Albert Barnes Commentary Amos 6:13

"ye that rejoice in a thing of nought, that say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?" — Amos 6:13 (ASV)

Who rejoice - (Literally, “the rejoicers!” Amos, as is his custom, speaks of them with contempt and wonder at their folly, “the rejoicers!” much as we say, the cowards! the renegades!) “in a thing of nought,” literally, “a non-thing,” (that is, “nothing at all, nought”) not merely in a thing valueless, but in a “non-thing,” that has no existence at all, as nothing has any substantial existence apart from God. This “non-thing” was their power, strength, empire, which they thought they had, but which was soon to shrivel away as a scroll.

Which say - (as before, “the sayers!” they who have this saying habitually in their mouth) have we not taken to ourselves horn? The horn is the well-known symbol of strength which repels and tosses away what opposes it, as the bull does its assailant. Moses, in his blessing, had used this symbol, of the strength of the tribe of Joseph, and as being a blessing, he spoke of it, as the gift of God. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of buffalos; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh (Deuteronomy 33:17).

To this blessing, doubtless, Zedekiah the false prophet referred, when he “made him horns of iron, and said” to Ahab, Thus saith the Lord, with these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou hast consumed them. The Psalmist said, through Thee will we push down our enemies, as with a horn (Psalms 44:5–7); and adds, For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. For Thou hast saved us from our enemies. Israel ascribed God’s gift to himself.

He had been repeatedly and greatly victorious; he had conquered every enemy, with whom he had in the past been in conflict; he ascribed it to himself, and forfeited it. “By our own strength,” he said, instead of, “by the help of God;” as if we were to ascribe our Indian victories to our generals or our armies, and to substitute self-praise for Te Deums on days of thanksgiving.

Lap.: “The sinner rejoices in a non-thing. Sin is a ‘non-thing’:

1. As being a thing of nought, that is, vain and valueless.
2. Its pleasure is fleeting; where the Psalmist says, all the men, whose hands are mighty, have found nothing (Psalms 76:5).
3. Sin brings the sinner to nothing, that is, destruction and death, temporal and eternal.
4. Sin is the privation of good; but privation is a mere negative; that is, nothing.
5. Sin deprives of God who is All and the Creator of all.
6. Sin is nothing, because it clings to and rejoices in creatures and opposes them and prefers them to the Creator.

For creatures, compared to the Creator, are shadows of things, not the very things, and so are nothing.

For the Being and Name of God is, I am that I am; that is, I am He who alone has true, full, solid, eternal, infinite, Being. But creatures participate from Me a shadow of their true being, for their being is so poor, brief, fleeting, unstable, perishing, that, compared to Mine, they may rather be said not to be, than to be.

So then, as creatures have no true being, neither do they have true good, but only a shadow of good. So also it is with truth, wisdom, power, justice, holiness, and other attributes.

These have in God their real being; in creatures, a shadow of being only. Therefore God is called in Scripture alone wise (Romans 16:27), alone mighty (1 Timothy 6:15), alone immortal (1 Timothy 6:16), alone Lord (Isaiah 37:20), alone holy (Revelation 15:4), and alone good (Luke 18:19); because He alone has true, full, uncreated, and infinite wisdom, power, goodness, etc.

But the sinner, because he delights in creatures rather than in the Creator, delights in a shadow, a nothing, not in the true Being.

Because these shadows of creatures in the dimness of this life appear great to people in their blindness (as the mountains, at sunset, cast broad and deep shadows), they admire and pursue these shadows.

They are like the dog in the fable who, seeing the shadow of the meat in the water, magnified by the water, snatched at it, and so lost the meat and did not attain the shadow.

O Lord, dispel our darkness, lighten our eyes, that we may love and seek not the shadows of honors, riches, and pleasures (which, like meteors, dazzle here on earth our mind’s eye), but that we may with fixed gaze behold, love, and attain the real honors, riches, and pleasures themselves, which You have from eternity laid up and prepared in heaven for those who love You.”