The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up.
Ver. 2. The virgin of Israel is fallen] i.e. Though of the spouse of God she be become the devil's adulteress, Jer 3:1 Hosea 1:2, yet she will needs be counted and called a virgin still; as Sardis, she hath a name to live, but is dead, Revelation 3:1; as the Romish crew cry themselves up the only Church Catholic, and therein (like oyster wives) do much outcry us. But what saith the Lord by his prophet Jeremiah, Jer 18:13 ? "Ask ve now among the heathen; who hath heard such things?" And "the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing." And the virgin of Rome may well say, as Quartilla the strumpet in Petronius doth, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse: I can hardly remember myself a maid. Israel may also be called a virgin, because she yet subsisted and flourished in her first liberty and splendour, till taken and defloured, as it were, by the Assyrian. And in this sense we read of the virgin of Babylon, Isaiah 47:1; of Egypt, Jeremiah 46:12; of Zidon, Isaiah 23:12; and now of Venice, whose motto is, Intacta maneo, I am still a maid; as having never yet fallen into the enemies' power. Tournay, a town in France, was ever counted so invincible, that this sentence was engraven over one of the gates, Iannes ton me perdu ton pucellage, Thou hast never lost thy maidenhead. Yet was it yielded up to our King Henry VIII, with 10,000 pounds sterling, for the the citizens' redemption. The virgin of Israel sped not so well.
She is fallen] That is, she shall fall, surely, suddenly, utterly.
She shall no more rise] i.e. Return out of captivity, and be restored to her pristine splendour; yet some think otherwise.
She is forsaken upon her land] Proiecta est, prostrata iacet, she is thrown hard upon her ground, and as it were dashed against it, like an earthen pot against a rock; and all this, because she had left off righteousness in the earth, Amos 5:7. Those that forsake God shall be forsaken of him, 2 Chronicles 15:2 .
There is none to raise her up] God will not; and then, man cannot. "Behold," saith Bildad, "God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he take the ungodly by the hand," Job 8:20, and he will bring them into trouble, and there leave them, Ezekiel 22:20; Ezekiel 29:5. His own he will not leave; or if he do, yet forsake them he will not, Hebrews 13:5; and if men do, he will relieve them the rather. "Because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after; therefore I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord," Jeremiah 30:17 .