Amos 3:10

Contemporary English Version

The Lord has said that they don't even know how to do right. They have become rich from violence and robbery.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The people are incapable of doing right—

Hebrew Names Version
"Indeed they don't know to do right," says the LORD, "Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces."

King James Version
For they know not to do right, saith the Lord , who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

English Standard Version
"They do not know how to do right," declares the Lord , "those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds."

New American Standard Bible
"But they do not know how to do what is right," declares the LORD, "these who store up violence and devastation in their citadels."

New Century Version
"The people don't know how to do what is right," says the Lord . "Their strong buildings are filled with treasures they took by force from others."

Amplified Bible
"For they do not know how to do right," says the LORD, "these who store up violence and devastation [like treasures] in their strongholds."

Geneva Bible (1587)
For they knowe not to doe right, sayth the Lorde: they store vp violence, and robbery in their palaces.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But they do not know how to do what is right," declares the LORD, "these who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels."

Legacy Standard Bible
But they do not know how to do what is right," declares Yahweh, "these who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels."

Berean Standard Bible
"For they know not how to do right-" declares the LORD-"those who store up violence and destruction in their citadels."

Complete Jewish Bible
For they don't know how to do right," says Adonai . "They store up violence and robbery in their palaces."

Darby Translation
and they know not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and plunder in their palaces.

George Lamsa Translation
For they do not know how to reprove, says the LORD, but they store up plunder and spoil in their palaces.

Good News Translation
The Lord says, "These people fill their mansions with things taken by crime and violence. They don't even know how to be honest.

Lexham English Bible
"They do not know how to do right," declares Yahweh, "those who store up violence and destruction in their citadel fortresses."

Literal Translation
For they do not know to do right, declares Jehovah, those who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

American Standard Version
For they know not to do right, saith Jehovah, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

Bible in Basic English
For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

King James Version (1611)
For they know not to doe right, saith the Lord; who store vp violence, and robberie in their palaces.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For they know not to do right, sayth the Lorde, they store vp violence and robberie in their palaces.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And she knew not what things would come against her, saith the Lord, even those that store up wrong and misery in their countries.

English Revised Version
For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

World English Bible
"Indeed they don't know to do right," says Yahweh, "Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces."

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thei kouden not do riytful thing, seith the Lord, and tresouriden wickidnesse and raueyn in her housis.

Update Bible Version
For they don't know to do right, says Yahweh, who stores up violence and robbery in their palaces.

Webster's Bible Translation
For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

New English Translation
"They do not know how to do what is right." (The Lord is speaking.) "They store up the spoils of destructive violence in their fortresses.

New King James Version
For they do not know to do right,' Says the LORD, "Who store up violence and robbery in their palaces."'

New Living Translation
"My people have forgotten how to do right," says the Lord . "Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.

New Life Bible
They do not know how to do what is right," says the Lord. "They store up in their strong cities what they have fought for and robbed."

New Revised Standard
They do not know how to do right, says the Lord , those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Therefore do they not know how to do right, Declareth Yahweh, who are treasuring up violence and spoil in their palaces.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And they have not known to do the right thing, saith the Lord, storing up iniquity, and robberies in their houses.

Revised Standard Version
"They do not know how to do right," says the LORD, "those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds."

Young's Literal Translation
And they have not known to act straightforwardly, An affirmation of Jehovah, Who are treasuring up violence and spoil in their palaces.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
sayeth the LORDE: they gather together euell gotten goodes, and laye vp robbery in their houses.

