 32:4 (“And I will leave thee forsaken upon the land, I will throw thee forth upon the face of the field”). Such an announcement as this, made in the height of the prosperity secured by Jeroboam II, would naturally be a startling one to those who heard it.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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; they, when pure, are most lovely; they, when corrupted, are most debased.
Hence , God says on the one hand, I remember thee, the love of thine espousals Jer 2:2; on the other, Hear, thou harlot, the word of the Lord Eze 16:35. When He claims her faithfulness He calls her, betrothed. Again , when He willeth to signify that a city or nation has been as tenderly loved and anxiously guarded, whether by Himsclf or by others, He calleth it virgin, or when lie would indicate its beauty and lovely array. Isaiah saith, come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon Isa 47:1, that is, thou who livedest before in all delicacies, like a virgin under the shelter of her home. For it follows, for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. More pitiable, for their tenderness and delicacy, is the distress of women. And so he pictures her as already fallen, dashed (the word imitates the sound) to the earth upon her own ground. An army may be lost, and the nation recover. She was dashed down upon her own ground. In the abode of her strength, in the midst of her resources, in her innermost retreat, she should fall. In herself, she fell powerless. And he adds, she has no one to raise her up; none to have ruth upon her; image of the judgment on a lost soul, when the terrible sentence is spoken and none can intercede! She shall not rise again. As she fell, she did not again rise. The prophet beholds beyond the eighty-five years which separated the prosperity under Jeroboam II from her captivity. As a people, he says, she should be restored no more; nor was she.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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, Isa 47:1, or to Egypt, Jer 46:11, to Zidon, Isa 23:12.
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. virgin of IsraeltheIsraelite state heretofore unsubdued by foreigners. Compare Isa 23:12;Jer 18:13; Jer 31:4;Jer 31:21; Lam 2:13;may be interpreted, Thou who wast once the “virgin daughter ofZion.” Rather, “virgin” as applied to a state impliesits beauty, and the delights on which it prides itself, its luxuries,power, and wealth [CALVIN].
no more risein theexisting order of things: in the Messianic dispensation it is to riseagain, according to many prophecies. Compare 2Ki 6:23;2Ki 24:7, for the restrictedsense of “no more.”
forsaken upon her landor,”prostrated upon,” c. (compare Eze 29:5Eze 32:4) [MAURER].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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 refers, The Targum is,
“shall not rise again this year;”
very impertinently; better Kimchi and Ben Melech, for a long time; since as they think, and many others, that the ten tribes shall return again, as may seem when all Israel shall be converted and saved, and repossess their own land; see Ho 1:10. Abendana produces a passage out of Zohar, in which these words are interpreted, that the virgin of Israel should not rise again of herself, she not having power to prevail over her enemies; but God will raise her up out of the dust, when he shall raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, who shall reign in future time over all the tribes together, as it is said in Am 9:11;
she is forsaken upon her land; by her people, her princes, and her God; or prostrate on the ground, as the Targum; she was cast upon the ground, and dashed to pieces by the enemy as an earthen vessel, and there left, her ruin being irrecoverable; so whatever is cast and scattered, or dashed to pieces on the ground, and left, is expressed by the word here used, as Jarchi observes:
[there is] none to raise her up: her princes and people are either slain by the sword, famine, and pestilence, or carried captive, and so can yield her no assistance; her idols whom she worshipped cannot, and her God she forsook will not.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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, relying on their strength, indulged themselves. They were quiet in their own retreats, and when all kinds of blessings abounded, they lived daintily and sumptuously. As then they were indulging themselves in such pleasures he calls them a virgin. The virgin of Israel then has fallen, and shall no more rise again.
A condition may be here included, as an exhortation to repentance immediately follows: we may then fitly regard this as being understood, “except they timely repent:” otherwise the Israelites must have fallen without hope of restoration. But we may also refer this to the body of the people: fallen then had the virgin of Israel, not so however that they were all destroyed, as we shall hereafter see; for the Prophet says that the tenth part would remain: but this is rightly said of the people generally; for we know that the kingdom had so fallen, that it never afterwards did rise. A remnant of the tribe of Judah did indeed return to Jerusalem; but the Israelites are at this day dispersed though various parts of the world; yea, they are hid either in the mountains of Armenia, or in other regions of the East. Since then what the Prophet here denounces has been really fulfilled as to the whole kingdom, we may take the place without supposing any thing understood, “Fallen has the virgin of Israel.” For as God showed mercy when the people as a body were destroyed, that some remained, is what does not militate with the prophecy, that the whole body had fallen. Fallen then has the virgin of Israel, nor will she any more rise again; that is, the kingdom shall not by way of recovery be restored; and this, we know, has never taken place.
Forsaken is she, he says, on her own land, and there is none to raise her up; which means, that she will continue fallen: though she may remain in her own place, she will not yet recover what she had lost. We now understand the Prophet’s meaning; and, at the same time, we see that that people had so fallen, as never to rise again, as it has been stated, into a kingdom. Let us now proceed —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Amo 5:2. Forsaken, &c. Cast down, or laid prostrate, &c. The kingdom of Israel, or of the ten tribes, after being carried into captivity, was never more re-established: it never formed a distinct kingdom from that of Judah.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Amo 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, Jer 3:1 Hos 1:2 , yet she will needs be counted and called a virgin still; as Sardis, she hath a name to live, but is dead, Rev 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, Jer 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, Isa 47:1 ; of Egypt, Jer 46:12 ; of Zidon, Isa 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
She shall no more rise
She is forsaken upon her land
There is none to raise her up
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
virgin. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, for the house of Israel, a young girl who is beloved, as in Hosea. Compare Isa 37:22; Isa 47:1. Jer 14:17; Jer 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]”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
virgin: Isa 37:22, Jer 14:17, Jer 18:13, Jer 31:4, Lam 2:13
is fallen: 2Ki 15:29, 2Ki 17:16, Isa 3:8, Hos 14:1
she shall: Isa 14:21, Isa 24:20, Isa 43:17, Jer 51:64
she is: Jer 4:20
none: Amo 7:2-5, Amo 9:11, Isa 51:17, Isa 51:18, Jer 2:27, Jer 30:12-14, Lam 1:16-19, Eze 16:36, Eze 16:37, Hos 6:2
Reciprocal: 2Ki 19:21 – The virgin 2Ki 21:14 – And I will Pro 24:16 – but Isa 9:14 – will cut Jer 8:4 – Shall they Hos 5:5 – fall in
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Amo 5:2. The word virgin Is often applied to Gods people because the first definition of the original is, “to separate.” Israel had been separated from the other nations of the world to be the Lord’s own special people (Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2), hence the term virgin is an appropriate one. Shall >io more rise denotes that Israel had sunk so low as a nation that it would not be able to rise above the fate of the siege and captivity threatened.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
5:2 The {a} virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up.
(a) He so calls them, because they so boasted of themselves, or because they were given to lustfulness and daintiness.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Amos announced that the virgin Israel, in the prime of her beauty and vigor, had fallen fatally. "Fallen" in funeral songs usually means "fallen in battle" (cf. 2Sa 1:19; 2Sa 1:25; 2Sa 1:27; 2Sa 3:34; Lam 2:21). She would never rise to her former position again. No one came to her aid, even Yahweh (cf. Jdg 6:13; 2Ki 21:14; Isa 2:6). She lay forsaken in her land.