Amos 3:10

Amo 3:10 For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

Ver. 10. For they know not to do right] They have done wrong so long together, against knowledge and conscience, that now they are given up to a reprobate sense, to an injudicious mind, εις νουν αδοκιμον, Rom 1:28, having sinned away the light they had, and lost that little knowledge they had learned out of the law of Moses concerning good works: this they had wickedly blotted out of their own minds; as also those common notions of good and evil, that glimmering of Divine light left in the natural man; this in a defiled conscience is wholly extinct. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" No, not they, as appears by what follows: "they eat up my people as they eat bread," Psa 14:4. These cannibals, like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, devour the poorer as they the lesser fishes. And though they cannot but know this to be evil, condemned by the light of nature, and much more of Scripture, yet they do it, and will do it; their eyes being put out with the dust of covetousness, and their hearts so exercised therewith, 2Pe 2:14, that they can say, as that wretched fellow did, We are masters of our consciences, we can do what we will for all them; and as Balaam resolved at length, to curse, whatever came of it.

Who store up violence and robbery in their palaces] Till the screech owls of woe cry aloud from the walls, and the beams out of the timber make answer, Hab 2:11-12; till their cursed hoards of evil gotten goods witness against them, and eat their flesh as it were fire, Jas 5:3; till very Philistines and Egyptians cry shame on them, and say, as the Indians did of the cruel Spaniards, that they carried themselves neither like Christians nor men, but like devils; that it had been better the Indies had been given to the devils of hell than to them; and that if the Spaniards went to heaven when they were dead, they would never come there. Let no man think to thrive, violentia et vastitate, by rapine and robbery; to treasure up sin is to treasure up wrath, Rom 2:5, which, as a fire, will devour their palaces, and it shall not be quenched, Jer 17:27.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:10 Israel’s rich people acquired their wealth through their neglect and brutal treatment of the poor and helpless (see 2:6-8).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The fruit of their cruelty and theft appeareth by their great riches, which they have in their houses.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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" (Pro 10:2).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

In this verse he confirms what I have already said of oppressions: he says that they despised every thing right. But not to know this lessens not their guilt, as though they ignorantly offended; but the Prophet means, on the contrary, that they had cast away far from them everything that was just and allowed themselves all liberty in sinning, without any discrimination, without any shame; as though he said, “They are brute animals, who are void of all judgments of all reason, and of all shame; for they seek not to have a light understanding any more.” here then he accuses the Israelites of wilful blindness; for they hardened themselves in every evil, and extinguished all judgments shame and reasons so that they no longer distinguished between what was just and unjust: and he mentions one thing in particular — that they accumulated much wealth by plunder and robbery. The Israelites were no doubt guilty of many other crimes; but by stating a part for the whole, he mentions one thing which includes other things, and intimates, that the people were wholly given to all kinds of crimes, and that as they had cast aside every shame, obliterated every distinction, and repudiated every regard for justice, they abandoned themselves to every kind of wickedness. This, is the import of the Prophet’s words.

But our Prophet points out here the gross sins of the Israelites, because he had previously constituted the blind as their judges. Hence it was the same as though he had said, “Though the Egyptians and the Idumeans are void of light, yet your iniquity is so palpable, that they will be able to perceive it. There is indeed no necessity of any subtle disputation, since plunders and pillages are carried on with so much violence, since no moderation or equity is any longer observed, and no shame exists; but men rush headlong with blind impetuosity into every kind of evil; so that the very blind, though without eyes, can know what your state is. Then the Egyptians and Idumeans will perceive your vices, when located on the neighboring mountains.” This is the meaning. It now follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) Know not to do right.—Not merely have lost the perception of what is and what is not right, but are indifferent to such distinctions. They know not and care not; the awful state of utter moral impotence, wherein not only the intellectual consciousness, but the impulses to action, are languid or even paralysed—a dead conscience! Nothing is more condemnatory than this brief sentence. The light within them is darkness.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. know not to do right] Wrong-doing has become their second nature. Right (a rare word) is properly what is straight in front, fig. clear, true, straightforward (Isa_26:10; Isa_59:14; 2Sa_15:3).

store up violence and robbery in their palaces] The nobles and great men, in Samaria as in Jerusalem (Isa_1:23; Isa_3:14, &c.) the irresponsible oppressors of the poor, are referred to: they accumulate treasures, but as these are amassed by violence and robbery, they in reality treasure up violence and robbery in their palaces (cf. Isa_3:14, end).

robbery] A strong word, implying violent treatment, and often more adequately represented by wasting or devastation (cf. Amo_5:9; cp. on Joel, p. 81). Coupled with violence, as here, Jer_6:7; Jer_20:8, Eze_45:9, Hab_1:3 (A. V. spoil or spoiling).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Because of these tumults and riots, oppression and injustice, violence and robbery:

an adversary there shall be even round about the land: not Tyre, as Theodoret renders the word; but the king of Assyria, who invaded the land of Israel in the days of Hoshea, took Samaria, and carried Israel captive, and placed them in foreign countries, Kg2 17:6;

and he shall bring down thy strength from thee; take away their riches, demolish their fortresses, and strip them of everything in which they put their confidence:

and thy palaces shall be spoiled; plundered of the treasures laid up in them, and pulled down to the ground; and a just retaliation this for their being the repositories of ill gotten substance and wealth.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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. He adds, as an aggravation, “in their palaces.” Deformed as in all oppression, yet to “oppress the poor, to increase his riches” Pro 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?

