Amos 5:3

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Shall leave an hundred.—i.e., shall have an hundred only as a remnant of the thousand who went forth to war. The great cities were to be decimated in the coming struggle with Assyria.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-6 The convincing, awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; for whether we hear or forbear, the word of God shall take effect. The Lord still proclaims mercy to men, but they often expect deliverance from such self-invented forms as make their condemnation sure. While they refuse to come to Christ and to seek mercy in and by him, that they may live, the fire of Divine wrath breaks forth upon them. Men may make an idol of the world, but will find it cannot protect.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The city that went out by a thousand - (that is, probably that sent out a thousand fighting men, as the word "went out" is often used for, "went out" to fight,) "shall have" literally, "shall retain, an hundred." She was to be decimated. Only, the tenth alone was to be reserved alive; the nine-tenths were to be destroyed. And this, alike in larger places and in the small. The city "that went forth an hundred shall retain ten." Smaller places escape for their obscurity, the larger from their strength and situation. One common doom was to befall all. Out of all that multitude, one tithe alone was to he preserved , "dedicated to God," that remnant which God always promised to reserve.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. went out by a thousand—that is, "the city from which there used to go out a thousand" equipped for war. "City" is put for "the inhabitants of the city," as in Am 4:8.

shall leave … hundred—shall have only a hundred left, the rest being destroyed by sword and pestilence (De 28:62).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thus saith the Lord God: this solemnly attesteth the certainty of the thing.

The city that went out by a thousand, that sent out one thousand soldiers as the quota they were assessed at to help against an invader,

shall leave a hundred; shall lose nine parts of ten, so great shall the slaughter be which the prevailing enemy shall make upon Israel; and here the prophet useth a certain number to express an uncertain; or proverbially, scarce a tenth man shall escape.

That which went forth by a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel; the kingdom of the ten tribes; and this perhaps may refer backward to Jehoahaz’s time, 2 Kings 13; to be sure it is fulfilled in the wars of Shalmaneser and the taking Samaria.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave {b} an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

(b) Meaning, that the tenth part would hardly be saved.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. The justification of the mournful anticipation of Amos 5:2 : Jehovah has declared that the military strength of the nation will be reduced, by defeat or other causes, to one tenth of what it now is.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - The vindication of the prophet's lament. The city that went out by a thousand. Septuagint and Vulgate, "from which went forth thousands," or, "a thousand;" i.e. which could send out a thousand warriors to the fight, in such a city only a tenth of the inhabitants shall remain; and this shall happen to small cities as well as great. Amos 5:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Elegy. - Amos 5:1. "Hear ye this word, which I raise over you; a lamentation, O house of Israel. Amos 5:2. The virgin Israel is fallen; she does not rise up again; cast down upon her soil; no one sets her up. Amos 5:3. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The city that goes out by a thousand will retain a hundred, and that which goes out by a hundred will retain ten, for the house of Israel." הדּבר הזּה is still further defined in the relative clause אשׁר וגו as קינה, a mournful song, lit., a lamentation or dirge for one who is dead (cf. 2 Samuel 1:17; 2 Chronicles 35:25). אשׁר is a relative pronoun, not a conjunction (for); and qı̄nâh is an explanatory apposition: which I raise or commence as (or "namely") a lamentation. "House of Israel" is synonymous with "house of Joseph" (Amos 5:6), hence Israel of the ten tribes. The lamentation follows in Amos 5:2, showing itself to be a song by the rhythm and by its poetical form. נפל, to fall, denotes a violent death (2 Samuel 1:19, 2 Samuel 1:25), and is here a figure used to denote the overthrow or destruction of the kingdom. The expression virgin Israel (an epexegetical genitive, not "of Israel") rests upon a poetical personification of the population of a city or of a kingdom, as a daughter, and wherever the further idea of being unconquered is added, as a virgin (see at Isaiah 23:12). Here, too, the term "virgin" is used to indicate the contrast between the overthrow predicted and the original destination of Israel, as the people of God, to be unconquered by any heathen nation whatever. The second clause of the verse strengthens the first. נטּשׁ, to be stretched out or cast down, describes the fall as a violent overthrow. The third verse does not form part of the lamentation, but gives a brief, cursory vindication of it by the announcement that Israel will perish in war, even to a very small remnant. יצא refers to their marching out to war, and אלף, מאה is subordinated to it, as a more precise definition of the manner in which they marched out (cf. Ewald, 279, b).