You who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, 'Haven't we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?'
This is again one of those places where it declares that God swore by Himself.Now we do not really practice the taking of oaths much anymore. It used to be a very common practice where a person would seek to affirm that what he is saying is really true. He would swear to the truth of his statement, and he would always swear by something greater than himself. You couldn't say, "Well, I swear by my name that I'll do it." Your name might not be any good. So you'd swear by my mother's honor, or you'd swear by heaven, or, "I swear by God that I will do it." That was to confirm what a person was saying.Now Jesus said, "You really shouldn't be doing that. You shouldn't have to be doing that. If you say yes, you should mean yes. If you say no, you should mean no." Therefore, to take an oath or to take a vow is really superfluous. Be a man of your word, let your yes be a yes, let your no be a no, so that you don't have to swear to declare that you're gonna do it, or you're not gonna do it. If I just, if I say I'm gonna do it, let my word be as my bond.But God on occasions wanted to impress how definite was His decision in a certain matter. To establish the covenant so that they would know that this indeed is what God will do, God would swear. But who is He gonna swear by? There's nothing greater in all the universe to swear by; He's the greatest. So He would always have to swear by Himself. So God to confirm the covenant with... and the oath to Abraham swore by Himself saying, "And in blessing surely I will bless thee." Confirming that covenant. Now God is... Amos is saying that God is swearing to the fact that He abhors the excellency of Jacob, and the palaces, and He promises to deliver the city up to the enemies, and God did do just that.