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For they know not; those who oppress others do it as unlearned lawyers and judges do, they are shamefully ignorant of the law of God.

To do right; what is equal between man and man they will not consider, nor do they care whether it be done or not.

Store up; as men lay up wealth in their treasures, they fill their houses.

Violence; perverting judgment, first condemning the innocent, next seizing all as forfeited by law; so they did, no doubt, in those times of rebellion and usurpations; sequestrations and decimations, &c. were then too.

Robbery; the true name of all their proceedings, however palliated.

In their palaces: this intimates to us that the greatest among them were chief actors herein; see Zep 1:9; but as they stored up violence, they also treasured up misery and desolation too, as the Hebrew elegantly imports.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They know not how to do right. The Samaritans have lost all sense of justice, the foundation of social life. (Jer_4:22) LXX, Oujk egniv a) estai ejnantion aujthv, "She knew not what things shall be before her." Store up violence; i.e. the fruits of violence and robbery (talaipwrian, "misery," Septuagint), what they had wrung from the poor by oppression and rapine.

The corruption of conscience.

The conception of Ames is remarkable for grandeur. He sees in prophetic vision the approaching siege of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and poetically summons the Egyptians and Philistines to gather themselves together upon the surrounding hills, and to witness the tumults within the city, the assaults from without, and the impending ruin. But the moral significance of history, in the prophet"s mind, transcends the pictorial interest; and in this verse he gives utterance to a profound and awful truth with regard to human nature. Wrongdoing corrupts the conscience and interferes with a correct perception of right and goodness.

I IT IS A LAW OF HUMAN NATURE THAT CONDUCT REACTS UPON CHARACTER. No doubt actions are the expression of the moral nature, the moral habits, of men. But, on the other hand, those who persevere in a certain course of conduct are by that very fact moulded and fashioned and even transformed. Thus it is that those who submit to circumstances and who yield to influences are affected even in their inmost moral nature by the experience they pass through.

II PASSION AND INTEREST WARP THE MORAL JUDGMENT. Nations which, like Israel, are guilty of luxury and of idolatry, which pillage their neighbours" goods, and wage unlawful war, involving widespread calamity, thereby blunt their sensibilities to right and wrong. They habituate themselves to regard all questions in the light of their own ambition, or their own aggrandizement and enrichment. As a consequence they are tempted to call evil good, and good evil. Especially are they liable to term a false judgment upon their own conduct.

III THUS WRONG DOING HAS A TENDENCY TO PERPETUATE ITSELF. They who by reason of abandoning themselves to evil courses have silenced the voice of conscience, lose the moral power to do better. Because they "know not to do right," they continue to do wrong. They reap as they have sown. They advance upon the road of sin by the momentum derived from past iniquity. T.

Vers. 10, 11.

Rectitude.

they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces," etc. We derive from this passage three general remarks.

I THAT THERE IS AN ETERNAL LAW OF "RIGHT" THAT SHOULD GOVERN MAN IN ALL HIS RELATIONS. Right, as a sentiment, is one of the deepest, most ineradicable, and operative sentiments in humanity. All men feel that there is such a thing as right. What the right is, is a subject on which there has been and is a variety of opinion. Right implies a standard, and men differ about the standard. Some say the law of your country is the standard; some say public sentiment is the standard; some say temporal expediency is the standard. All these are fearfully mistaken. Philosophy and the Bible teach that there is but one standard that is the will of the Creator. That will he reveals in many ways in nature, in history, in conscience, in Christ. Conformity to that will is right.

1. The law of right should govern man in his relations with God. That law says Thank the kindest Being most, love the best Being most, reverence the greatest Being most. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," etc.

2. The law of right should govern man in his relation to his fellow men. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." This law of right is immutable. It admits of no modification. It is universal. It is binding alike on all moral beings in the universe. It is benevolent. It seeks the happiness of all. Earth will be Paradise again when the will of God is done here "as it is in heaven.

II THAT A PRACTICAL DISREGARD OF THIS LAW LEADS TO FRAUD AND VIOLENCE. "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces." The magnates of Samaria had no respect for the practice of right, hence they "stored up violence and robbery in their palaces." Fraud and violence are the two great primary crimes in all social life. By the former men are deceived, befooled, rifled of their rights, and disappointed of their hopes and expectations. Never was fraud stronger in England than today fraud in literature, commerce, religion, legislation. By the latter, men are disabled, wounded, crushed, murdered. Can the history of the world furnish more terrible manifeststions of violence than we have had in the wars of Christendom in this age? Why this fraud and violence? Why are these devils let loose to fill the world with lamentation and woe? The answer is in the text, "Men know not to do right" That is, they do not practise the right.

III THAT FRAUD AND VIOLENCE MUST ULTIMATELY MEET WITH CONDIGN PUNISHMENT. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." How was this realized? "Against him came up Shalmaneser King of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents .... In the ninth year of Hoshea the King of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes". (2Ki 3-6 18:9-11) The cheats and. murderers of mankind will, as sure as there is justice in the world, meet with a terrible doom. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your 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. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you". (Jam_5:1-6) "Punishment is the recoil of crime; and the strength of the back stroke is in proportion to the original blow. D.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Store up - As men lay up wealth in their treasures, perverting judgment, first condemning the innocent, next seizing all his substance.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

right Heb. נְכֹחָה, meaning ‘straight.’

violence and plunder—I.e, money of plunder.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.