'Foreign' in the Bible

Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem.

She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

Each woman is to ask her neighbor or any foreign woman in her house for articles of gold and for clothing, and use them to clothe your sons and daughters. You will plunder the Egyptians."

Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.

along with her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (because Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land”)

If she's displeasing to her master who selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He does not have the right to sell her to foreign people, because he has dealt unfairly with her.

“You must not exploit a foreign resident or oppress him, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

You must not oppress a foreign resident; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

“Do your work for six days but rest on the seventh day so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave as well as the foreign resident may be refreshed.

You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am Yahweh your God.

“Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and tell them: Any man of the house of Israel or of the foreign residents in Israel who presents his offering—whether they present freewill gifts or payment of vows to the Lord as burnt offerings—

When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am Yahweh your God.”

Whoever blasphemes the name of Yahweh is to be put to death; the whole community must stone him. If he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death, whether the foreign resident or the native.

You are to have the same law for the foreign resident and the native, because I am Yahweh your God.”

All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you.

"'If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident.

He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A foreign owner is not to rule over him harshly in your sight.

“If a foreigner resides with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, he is to do so according to the Passover statute and its ordinances. You are to apply the same statute to both the foreign resident and the native of the land.”

The assembly is to have the same statute for both you and the foreign resident as a permanent statute throughout your generations. You and the foreigner will be alike before the Lord.

“But the person who acts defiantly, whether native or foreign resident, blasphemes the Lord. That person is to be cut off from his people.

I commanded your judges at that time: Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

Then the Levite, who has no portion or inheritance among you, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come, eat, and be satisfied. And the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Rejoice before Yahweh your God in the place where He chooses to have His name dwell—you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow among you.

Rejoice during your festival—you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates.

You will certainly set a king over you, whom the LORD your God will choose from among your relatives, but you must not place a foreign king over you who is not from your relatives.

Do not despise an Edomite, because he is your brother. Do not despise an Egyptian, because you were a foreign resident in his land.

Do not deny justice to a foreigner or fatherless child, and do not take a widow’s garment as security.

“When you reap the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not glean what is left. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

You, the Levite, and the foreign resident among you will rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given you and your household.

“When you have finished paying all the tenth of your produce in the third year, the year of the tenth, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

Then you will say in the presence of the Lord your God:I have taken the consecrated portion out of my house; I have also given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commands You gave me. I have not violated or forgotten Your commands.

‘The one who denies justice to a foreigner, a fatherless child, or a widow is cursed.’And all the people will say, ‘Amen!’

The foreign resident among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower.

The Lord said to Moses, “You are about to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon commit adultery with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will abandon Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

The Lord alone led him,with no help from a foreign god.

They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods;they enraged Him with detestable practices.

If you abandon the Lord and worship foreign gods, He will turn against you, harm you, and completely destroy you, after He has been good to you.”

“Then get rid of the foreign gods that are among you and offer your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the Lord, and He became weary of Israel’s misery.

But his master replied to him, “We will not stop at a foreign city where there are no Israelites. Let’s move on to Gibeah.”

Samuel told them, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths that are among you, dedicate yourselves to the Lord, and worship only Him. Then He will rescue you from the hand of the Philistines.”

Meanwhile, David asked the young man who had told him the story, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I'm an Amalekite, the son of a foreign man."

Children of a foreign land came cringing to me; {when they heard of me}, they became obedient to me.

Children of a foreign land lost heart and came trembling from their strongholds.

But now the LORD has given me rest all around, since I have neither foreign adversaries nor domestic crises.

King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women

He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

I dug wells,and I drank foreign waters.I dried up all the streams of Egyptwith the soles of my feet.

When they were few in number, just a very few, and foreign residents within it,

Solomon took a census of all the foreign men in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had conducted, and the total was 153,600.

by removing the foreign altars and high places, tearing down the sacred pillars, cutting down the Asherim, and

He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s temple, along with all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.

because they and their sons have married foreign women. As a result, the holy people have mingled themselves among the nations of these lands. As a matter of fact, the senior officials and the rulers have been foremost in this sin."

