Amos 5:2

2 The virgin of Israel has fallen upon his land; there is none that shall raise her up.

Amos 5:2 Meaning and 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 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 ( Hosea 1:10 Hosea 1:11 ) ( 3:5 ) ( Romans 11:25 Romans 11:26 ) . 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 ( Amos 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.

Amos 5:2 In-Context

1 Hear ye this word of the Lord, even a lamentation, which I take up against you. The house of Israel is fallen; it shall no more rise.

2 The virgin of Israel has fallen upon his land; there is none that shall raise her up.

3 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; The city out of which there went forth a thousand, there shall be left a hundred, and out of which there went forth a hundred, there shall be left ten to the house of Israel.

4 Wherefore thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live.

5 But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgala, and cross not over to the Well of the Oath: for Galgala shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall be as that which is not.