Amos 5:1

a dirge] Heb. ḳînâh, which signifies, not a spontaneous effusion of natural emotion, but a composition, longer or shorter as the case might be, constructed with some art in a definite poetical form, and chanted usually by women, whose profession it was to attend mourning ceremonies for the purpose (cf. Jeremiah 9:17; and see below on Amos 5:16). To take up(i.e. on the lips) is said regularly of a -ḳînâh": e.g. Jeremiah 7:29; Ezekiel 19:1; Ezekiel 26:17; Ezekiel 27:2, &c. The ḳînâh, which the prophet has here in view follows in Amos 5:2.