page_title: Jews as the chosen people
section_title: In the Bible
hierarchical_section_title: Jews as the chosen people / In the Bible
caption_attribution_description: English: The Prophet Amos (Amos 1:1-15) Русский: Пророк Амос (Амос 1:1-15)
context_page_description: In Judaism, "chosenness" is the belief that the Jews, via descent from the ancient Israelites, are the chosen people, i.e. chosen to be in a covenant with God. The idea of the Israelites being chosen by God is found most directly in the Book of Deuteronomy as the verb baḥar, and is alluded to elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible using other terms such as "holy people". Much is written about these topics in rabbinic literature. The three largest Jewish denominations—Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism—maintain the belief that the Jews have been chosen by God for a purpose. Sometimes this choice is seen as charging the Jewish people with a specific mission—to be a light unto the nations, and to exemplify the covenant with God as described in the Torah.
  This view, however, did not preclude a belief that God has a relationship with other peoples—rather, Judaism held that God had entered into a covenant with all humankind, and that Jews and non-Jews alike have a relationship with God.
context_section_description: According to the Bible, Israel's character as the chosen people is unconditional as it says in Deuteronomy 14:2,
  "For you are a holy people to YHWH your God, and God has chosen you to be his treasured people from all the nations that are on the face of the earth."
  The Torah also says,
  "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me from all the peoples, for all the earth is mine" (Exodus 19:5).
  God promises that he will never exchange his people with any other:
  "And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you." (Genesis 17:7).
  Other Torah verses about chosenness,
  "And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6).
  "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your ancestors." (Deuteronomy 7:7–8).
  The obligation imposed upon the Israelites was emphasized by the prophet Amos (3:2):
  "You only have I singled out of all the families of the earth: therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities."
caption: Prophet Amos as depicted by Gustave Doré
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