Reference: Heathen
Easton
(Heb plural goyum). At first the word goyim denoted generally all the nations of the world (Ge 18:18; comp. Ga 3:8). The Jews afterwards became a people distinguished in a marked manner from the other goyim. They were a separate people (Le 20:23; 26:14-45; De 28), and the other nations, the Amorites, Hittites, etc., were the goyim, the heathen, with whom the Jews were forbidden to be associated in any way (Jos 23:7; 1Ki 11:2). The practice of idolatry was the characteristic of these nations, and hence the word came to designate idolaters (Ps 106:47; Jer 46:28; La 1:3; Isa 36:18), the wicked (Ps 9:5,15,17).
The corresponding Greek word in the New Testament, ethne, has similar shades of meaning. In Ac 22:21; Ga 3:14, it denotes the people of the earth generally; and in Mt 6:7, an idolater. In modern usage the word denotes all nations that are strangers to revealed religion.
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"since Abraham's descendants will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?
You are not to live by the customs of the nations, whom I've cast away right in front of you. Because they did all of these things, I detested them.
"But if you won't listen to me and obey all these commands, and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, read more. then I will certainly do this to you: I'll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You'll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. I'll set my face against you so that you'll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you'll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you. "If, despite all of this, you still don't listen to me, then I'll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. I'll break your mighty pride. I'll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won't yield its produce and the trees of the land won't yield their fruit. "If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I'll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. I'll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate. "If, despite these things, you still won't return to me, but live life contrary to me, then I'll certainly oppose you. I'll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. I'll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I'll send a pestilence. As a result, you'll be delivered into the control of your enemies. When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they'll return back your bread by weight. You'll eat but won't be satisfied. "If, after all of this time, you don't listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, I'll oppose you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. At that time, you'll eat the flesh of your sons and you'll eat the flesh of your daughters. I'll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I'll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I'll loathe you. I'll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don't have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. I'll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished." "I'll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins. Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it. "As for the remnants among you, I'll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. They'll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing. "You won't have power to resist your enemies. You'll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you. The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they'll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them." "Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity then I'll remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I'll also remember the land. They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That's when they'll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes. Yet, despite all of these things, when they're in the land of their enemies, I won't reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the LORD their God. Instead, on account of them, I'll remember my covenant with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt right before the eyes of the nations, so that I could be their God. I am the LORD."
That way, you will not mingle with those nations that remain among you, nor mention the name of their gods, nor make oaths by them, nor serve them, nor worship them.
You rebuked the nations, you destroyed the wicked, you wiped out their name forever and ever.
The nations have sunk down into the pit they made, their feet are ensnared in the trap they set.
The wicked will turn back to where the dead are all the nations that have forgotten God.
Deliver us, LORD our God, gather us from among the nations so we may praise your holy name and rejoice in praising you.
Be careful not to let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, "The LORD will save us." Has any god of any nation ever delivered his country from the king of Assyria?
"As for you, my servant Jacob, don't be afraid, and Israel, don't be dismayed," declares the LORD, "for I am with you. Indeed, I'll make an end of all the nations where I scattered you; but I won't make an end of you! I'll discipline you justly, but I'll certainly not leave you unpunished."
Judah has gone into exile to escape affliction and servitude. She that sat among the nations, has found no rest. All her pursuers overtook her amid narrow passes.
"When you are praying, don't say meaningless things like the unbelievers do, because they think they will be heard by being so wordy.
"Then he told me, "Go, because I'll send you far away to the gentiles.'"
Because the Scripture saw ahead of time that God would justify the gentiles by faith, it announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand when it said, "Through you all nations will be blessed."
This happened in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the gentiles through the Messiah Jesus, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Fausets
(See GENTILES .)
Hastings
Morish
The Hebrew word goi is also translated 'Gentiles,' and 'people,' and very often 'nations:' it is used in contrast to Israel irrespective of those designated being civilised or not. All the nations were idolaters, but this is not implied in the word goi, nor in the qno" -->????? of the N.T., which is more frequently translated 'nations' and 'Gentiles.' In Mt 18:17 ??????? has a peculiar application: if an offending brother will not bear the church, the injunction is "let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican," that is, as an outsider, the heathen being outside the privileges of Israel, as one to be avoided: cf. Ro 16:17; 2Th 3:6,14.
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If, however, he ignores them, tell it to the congregation. If he also ignores the congregation, regard him as an unbeliever and a tax collector.
Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and sinful enticements that oppose the teaching you have learned. Stay away from them,
Smith
Hea'then.
[GENTILES]
See Gentiles