For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”
- BSB “For they know not how to do right,” declares the LORD. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”
- NKJV For they do not know to do right,’ Says the Lord, ‘Who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.’ ”
- NASB But they do not know how to do what is right,” declares the Lord, “these who store up violence and devastation in their citadels.”
- NLT “My people have forgotten how to do right,” says the Lord. “Their fortresses are filled with wealth taken by theft and violence.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel no longer knows how to do right, hoarding the spoils of violence in their palaces. Persistent sin has corrupted their moral sense.
Overview
The leaders have so given themselves to plunder and extortion that doing right has become foreign to them. Their palaces are stocked with what they seized through injustice. This describes a conscience so dulled by sin that wrongdoing feels normal. Such moral blindness is the fruit of unrepented sin and underscores the need for a new heart given by God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jer 4:22For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
- Zeph 1:9In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
- Zech 5:3–4Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
- Ps 14:4Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
- Amos 5:7Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
- Jas 5:3–4Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
- 2 Pet 3:5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
- Amos 6:12Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
- Hab 2:8–11Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
- Jer 5:4Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Amid judgment on injustice, Amos promises the raising up of David's fallen tent — read by James in Acts 15 as the ingathering of the nations into the kingdom of the risen Christ.
How Amos 3:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.