Passage

Amos 5.2

Book: Amos · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

2. The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel. 4. For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live; (Amos 5:1-4, ASV)

WEB

Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

2. “The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.”

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 4. For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live; (Amos 5:1-4, WEB)

KJV

Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

2. The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.

For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. 4. For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: (Amos 5:1-4, KJV)

YLT

Hear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel:

2. 'Fallen, not again to rise, hath the virgin of Israel, Left on her land, she hath no raiser up.'

For thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city that is going out a thousand, Doth leave an hundred, And that which is going out an hundred, Doth leave ten to the house of Israel. 4. For thus said Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live, (Amos 5:1-4, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: Amos of Tekoa, a herdsman (noqed, sheep breeder) and tender of sycamore figs from Judah, speaking the word of the LORD.
Audience: The northern kingdom of Israel, addressed at the height of its prosperity under Jeroboam II.
Location: Delivered in the northern kingdom, principally at Bethel, the royal sanctuary and state temple (Amos 7:13).
Time period: c. 760-750 BC, in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel, "two years before the earthquake" (Amos 1:1). Amos is generally reckoned the earliest of the writing prophets.

Theological reading

"She has fallen, she will not rise again, the virgin Israel. She lies neglected on her land; there is none to raise her up."

The genre is a funeral dirge sung over the living. Verse 1 announces it: "Hear this word which I take up for you as a dirge (qinah), O house of Israel." The qinah has a recognizable limping meter, a longer line followed by a shorter one, which the Hebrew of verse 2 exhibits and which English cannot easily carry. The book of Lamentations is built in the same measure. Amos is not predicting a funeral; he is conducting one in advance, and the audience is the corpse.

"Virgin Israel." The betulah (H1330 - bethulah) is a young woman not yet married, and the image carries the pathos of a death before the life had begun. The same personification appears at Jeremiah 18:13 and Jeremiah 31:4, where it is reversed into a promise of rebuilding.

"None to raise her up." The clause states hopelessness in the strongest available form, and it is worth noting that the book does not leave it there. The same verb, qum in its causative sense, returns at Amos 9:11: "In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David." What no one in Israel can do for her, God announces He will do.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H1330 - bethulah, bethulah, Strong's H1330

Quoted in

Lexicon:

H1330 - bethulah

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.