Contextual Overview

⁹ Here is a message for the leaders of Philistia and Egypt— tell everyone to come together on the hills of Samaria. Let them see the injustice and the lawlessness in that city. ¹⁰ The Lord has said that they don't even know how to do right. They have become rich from violence and robbery. ¹¹ And so the Lord God has sworn that they will be surrounded. Enemies will break through their defenses and steal their treasures. ¹² The Lord has promised that only a few from Samaria will escape with their lives and with some broken pieces of their beds and couches. It will be like when a shepherd rescues two leg bones and part of a sheep's ear from the jaws of a lion. ¹³ The Lord God All-Powerful told me to speak this message against Jacob's descendants: ¹⁴ When I, the Lord , punish Israel for their sins, I will destroy the altars at Bethel. Even the corners of the altar will be left in the dirt. ¹⁵ I will tear down winter homes and summer homes. Houses decorated with ivory and all other mansions will be gone forever. I, the Lord , have spoken!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

they: Psalms 14:4, Jeremiah 4:22, Jeremiah 5:4, 2 Peter 3:5

who: Habakkuk 2:8-11, Zephaniah 1:9, Zechariah 5:3, Zechariah 5:4, James 5:3, James 5:4

robbery: or, spoil

Reciprocal: Exodus 20:15 - General Leviticus 6:4 - which he Isaiah 59:6 - their works Jeremiah 6:5 - let us destroy Jeremiah 17:11 - he that Jeremiah 52:13 - the king's Ezekiel 7:11 - Violence Ezekiel 8:17 - for Ezekiel 18:7 - hath spoiled Ezekiel 22:13 - thy dishonest Ezekiel 22:29 - people Amos 3:11 - and thy Amos 4:1 - which oppress Micah 6:10 - the treasures Romans 2:5 - treasurest

Cross-References

Genesis 2:25
Although the man and his wife were both naked, they were not ashamed.

Genesis 3:7
Right away they saw what they had done, and they realized they were naked. Then they sewed fig leaves together to make something to cover themselves.

Genesis 3:17
The Lord said to the man, "You listened to your wife and ate fruit from that tree. And so, the ground will be under a curse because of what you did. As long as you live, you will have to struggle to grow enough food.

Genesis 3:18
Your food will be plants, but the ground will produce thorns and thistles.

Exodus 3:6
I am the God who was worshiped by your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Moses was afraid to look at God, and so he hid his face.

Exodus 32:25
Moses knew that the people were out of control and that it was Aaron's fault. And now they had made fools of themselves in front of their enemies.

Job 23:15
Merely the thought of God All-Powerful

Psalms 119:120
I tremble all over when I think of you and the way you judge.

Isaiah 33:14
Those terrible sinners on Mount Zion tremble as they ask in fear, "How can we possibly live where a raging fire never stops burning?"

Isaiah 47:3
You will suffer the shame of going naked, because I will take revenge, and no one can escape.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For they know not to do right, saith the Lord,.... What is just and fight between man and man, no, not in one single instance; they did not regard it, or advert to it; they were under no concern about it; and were so much under the power of their lusts, that they knew not how to do it; and had used themselves so long to such wicked and unjust ways, that they had lost at least the practical knowledge of doing justice; they knew what was right in the theory, but not in the practice; bribes blinded their eyes; for this seems to design judges, civil magistrates, such who had the administration of justice and the execution Of the laws in their hands. The Targum is,

"they know not to execute the law;''

see Jeremiah 4:22;

who store up violence and robbery in their palaces; treasured up riches in their palaces, gotten in a violent way, by oppression and injustice; and which was no other, nor better, than robbery. This shows that persons in power and authority, that lived in palaces, in great splendour and grandeur, are here meant.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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” Jeremiah 4:22. Whence of the Christian Paul says, “I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil” Romans 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” John 9:29. And this blindness was brought about by covetousness which “blindeth the eyes” even of “the wise” Exodus 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” Romans 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” Luke 12:21. He adds, as an aggravation, “in their palaces.” Deformed as in all oppression, yet to “oppress the poor, to increase his riches” Proverbs 22:16, has an unnatural hideousness of its own. What was wrung from the poor, laid up “in places!” Yet what else is it to cheapen luxuries at the cost of the wages of the poor?

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Amos 3:10. 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.