Exposition of Amos 4-9, Part 2 · Section 2
VERSE 2.
The Virgin of Israel is fallen, shee shall no more rise, shee is forsaken upon her Land, there is none to raise her up.
IN the precedent Verse the Prophet tells us of a Lamentation given him by God to publish against Israel. In this Verse he comes to tell us exegetically what it is, viz. the fatal and final overthrow of the whole Kingdome of Israel, set forth in emphatical termes, and variety of words to assure this unbeleeving people of the certainty of those Judgements which they should shortly feel. In the words wee have the summe of this Funeral Lamentation, or Samaria's Epitaph; The Virgin of Israel is fallen. Where wee have,
1 A Judgement threatned, and that is a fall. Israel is fallen, viz. into the hands of the Assyrians.
2 Here are the persons upon whom this judgement shall fall, and that is upon the Virgin of Israel, or the ten Tribes.
3 Here is the certainty of it, Is fallen, that is, they shall as surely come down, as if they were this day in the dust.
Quest. How is Israel called a Virgin, whereas shee had plaid the Harlot with Idols, and is therefore called on Harlot? Hos. 1.2.
Answ. Kingdomes and Cities are called Virgins in Scripture on several accounts: As 1 when they flourish in riches and renown, and remain unconquered, and unaccustomed to any yoke of servitude;Virgo Israelis i. e. regnum Israel quod simile est Pulchrae Virgini propter opes, & tranquillum statum, Piscator now such in Scripture, though they bee Heathenish and Idolatrous, yet are called Virgins: As Tyre, Isa. 23.12. Babylon, Isa. 47.1. and Aegypt, Jer. 46.11.
2 In respect of their Effeminacy, Delicacy, and Wantonness, priding themselves in their Beauty and Bravery, and tricking themselves up like Virgins;Israel vocatur Virgo, non propter intégritatem, sed propter ornatum & pulchritudinem. Estius in Loc. difficil. and thus Israel was effeminate, living daintily and deliciously, giving themselves up to feasting, mirth, and musick, Amos 6.4, 5, 6. priding themselves in their wealth, and ornaments, and in this respect they might be called Virgins.
3 In respect of their weakness, and unableness to help themselves; so Israel shall fall, and be like a poor, helpless, forlorn Virgin, that sits alone in distress without any helper; she shall now be deflowred, and wasted by the Assyrian.
4 Israel is here called a Virgin after her Apostacy, but this is in relation to former times, before they were Idolatrous, as in Davids time (before the division of the ten Tribes) when they served God in purity, without the mixture of humane inventions; and likewise in relation to their duty, shewing what they should have been, and not what now they were; and in this sense Iudah is also called a Virgin after their Apostasie, Ier. 18.13. & 31.21. they had both the name of Virgins, but were indeed Idolaters, and by consequence Adulteresses, that broke the Covenant of their God.
5 The City of Samaria was a maiden City, it was never subdued or conquered by any Nation, before the Assyrian King Salmaneser brought it under the yoke of Servitude, and carried the ten Tribes captive into Assyria and Media; and in this respect it might be called a Virgin.
3 Here is the certainty of this Judgement set forth in the Present Tense,Praeterita profuturis ponit ad majorem rei certitudinem. Mercer. The Virgin of Israel is fallen; that is, shee shall as surely fall as if it were already done; and this is usuall with the Prophets, to signifie the certainty of a rhing, by putting it in the Present, or praeterit Tense. Thus the Scripture speaks of Eastern and Western Babylon in the Present Tense,Cecidit, significat actum instantem & quasi inchoantem secundo cecidit, i. e. jam cadere incipit, ac brevi prone casu cadet Babylon. A Lapide. Babylon is fallen, is fallen; that is, it shall suddenly surely, and irrecoverably fall, Isa. 21.9. Ier. 51.8. Rev. 14.8. & 18.2. So Iude 14. The Lord cometh, that is, he will as surely come, as if he were now coming to Judgement. This was about forty years before the final overthrow of Samaria, that the Prophet fore-told this; yet since God had decreed their fall, he tells them, it shall as surely be effected as if it were done this day; and it is usual with all the Prophets to speak thus assertively, not only because of the certainty of what his denounced, but because from the first denuntiation the plague begins, though not discerned, nor sometimes accomplisht till many years after.
