Amos 5

Amos 5:1-27 . ELEGY OVER THE PROSTRATE KINGDOM: RENEWED EXHORTATIONS TO REPENTANCE: GOD DECLARES THAT THE COMING DAY OF JUDGMENT SHALL BE TERRIBLE TO THE SCORNERS WHO DESPISE IT: CEREMONIAL SERVICES ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO HIM WHERE TRUE PIETY EXISTS NOT: ISRAEL SHALL THEREFORE BE REMOVED FAR EASTWARD.

1. lamentation--an elegy for the destruction coming on you. Compare Ezekiel 32:2 , "take up," namely, as a mournful burden ( Ezekiel 19:1 , 27:2 ).

2. virgin of Israel--the Israelite state heretofore unsubdued by foreigners. Compare Isaiah 23:12 , Jeremiah 18:13 , Jeremiah 31:4 Jeremiah 31:21 , Lamentations 2:13 ; 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].
no more rise--in the existing order of things: in the Messianic dispensation it is to rise again, according to many prophecies. Compare 2 Kings 6:23 , 24:7 , for the restricted sense of "no more."
forsaken upon her land--or, "prostrated upon," &c. (compare Ezekiel 29:5 , 32:4 ) [MAURER].

3. went out by a thousand--that is, "the city from which there used to go out a thousand" equipped for war. "City" is put for "the inhabitants of the city," as in Amos 4:8 .
shall leave . . . hundred--shall have only a hundred left, the rest being destroyed by sword and pestilence ( Deuteronomy 28:62 ).

4. Seek ye me, and ye shall live--literally, "Seek . . . Me, and live." The second imperative expresses the certainty of "life" (escape from judgment) resulting from obedience to the precept in the first imperative. If they perish, it is their own fault; God would forgive, if they would repent ( Isaiah 55:3 Isaiah 55:6 ).

5. seek not Beth-el--that is, the calves at Beth-el.
Beer-sheba--in Judah on the southern frontier towards Edom. Once "the well of the oath" by Jehovah, ratifying Abraham's covenant with Abimelech, and the scene of his calling on "the Lord, the everlasting God" ( Genesis 21:31 Genesis 21:33 ), now a stronghold of idolatry ( Amos 8:14 ).
Gilgal shall surely go into captivity--a play on similar sounds in the Hebrew, Gilgal, galoh, yigleh: "Gilgal (the place of rolling) shall rolling be rolled away."
Beth-el shall come to naught--Beth-el (that is, the "house of God"), called because of its vain idols Beth-aven (that is, "the house of vanity," or "naught," Hosea 4:15 , Hosea 10:5 Hosea 10:8 ), shall indeed "come to naught."

6. break out like fire--bursting through everything in His way. God is "a consuming fire" ( Deuteronomy 4:24 , Isaiah 10:17 , Lamentations 2:3 ).
the house of Joseph--the kingdom of Israel, of which the tribe of Ephraim, Joseph's son, was the chief tribe (compare Ezekiel 37:16 ).
none to quench it in Beth-el--that is, none in Beth-el to quench it; none of the Beth-el idols on which Israel so depended, able to remove the divine judgments.

7. turn judgment to wormwood--that is, pervert it to most bitter wrong. As justice is sweet, so injustice is bitter to the injured. "Wormwood" is from a Hebrew root, to "execrate," on account of its noxious and bitter qualities.
leave on righteousness in . . . earth--MAURER translates, "cast righteousness to the ground," as in Isaiah 28:2 , Daniel 8:12 .