Amos 6:13

Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought,.... In their wealth and riches, which are things that are not, because of the uncertainty of them; and, in comparison of true riches, have no solidity and

Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought - i:e., in your vain power, decaying empire, and fleeting riches.

Ye which rejoice, glorying with a joy and satisfaction, with hope and confidence, in a thing of nought; in your victories, alliances, fortifications, and idols, all which draw you away from God, and from seeking him as he will be found. Which say, tell the prophets that reprove you and foretell your downfall, you say to them, notwithstanding all that God threatens, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? you have raised yourselves to dominion and greatness by your wisdom, courage, and success, and by the same you will maintain it and so you put off the day of evil.

Amos 6:13 Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?Ver. 13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought] In the creature, saith a Lapide, which is a mere nothing: in your wealth and strength (called horns in the next clause), which are an uncertainty, an obscurity (αδηλοτης), as the apostle deemed them, 1 Timothy 6:17, and have no solid subsistence, said Solomon, Proverbs 23:5, though the foolish world call them substance and goods. Indeed, it is only opinion that sets the price upon them, as when gold is raised from twenty shillings to twenty-two, the gold is the same; estimation only raiseth it. It is said of the people of the East Indies, in the Isle Ceylon, that having an ape’ s tooth gotten from them, which was a consecrated thing by them, they offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it. Such things of nought are highly prized and pursued by the world’ s ουτιδανοι, by worthless persons, such as Antiochus was in all his state, Daniel 11:21, and Agrippa in all his pomp (or as the Greek hath it, in all his phantasy or vain show, μεταπαλληςφαντασιας, Acts 25:23), and as these voluptuaries in the text, who had their wine and their music, fat calves and choicest ointments, wherein they held themselves happy, Amos 6:4-6, but the prophet telleth them that in rejoicing in these low things they rejoiced in a thing of nought; they fed altogether upon ashes, a deceived heart had turned them aside, so that they could not deliver themselves from these empty vanities, nor say (as wise men would have done), "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" Isaiah 44:20. Which say, Have we not taken to us horns] Yet, no doubt, but such as God, by his carpenters, can soon cut off, Zechariah 1:20-21, or without them, by his own bare hand, Psalms 75:10. But what an arrogant brag is here! Have we not taken? and to us? and horns? and by our own strength? Hic Deus nihil fecit, Here God did nothing; they were all the doers; so small a wind blows up a bubble, “ Sic leve sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum Subruit, aut reficit. - ” It is a notable witty expression of Luther; By men’ s boasting of what they have done, saith he, Haec ego feci, haec ego feci, This and that I have done, they become nothing else but faeces, that is, dregs: if themselves were anything they would not thus rejoice in a thing of nothing; they would not crack in this sort.

(13) A thing of nought refers to the calf-worship, the idol that Israel is glorying and trusting in, the idolatrous travesty of the Eternal that they call “the excellency of Jacob.” (Comp. Amos 6:8, and Amos 8:7.) Taken to us horns—i.e., instruments of resistance and aggression, the horn being symbolic of strength (Jeremiah 48:25; Psalms 75:10; Psalms 89:17; Psalms 92:10; 1 Samuel 2:10). The sacred historian takes quite a different view of the success of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings 14:26-27). These boasters reckoned the success of arms as due to their own ingenuity or “power.” (Comp. the language put into the mouth of Pharaoh by Ezekiel 29:3 : “My river is my own: I made it for myself.”)

Verse 13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of naught] In your idols: for an idol is nothing in the world. Have we not taken to us horns] We have arrived to power and dignity by our strength. Horns were the symbols of power and authority. So Horace: - Vina parant animos: tum pauper cornua sumet. "Wine repairs our strength, and furnishes the poor with horns." At such times they think themselves as great as the greatest.

13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought] Lit. in a no-thing, a non-entity, what has no substantial existence, and is destined to pass away when the hour of trial comes, i.e. their boasted, but unreal, material prosperity. Hebrew poets, by prefixing to a term the negative lô, sometimes express the pointed and emphatic negation of an idea: cf. a not-people, a not-god, Deuteronomy 32:17; Deuteronomy 32:21, a not-man, Isaiah 31:8, i.e. something as different as possible from a people, a god, or a man. See Kautzsch’s edition of Gesenius’s Heb. Grammar, § 152. 1 note. which say, Have we not, &c.] The Israelites are represented as priding themselves on the power which they had newly acquired under Jeroboam II., and the acquisition of which they attribute to their own exertions. For a similar overweening speech, placed in the mouth of the people of Ephraim, see Isaiah 9:10. The horn is a figure often used in Hebrew poetry to denote the strength which repels and tosses away whatever is opposed to it: cf. Deuteronomy 33:17 (of the double tribe of Joseph); Psalms 75:5; Psalms 75:10; Psalms 89:17[180]. [180] Wellhausen, following Grätz, takes the Hebrew expressions rendered respectively a thing of nought and horns as two proper names, viz. Lo-debar (2 Samuel 9:4 f., 2 Samuel 17:27) and Ḳ ?arnaim (1Ma 5:26, and perhaps in the ‘Ashteroth-Karnaim, i. e. “ ‘Ashtaroth of (or near) Ḳ ?arnaim,” of Genesis 14:5), two towns, both on the east of Jordan, the conquest of which by Jeroboam II. he supposes to be the subject of the Israelites’ boast: so G. A. Smith, p. 176 f. But these towns (though Ḳ ?arnaim was strongly situated) hardly seem to have been places of great importance; nor is it the manner of the Hebrew prophets to mention specially such successes; lâḳ ?aḥ ?, also, is not the word properly used of taking a town (lâkhad), whereas to take for oneself (with the reflexive ì) is an idiom constantly used in the sense of providing oneself with (Leviticus 23:40; Isaiah 8:1; Jeremiah 36:2; Jeremiah 36:28; Ezekiel 4:1; Ezekiel 5:1; Zechariah 11:15 &c.). At most the conquests of these places may be alluded to, in the words used.

Who rejoice - (Literally, “the rejoicers!” Amos, as is his wont, speaks of them with contempt and wonder at their folly, “the rejoicers!” much as we say, the cowards!

13. Will their own resources be sufficient? Certainly not. Rejoice — In a spirit of boasting. A thing of naught — Literally, no-thing. Something that has no real existence.