Amos 6:13

Amo 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, μετα παλλης φαντασιας , Act 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.