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Amos 2:6-3:15

You Only Have I Known

Lyrics · Amos

You Only Have I Known

Amos 2:6-3:15

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About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Amos collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Amos
Collection
Amos
Musical styles
Uncategorized
[Oracle] Silver for the righteous, shoes for the poor, Dust on the head at the creditor’s door. Pledges beside altars, fines turned to wine, [People] I brought you from Egypt, I cleared out the land, Raised prophets to speak and the consecrated to stand. [Oracle] A holy name wounded by appetite and design. You silenced the warning and poured them the cup, Now the loaded cart groans and the measure comes up. You only have I known among families of earth, [People] I brought you from Egypt, I cleared out the land, Raised prophets to speak and the consecrated to stand. Covenant privilege carries covenant weight. [Bridge] The lion has roared; the prophet must speak, Ivory houses cannot make justice weak. Known does not mean hidden from judgment or pain, [Coda] It means love tells the truth and will not bless the chain. I brought you from Egypt, I cleared out the land, Raised prophets to speak and the consecrated to stand.

Named in this songEgypt

About the passage

Amos 2: The accusation arrives at Israel's own door

The circle tightens. Moab is judged for violence against the dead, Judah receives the same repeated formula for despising the LORD’s law, and then the chapter settles on Israel with far more detail. The righteous and poor can be priced in silver and shoes, pledged garments become furniture beside altars, and religious comfort is built from condemned people’s losses. Against that conduct, the LORD recalls what Israel did not create for itself: the defeat of the Amorite, deliverance from Egypt, wilderness guidance, prophets, and Nazarites. Those gifts were answered by making Nazarites drink and ordering prophets not to speak. The final verses strip away every familiar military advantage. Speed, strength, bows, horses, and courage are all named and denied their usual result. Privilege and preparedness offer no exception to the accusation.

Study Amos 2 in depth

Amos 3: Known by God, and therefore answerable

The chapter takes Israel’s special relation with the LORD and turns the expected conclusion inside out. “You only have I known” does not lead to immunity but to “therefore I will punish you.” A chain of questions then explains Amos’s own speech: effects have causes, danger produces alarm, and once the LORD has spoken, the prophet cannot simply choose silence. Foreign palaces are summoned to inspect Samaria, where violence and robbery have been stored like treasure. The promised rescue is deliberately meager, like two legs or a piece of an ear pulled from a lion’s mouth, not a restored flock walking home. The close joins Bethel’s altars to winter houses, summer houses, ivory houses, and great houses. Worship and luxury occupy the same sentence because neither structure can stand outside the transgressions being examined.

Study Amos 3 in depth