Amos 5:3

3 The Sovereign LORD says: “When a city sends a thousand men to battle, only a hundred will return. When a town sends a hundred, only ten will come back alive.”

Amos 5:3 Meaning and Commentary

Amos 5:3

For thus saith the Lord God
This is a reason why there were none to raise her up: since the city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave an hundred;
that is, the city in which there were a thousand constantly going in and out; or which sent, caused to go out, or furnished, a thousand men upon occasion for war, had only a hundred persons left in it; or there remained but a hundred of the thousand they sent out, the rest being destroyed by one means or another: and that which went forth [by] an hundred shall leave ten, to the house
of Israel;
where there were a hundred persons going out and coming in continually; or which sent out a hundred men to the army to fight their battles had now only ten remaining; to such a small number were they reduced all over the land, so that there were none, or not a number sufficient to raise up Israel to its former state and glory.

Amos 5:3 In-Context

1 Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing:

2 “The virgin Israel has fallen, never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, with no one to help her up.”

3 The Sovereign LORD says: “When a city sends a thousand men to battle, only a hundred will return. When a town sends a hundred, only ten will come back alive.”

4 Now this is what the LORD says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live!

5 Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel; don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba. For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile, and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”