Amos 3:10
in Amos 3“For they know not how to do right,” declares the LORD. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For they know not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
KJV
For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
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This verse in Amos 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Vers. 9, 10.) Make it heard in the houses of Azotus, and in the houses of the land of Egypt, and say: Gather yourselves together upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the many follies in the midst thereof, them that suffer wrong, and that oppress in the innermost parts thereof, and they have not known to do the right thing, saith the Lord: treasuring up iniquity and spoils in their houses.
This site's exposition
Publish in the palaces at Ashdod
on Amos 3:9-10
The summons goes out to Israel's own historic enemies, Ashdod of the Philistines and the land of Egypt, called as witnesses against Samaria's tumults and oppression, a device the bench finds bitterly ironic, since it means pagan nations can see and name what Israel's own leaders deny. They know not to do right is the charge, moral blindness rather than mere weakness, and it is spoken of a people who store up violence and robbery in their own palaces, the very houses of the powerful named as the treasury of their crimes. The device of outside witnesses returns the argument to where chapter 1 began, nations under judgment for plain cruelty, only now Israel stands accused by the same standard she saw applied to them.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
For they know not to do right, saith the Lord,....
8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord G OD hath spoken, who can but prophesy? The scope of these verses is to convince the people of Israel that God had a controversy with them. That which the prophet has to say to them is to let them know that the Lord has something to say against them,
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
For they know not to do right - So we may naturally say that they who are doing wrong, and to their own prejudice and ruin, must certainly be ignorant of what is right, and what is their own interest. But we say again “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Their eyes, saith the Lord, they have closed.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
know not to do--Their moral corruption blinds their power of discernment so that they cannot do right (Jer 4:22). Not simple intellectual ignorance; the defect lay in the heart and will. store up violence and robbery--that is, treasures obtained by "violence and robbery" (Pr 10:2).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For - (and) they know not to do right They “have not known,” they have least all sense and knowledge, how “to do right” (literally, what is “straight-forward”) because they had so long ceased to do it. It is part of the miserable blindness of sin, that, while the soul acquires a quick insight into evil, it becomes, at last, not paralyzed only to “do” good, but unable to perceive it. So Jeremiah says, “they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge” Jer 4:22. Whence of the Christian Paul says, “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil” Rom 16:19. People, step by step, lose the power of understanding either good or evil, the love of the world or the love of God. Either becomes “a strange language” to ears accustomed to the “songs of Zion” or the din of the world. When our Lord and God came to His own, they said, “we know that God spake unto Moses: as for this man we know not whence He is” Joh 9:29. And this blindness was brought about by covetousness which “blindeth the eyes” even of “the wise” Exo 23:8, as he adds; Who store - (Literally, with indignation, “the storers” With violence and robbery - They could not understand what was right, while they habitually did what was wrong. They “stored up,” as they deemed, the gains and fruits; the robbery and injustice they saw not, because they turned away from seeing. But what is “stored” up, is not what wastes away, but what abides. Who doubts it? Then, what they treasured, were not the perishing things of earth, but, in truth, the sins themselves, as “a treasure of wrath against the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” Rom 2:5. Strange treasure, to be so diligently accumulated, guarded, multiplied! Yet it is, in fact, all which remains. “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” Luk 12:21. […]
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
An adversary, even round about the land —The adversary is prepared to come, and he will come around this land.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְלֹֽא־ | velo'- | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יָדְע֥וּ | yadeu | they know | H3045 → | 945 times |
| עֲשׂוֹת־ | ʾasot- | to do | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| נְכֹחָ֖ה | nekhochah | straightforwardness | H5229 → | |
| נְאֻם־ | neum- | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| יְהוָ֑ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| הָאֽוֹצְרִ֛ים | haotzrim | those [who] store up | H686 → | |
| חָמָ֥ס | chamas | violence | H2555 → | |
| וָשֹׁ֖ד | vashod | and devastation | H7701 → | 25 times |
| בְּאַרְמְנֽוֹתֵיהֶֽם׃ פ | bearmenoteihem | in fortresses their | H759 → | 32 times |
וְלֹֽא־and not
velo'-H3808 →5168 times
יָדְע֥וּthey know
yadeuH3045 →945 times
עֲשׂוֹת־to do
ʾasot-H6213 →2628 times
נְכֹחָ֖הstraightforwardness
nekhochahH5229 →
נְאֻם־[the] utterance of
neum-H5002 →376 times
יְהוָ֑הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
הָאֽוֹצְרִ֛יםthose [who] store up
haotzrimH686 →
חָמָ֥סviolence
chamasH2555 →
וָשֹׁ֖דand devastation
vashodH7701 →25 times
בְּאַרְמְנֽוֹתֵיהֶֽם׃ פin fortresses their
bearmenoteihemH759 →32 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 4:22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
it leads to
- Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- Romans 16:19
Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil.
- Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.
- Romans 3:11
There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
- Hosea 4:6
Through
Psalms 14:4Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.
it leads to
- Psalms 79:6
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that refuse to call on Your name,
- Jeremiah 10:25
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished…
- Psalms 82:5
They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- Psalms 79:6
About Amos
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Amos; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.