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.