Amos 5:2

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Amos 5:1-3

This chapter begins, as those two next foregoing began, with, Hear this word. Where God has a mouth to speak we must have an ear to hear; it is our duty, it is our interest, yet so stupid are most men that they need to be again and again called upon to hear the word of the Lord, to give audience, to give attention. Hear this word. this convincing awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; the word that is taken up against us, as well as that which makes for... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 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 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... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 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. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Amos 5:2

Verse 2 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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:1-3

Israel's elegy. It is poor work singing the things that might have been. It means sweet dreams dispelled, fair hopes blighted, and human lives in ruins. Yet such is the prophet's task in this passage—writing Israel's elegy among the graves of her dead millions. He had been denouncing nameless woes against the rebellious people, Here he changes his tone to that of a mournful spectator of accomplished ills. In imagination he throws himself forward out of the sinful present into the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Amos 5:2

The virgin of Israel; i.e. the virgin Israel; so called, not as having been pure and faithful to God, but as tenderly treated and guarded from enemies (comp. Isaiah 23:12 ; Isaiah 47:1 ; Jeremiah 14:17 ). Is fallen ; she shall no more rise. This is apparently a contradiction to the promise of restoration elsewhere expressed, but is to be explained either as referring exclusively to the ten tribes, very few of whom returned from exile, and to the kingdom of Israel which was never... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Amos 5:2

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;... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Amos 5:1-3

Amos 5:1-3. Hear ye, &c. It is justly observed by Grotius, that this verse would be translated more according to the Hebrew thus; Hear ye this word, even a lamentation, which I take up over you It alludes to the lamentations made at funerals: so here the prophet bemoans the state of the kingdom of Israel as dead. The virgin of Israel Such she was when first espoused to God, a chaste virgin to a husband: she was then peculiarly beloved and delighted in, and was under the peculiar... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Amos 5:1-15

God requires repentance (5:1-15)The prophet again recalls past warnings that the people had consistently ignored. He sees vividly that the result of the people’s stubbornness will be the destruction of Israel. Samaria will be conquered and most of Israel’s army wiped out (5:1-3).What God wants is not an increase in religious ceremonies but a turning in heart and life to him. He does not want processions to religious holy places (which, in any case, will be destroyed) but the administration of... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Amos 5:2

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 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]". read more

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