John Welch notes that the Hebrew word for know is yada. It has a broad range of meanings, but certainly one of them is covenantal. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). In what sense has God only known Israel? By means of the covenant. [John W. Welch, "Christ at the Nephite Temple," in Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 4, p. 144] [See the commentary on 1 Nephi 1:3; 3:7; 5:2; 5:5; 5:8; 2 Nephi 33:4; 3 Nephi 14:23]