Amos 5:1-3·~1 min
A Lamentation against Israel
Amos calls the house of Israel to hear a lamentation taken up against it. Israel is described as a virgin fallen and unable to rise, cast down on her own land with no one to lift her up. The Lord GOD then explains the scale of the coming devastation through military-social imagery: a city that once sent out a thousand will have only a hundred left, and a city that once sent out a hundred will have only ten. The lament therefore functions as both grief and warning. The nation is being taught to hear its future not as stable continuity, but as collapse already echoing in prophetic song.
H1ear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you: 2“Fallen is Virgin Israel, 3This is what the Lord GOD says:
Section summaryThe chapter opens with a funeral song over the house of Israel. The nation is addressed as one already fallen, unable to rise again, abandoned on its land with scarcely any strength left. The lament is then sharpened by a word from the Lord GOD announcing drastic reduction: cities that once sent out a thousand will have only a remnant, and those that once sent out a hundred will be nearly emptied. Amos begins not with abstract warning but with the language of irreversible loss, forcing Israel to hear its future as though it were already a mourning chant.
Role in the chapterThis section sets the chapter's tone by presenting Israel's coming judgment as a near-certain collapse worthy of lament.