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 shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
And ye shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I cast out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
But if ye will not hearken to me, and will not do all these commandments, and if ye shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, read more. I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. And ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and ye shall flee when no man pursues you. And if for these things ye will not yet hearken to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power. And I will make your sky as iron, and your earth as brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. And if ye walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your sons, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number, and your ways shall become desolate. And if by these things ye will not be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I will smite you, even I, seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant, and ye shall be gathered together within your cities. And I will send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enem When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight, and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if for all this ye will not hearken to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in wrath, and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters ye shall eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lays desolate, and ye are in your enemies' land, even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. As long as it lays desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And as for those who are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee as a man flees from the sword, and they shall fall w And they shall stumble one upon another, as it were before the sword, when no man pursues. And ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those who are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands, and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me, I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies. If then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its Sabbaths while it lays desolate without them. And they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity, because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abh And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them, for I am LORD their God, but for their sakes I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am LORD.
that ye do not come among these nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear [by them], neither serve them, nor bow yourselves down to them,
Thou have rebuked the nations. Thou have destroyed the wicked. Thou have blotted out their name forever and ever.
The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.
Wicked men shall be turned back to Sheol, even all the nations that forget God.
Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.
Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, LORD will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, says LORD, for I am with thee. For I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee. But I will correct thee in measure, and will in no wa
And while praying do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard by their much speaking.
And he said to me, Depart, because I will send thee far away to Gentiles.
And the scripture having foreseen that God makes the Gentiles righteous from faith, proclaimed the good-news in advance to Abraham: In thee all the nations will be blessed.
So that the blessing of Abraham might occur for the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through the 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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And if he is heedless of them, speak to the church. But if he is also heedless of the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the tax collector.
Now I beseech you, brothers, watch out for those who make the divisions and the stumbling blocks, contrary to the doctrine that ye learned, and turn away from them.
Smith
Hea'then.
[GENTILES]
See Gentiles