"My God, I am too ashamed and hurt to turn to you, because we're in our iniquities over our heads. Furthermore, my God, our sins have grown as high as the heavens. We have lived in great sin from the days of our ancestors even until today, and because of those iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered over to foreign kings, for execution, for captivity, for plunder, and for humiliation, as is the case today.

Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, an Elamite, responded to Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the surrounding peoples, but there is still hope for Israel in spite of this.

Let us therefore make a covenant before our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the command of our God. Let it be done according to the law.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful by marrying foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt.

Therefore, make a confession to Yahweh the God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the surrounding peoples and your foreign wives.”

Let our leaders represent the entire assembly. Then let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each town, in order to avert the fierce anger of our God concerning this matter.”

and by the first day of the first month they had dealt with all the men who had married foreign women.

The following were found to have married foreign women from the descendants of the priests:from the descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.

All of these had married foreign women, and some of the wives had given birth to children.

Then I said, “What you are doing isn’t right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God and not invite the reproach of our foreign enemies?

When they heard the Law, they separated all those of foreign descent from Israel.

Didn’t King Solomon of Israel sin in matters like this? There was not a king like him among many nations. He was loved by his God and God made him king over all Israel, yet foreign women drew him into sin.

Why then should we hear about you doing all this terrible evil and acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?”

So I purified them from everything foreign and assigned specific duties to each of the priests and Levites.

So he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, saying that every man should be the master and rule in his own home and that he should speak [in the household] in the language of his own people.

as soon as {they heard}, they obeyed me. [The] children of a foreign land feigned obedience before me.

[The] children of a foreign land {lost heart}, and they came trembling from their strongholds.

If we had forgotten the name of our Godand spread out our hands to a foreign god,

There must not be a strange god among you;you must not bow down to a foreign god.

make their descendants die among the nations, and scatter them among foreign lands.

and gathered from foreign lands, from east and west, from north and south.

When Israel came out of Egypt—the house of Jacob from a peoplewho spoke a foreign language—

How can we sing the Lord’s songon foreign soil?

[in order] to deliver you from a strange woman, from a foreign woman [who] flatters [with] her sayings,

Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

For a harlot is a deep ditch; And a foreign woman is a narrow pit.

Take his garment that is surety for a stranger; And hold him in pledge that is surety for a foreign woman.

Your land is devastated, your cities burned with fire. Right before your eyes your crops are being destroyed by foreign invaders. They leave behind devastation and destruction.

At that time those left in Israel, those who remain of the family of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. Instead they will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

And like the hunted gazelle,Or like sheep that no man gathers,Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.

For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plantations, and shalt set them with foreign slips:

So He will speak to this peoplewith stammering speechand in a foreign language.

I myself dug wells and drank foreign waters; with the soles of my feet I dried up all the streams of Egypt."

I alone declared, saved, and proclaimed—and not some foreign god among you.So you are My witnesses”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I am God.

“You have gone to the king [of a pagan land] with oilAnd increased your perfumes;You have sent your messengers a great distanceAnd made them go down to Sheol (the realm of the dead).

As their deeds deserve, so He will repay:Wrath to His adversaries, retribution to His enemies;To the islands and coastlands He will repay.

I planted you, a choice vinefrom the very best seed.How then could you turn intoa degenerate, foreign vine?

"Don't run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you say, "It's hopeless! Because I love foreign gods, I'll go after them!'"

However, you must confess that you have done wrong, and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You must confess that you have given yourself to foreign gods under every green tree, and have not obeyed my commands,' says the Lord.

When people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You will respond to them: Just as you abandoned Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Listen—the cry of my dear peoplefrom a far away land,“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,her King not within her?”Why have they provoked me to angerwith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols?

Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland.