What Does Amos 6:13 Mean in the King James?
Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought, which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The boast names its own emptiness: Lo-debar can be heard as “no thing,” while Karnaim means “two horns,” turning captured power into a claim of self-made strength.
THE MEANING
You can celebrate what looks like a victory while the verse names it as “no thing.” The horns you claim as your own strength also echo Karnaim, “two horns”: possession looks like proof, but it cannot make itself its source. The verse exposes the gap between what you have grasped and what can truly sustain you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
If I have secured power, that proves I made it myself.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
D-B-R
To speak; a word, matter, or thing.
The phrase “a thing of nought” also carries the sound of Lo-debar, a place name heard as “no thing” or “no word.” The same root holds speech and matter together, so the boast is itself a spoken matter whose name carries negation.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same word can name what is spoken and what is treated as real, sharpening the tension between the boast and its “no thing” echo.
dibber: He spoke; to speak.
דִּבֵּר
The root behind “matter” also names speech, bringing the speakers’ claim into the wordplay itself.
קַרְנַיִם
qarnayim
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ן
Q-R-N
Horn; a projecting peak or ray.
Qarnayim also sounds like Karnaim, “two horns,” so the verse can make the claimed possession and the horn-image overlap. The image suggests projected power, yet the speakers claim that projection as their own making.
ALSO GROWS
qeren: Horn; also a projecting ray.
קֶרֶן
The horn is a visible projection, giving the boast a concrete image of power.
qaran: To radiate or send out rays; used of Moses’ shining face.
קָרַן
This branch links the horn’s projection with radiance, showing how the root can describe power made visible.
THE PATTERN
Self-credit turns possession or achievement into a boast of power detached from its source.
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.THE THREAD
All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.Amos’s “horns” and this verse use qeren, the same Hebrew word for horn and its image of power. Here horns are cut down or lifted up, exposing power as something that can rise or fall beyond the reach of a human boast.
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