4 Here is the aggravation of her fall;
1 She shall fall so that she shall never rise again.
2 She shall be forsaken in her own Land.
3 There shall be none to raise her up.
Many fall but they rise again, but when a Kingdome shall fall from its former splendor and dignity, and never be restored again, that is very sad; yet this was Israels case, they were carried Captive into Assyria, and the body of the Kingdome, and generality of the People never returned again; nor had they ever the face of a Kingdom more, 2 King. 17. Hos. 4.5. & 5.5. When the remainders of Iudah returned out of the Babylonish Captivity to Ierusalem, some few of Israel joyned themselves with them, and are reckoned with Iudah, the rest of the ten Tribes being scattered, and dispersed up and down the world, degenerated into Gentiles, and some of those dispersed were converted in the Apostolical times, as appears by the inscriptions of the Epistles of Iames and Peter.
Obj. But we read in our Saviours time of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matth 10.6. & 15.24. and that Nicodemus was a Master in Israel, Ioh. 3.10. and therefore some conclude, that the Kingdom of Israel was not totally ruined.
Ans. The word Israel hath many significations in Scripture, but that in Matthew hath relation to the Kingdome of Iudah, for in Christs time there was no other Kingdome of Israel extant but that, and that also was very low when Christ came, as I have shewed on Amos 9.11. and by a Master in Israel is meant no more but a Teacher in the Church of God, for the Church is oft called Israel, Psal. 115.12. Galat. 6.16.
Obj. It was fore-told, that the ten Tribes should be made one with Judah, and should returne with them, Ezek. 37.16, 17, 19, 22.
A. This is spoken of Gospel times, and implies a Spiritual, not a Corporal returning of a remnant of those despised and dispersed ones in the dayes of the Messiah, who should be united to Iudah, and by the preaching of the Gospel be brought into the unity of the Church.
Shee is forsaken upon her Land.
Shee had forsaken God,Nittesca, derelicta, deserta, abjecta, humi projecta. and now all desert and forsake her; she had laid Piety and Justice in the dust, and now God resolves to lay her in the dust, she shall be smitten to the earth, and dasht against it by the Assyrian with such force, that like an earthen pot it shall never be sodred together again.
And which greatly aggravates their misery, all this should happen to them in their own Land, they should want men to help them in their owne Land, as appears in the next verse. They should be afflicted and brought low, not in an enemies Country, but even in their owne; they should be slaughtered and enslaved in the sight of their owne Country, which had been like a Mother and Nurse unto them, and was dearly beloved of them. It aggravates a Virgins misery, to be slaine in the sight of her owne Mother.
There is none to raise her up.
God will not, and then Creatures cannot. Shee shall fall without any help or hope of restauration, no neighbour Nation shall once reach out an helping hand to raise her out of the dust, but there let her lye, like one that is felled to the ground, and not able to rise of himself, and forsaken of all others must needs remaine as he fell; so Israel should never recover his pristine splendor, and flourishing condition, though some remnants should remaine, or as it followes in the next verse.
OBSERVATIONS.
1 Sin layes famous and flourishing Kingdoms in the dust.
Those Maiden-Cities and Kingdoms which were never toucht, nor taken, yet if sin raign in them (as it did in Samaria) it will ruine them. Where are the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian Monarchies, which were sometimes famous and flourishing, and the terrour of the world? they are long since laid in the dust.
2 Impenitent sinners shall certainly perish.
Though they may flourish for a time, yet when their sin is ripe, they shall come down; and therefore the Prophet speaks in the Present Tense, Israel is fallen; that is, he shall as certainly fall as if he were down already. So Babylon that lives in Luxury and security, shall at last be burnt, Revelat. 18.7, 8, 9, 10.
3 When God is against us, all forsake us.
See Mr. Gr…enhil on Ezek. 9.2. p. 211.Israel is forsaken in his owne Land, and so sadly forsaken, that there is not one to raise him up. The Land did formerly abound with men, yet now they have none to help them in their misery; to the dust they must, and there they lye▪ As God will not cast away the righteous man, but will assist him in his troubles; so he will not take a wicked man by the hand, Iob 8.20. but as he brings them into trouble, so he leaves them there, Ezek. 22.20. & 29.5. his owne he will not leave, and if men will not succour them, yet he will, Iob 5 19. Ier. 30.17. he will give his not only the grace, but also the blessing of peace, Psal. 29.11. Levit. 26.6. when our wayes please him, then all are at peace with us, Prov. 26.7.2 Chro. 30.9.
4 God oft retaliates sinners, and payes them in their owne coyn.
Israel that forsook God, is now forsaken of all, and those that overthrew Justice, and opprest the poor, are now overthrown themselves, and opprest by others. But of this see Amos 6. ult. Obs. 8.