and pernicious to it, as injustice and oppression; see
ch. v. 7.
Ver. 13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, &c.]
In their wealth and riches, which are things that are
not, because of the uncertainty of them; and, in com-
parison of true riches, have no solidity and substance
m them, Prov. xxiii. 5. or in any of the things of this
world, the lusts of it, the honours of it, human wis-
dom or strength; all are things of nought, of no
worth, give no satisfaction, and are of no continuance,
and not to be gloried in, Jer. ix. 23. or. in their idols,
for an idol is nothing in the world, 1 Cor. viii. 4. and
yet they rejoiced in them, Acts vii. 41. or in their
own works of righteousness, as men of a pharisaical
temper do, as these people were; these indeed are
something, when done in obedience to the will of
God, and according to that, and from right principles,
and in the exercise of faith and love, and with a view
to the glory of God, and as they are evidences of true
grace, and profitable to men, and tend to glorify God,
and serve the interest of religion; but they are things
of nought, and not to be rejoiced and gloried in,
in the business of justification before God, and in the
affair of salvation: the same may be said of a mere
.outward profession of religion depended on, and all
external rites and ceremonies, or submission to out-
ward ordinances, whether legal or evangelical. The
phrase may be rendered, in that tohic.h is no word!; is
not the word of God, nor according to it; indeed every
thing short of Christ and his righteousness, and salva-
tion by him, are things of nought, aud not to be re-
joiced in, Phil. iii. 3, 4, 5, ahd iv. 4. Which say, have
we not taken to us horns by our own strength ? by which we
ha ? pushed our enemies, got victory over them, and
obtained power, dominion, and authority; all which
horns are an emblem of. So Sanchouiatho {k} says,
Astarte put upon her own head a bull's head, as an
ensign of royalty, or a mark of sovereignty; by which,
as Bishop Cumberland {} thinks, is plainly meant the
bu!l's horns, since it is certain that a horn, in the eastern
languages, is an emblem or expression noting royal
power, as in 1 Sam. iS. 10. and in other places; see Dan.
vii. 24. thus the kings of Egypt wore horns, as Diodo-
rue relates; and perhaps for the same reason the Egyp-
tians adorned Isis with horns {m}. And ,a, il this they
ascribed not to God, but to themselves. Fhe Targum
interprets horns by riches; but it rather signifies vic-
tory {n}, and power and government, which they took
to themselves, and imputed to their own strength,
valour, and courage: very probably here is an allusion
to their ensigns, banners, shields, or helmets, on which
horns might be figured or engraven, being the arms of
Ephraim, the son of Joseph, the chief of the ten tribes,
who are here spoken of. Ephraim is often put for the
ten tribes, or the kingdom of Israel; and Joseph, whose
son he was, his glory was like the firstling of a bullock,
and his horns are said to be like the horns of unicorns:
with them, it is promised, he shall push the people to-

AMOS.

gerber, to the ends of the .earth, and they are the ten
thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of
Manasseh, Deut.' xxxiii. 17. and it may-be, as the
lion seems to be the ensign of the tribe of Judah, to
which he is by Jacob compared; so the ox or the uni-
corn might be the ensign of the tribe of Ephraim: and
so the ancient Jews, as Aben Ezra on Numb. iS. 2. ob-
serves, say, that the form of a man was on the standard
of Reuben; and the form of a lion on the stand-
ard of Judah; and the form of an ox on the standard
of Ephraim, &c.; and others {o} of them say that the
standard of Joseph was died very black, and was
figured for the two princes of Ephraim and Manas-
seh; upon the standard of Ephraim was figured an
ox, because thefirstling of a bullock; and on the stand-
ard of Manasseh was figured an unicorn, because his
horns are like the horns of unicorns. Now the Israel-
ites, or those of the ten tribes, at the head of which
phraim was, set up their banners, not in the name
the Lord, but in their own strength; and attri-
.buted their conquests and dominions to their own con-
duct and courage, the horns of their .owu strength,
and not to God {p}. And this 'also is the language of
such personS, who ascribe regeneration and conversion,
faith, repentance, the cleansing of a man's heart, and
the reformation of his life, yea, his whole salvation, to
the power and strength of his free will, when man has
no strength at all to effect any of these things; these
are all vain boasts, and very disagreeable and offensive
to the-Lord; and for suchdike things persons stand
here reproved by him, and threatened with woes; for
woe must be here-supplied from vet. 1.
Vet. 14. But, behold, I will raise up against you a na-
tion, 0 house of Israel, saith the Lord, the God of hosts,
&c.] The Assyrian nation, under its king, Salmaneser;
who invaded Israel, came up to Samaria, and after a
three-years' siege took it, and carried Israel captive into
foreign lands, 2 Kings xvii. 5, .6: and they shall a. afflict
.you; by battles, sieges, forages, plunders, and burn-
ing of cities and towns, and putting the inhabitants to
the sword: from the entering in of Hamath unto the
river of the wilderness; from Hamath the less, said by
Josephus {q} and Jerom {r} to be called Epiphania, in their
times, from Antiochus Epiphanes; it was at the en-
trance on the land of Israel, and at the northern border
of it; s0_ that the river of the wilderness, whatever is
meant by it, lay to the south; by which it appears
that this affliction and distress would be very general,
from one end of it to the other. Some, by this river,
understand the river of Egypt, at the entrance-of
Egypt in the wilderness of Ethan; Sihor or Nile;
which, Jarchi says, lay south-west of Israel, as Hamash
lay north-west of it. And a late trave!!er {} observes,
that the south and south-west border of the tribe of
judah, containing within it the whole or the greatest
xpart of what was called the way of the spies, Numb.
xi, 1, and afterwards Idumea, extended itself from the
Elenitic gulf of the Red sea, along by that of Hiero-

{i} \^rbd all\^ "in non verbo", Montanus.
{k} Apud Euseb. Evangel. Prepar. 1.2. p. 38.
{l} Sanchoniatho's History, p. 35.
{m} Vid. Pignorii Mensa lsiaca, p. 30.
{n} Vicimus, & domitum pedibus calcamus amorem,
Venerunt capiti cornua sera meo", Ovid. Amor. 1. 3. Eleg. 10.
{o} Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 2. fol. 178. 3.
{p} Vid. Lydium de Re Militari, 1. 4. c. 4. p. 164.
{q} Antiqu. I. 1. c. 6. sect. 2.
{r} Comment. in lsa. x. fol. 20. G. & in Zech. ix, fol. 116, L, De locis
Heb. fol. 88. E. & Quaest. in Gen. fol. 67. B.
{s} Dr. Shaw's Travels, p. 287, 288. Ed. 2.