Bible Strands
Amos 3:2
“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Amos to the children of Israel, the whole family brought up out of Egypt, pronouncing a word of judgment against them.
The words — רַק (rak, "only") narrows the scope to Israel alone, and יָדַעְתִּי (yada'ti, "I have known") uses covenant-language for a relational bond, not mere awareness.
The thread — The same choosing-from-among-nations language appears in Deuteronomy 7:6, Exodus 19:5, and Deuteronomy 10:15, but Amos turns that election into the basis for exclusive accountability.
Why it lands — The verse removes any assumption that special standing is a shield; it is the very reason God holds the chosen to a standard others are not held to.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.
- Exodus 19:5 Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
- Deuteronomy 10:15 Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.
- 1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?
- Zechariah 14:17 And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, then the rain will not fall on them.
- Deuteronomy 32:9 But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
- Jeremiah 9:25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—
- Jeremiah 14:10 This is what the LORD says about this people: “Truly they love to wander; they have not restrained their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity and punish them for their sins.”
- Genesis 10:32 All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.
- Deuteronomy 26:18 And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,