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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when, Abraham, shall surely become, a great and mighty nation, - and all the nations of the earth, shall be blessed in him?
So shall ye not walk in the - statutes of the nations, which I am casting out from before you, - For all these things, had they done, Therefore I abhorred them;
But, if ye will not hearken unto me, And will not do all these commandments; And if, my statutes, ye refuse, And, my regulations, your souls shall abhor, - So that ye will not do all my commandments, But shall break my covenant read more. I also, will do this unto you - I will set over you, for terror, consumption and fever, Causing the eyes to fail and the soul to pine away, - And ye shall sow, in vain, your seed, for it shall be eaten by your foes. And I will set my face against you, And ye shall be smitten before your foes,-And be trodden down by them who hate you, And shall flee when no one is pursuing you. And, if even with these things, ye will not hearken unto me, Then will I yet further correct you seven times, for your sins. So will I break your pomp of power, And will set your heavens as iron, and your land as bronze; And your strength shall be spent in vain, - And your land shall not yield her increase, And the trees of the land, shall not yield their fruit. If therefore, ye will go in opposition to me, And not be willing to hearken unto me, Then will I yet further plague you seven times according to your sins; And will send among you the wild-beast of the field And it shall rob you of your children, And cut off your cattle, And make you few in number; And your roads shall be silent. And, if, by these things, ye will not be corrected by me, - But will go in opposition to me, Then will, I also, go in opposition to you. And, I, even I, will plague you seven times for your sins; And will bring in upon you a sword that shall inflict the covenanted avenging: So shall ye be gathered into your cities, - Then will I send a pestilence into your midst, And ye shall be delivered into the hand of an enemy. When I have broken your staff of bread, then shall ten women bake your bread in one oven, And give back your bread by weight, - And ye shall eat and not be filled. And, if, with this, ye will not hearken to me, - But will go in opposition to me, Then will I go in a rage of opposition to you, - And I, even I, will correct you seven times for your sins; And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, - Yea, even the flesh of your daughters, shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places And cut down your sun-pillars, And cast your caresses upon the calluses of your manufactured gods, - Thus shall my soul abhor you. And I will give your cities unto desolation, And make your holy places dumb, - And will find no fragrance in your satisfying odour; And, I, will make the land dumb, And your foes that dwell therein shall regard it with dumb amazement: When, even you, I scatter among the nations, And make bare after you, a sword, Then shall your land become an astonishment, And your cities become a desolation. Then, shall the land be paid her sabbaths, All the days she lieth desolate, While, ye, are in the land of your fees, - Then, shall the land keep sabbath, And pay off her sabbaths: All the days she lieth desolate, shall she keep sabbath, - the which she kept not as your sabbaths, - while ye dwelt thereupon. And as for such as are left of you, Then will I bring faintness into their heart, in the lands of their foes, - So that the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them, And they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword And they shall fall, when no one is pursuing; And they shall stumble one upon another as from before a sword, when, pursuer there is none; And ye shall not have wherewith to stand before your foes; And ye shall perish among the nations, - And the land of your fees shall eat you up; And they who are left of you, shall melt away in their iniquity, in the lands of your foes; Yea also, in the iniquity of their fathers with them, shall they melt away. Then shall they confess their iniquity, And the iniquity of their fathers, In their unfaithfulness wherewith they had been unfaithful towards me; Yea moreover, because they had gone in opposition to me, I also, must needs go in opposition to them, and bring them into the land of their foes, - Save only that, if, even then, their uncircumcised heart shall be humbled, And, even then, they shall accept as a payment the punishment of their iniquity, Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob Yea moreover, my covenant with Isaac, Yea moreover, my covenant with Abraham, will I remember; And the land, will I remember. For, the land, shall be left of them, And shall be paid her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them, They also, accepting, as a payment, the punishment of their iniquity, Because, yea because, my regulations, they refused, And my statutes, their soul abhorred. And yet even so when they are in the land of their foes I have not refused them Neither have I abhorred them To make an end of them, To break my covenant with them, - For, I - Yahweh, am their God. Therefore will I remember in their behalf 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 - Yahweh.
so as not to go in among these nations, these which remain with you, - and, with the name of their gods, shall ye neither make memorial nor put on oath, and neither serve them, - nor bow down to them.
Thou hast rebuked the nations, Thou hast destroyed the lawless one, Their name, hast thou wiped out, to times age-abiding and beyond.
The nations, have sunk, in the pit they had made, In the net which they had hidden, is caught their own foot.
The lawless, shall return, to hades, all nations forgetful of God.
Save us, O Yahweh our God, and gather us from among the nations, That we may give thanks unto thy holy Name, That we may triumph aloud in thy praise.
Lest Hezekiah, persuade you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us! Have the gods of the nations, delivered, - any one of them - his country, out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Thou, do not fear, O my Servant Jacob, Urgeth Yahweh, For, with thee, am I: Though I make an end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, Yet of thee, will I not make an end, But will correct thee in measure, And not hold thee, guiltless,
Carried away captive is Judah - because of oppression, and because of great servitude, She, hath remained among the nations, hath found no place of rest, - All her pursuers, have overtaken her, between straits.
And, being at prayer, use not vain repetitions, just like the nations, - for they think, that, in their much speaking, they shall be hoard;
And he said unto me - -Be taking thy journey; because, I, unto nations afar off, will send thee.
And, the scripture, foreseeing, that, by faith, God would declare the nations righteous, fore-announced the good news unto Abraham, saying, All the nations shall be blessed in thee.
In order that, unto the nations, the blessing of Abraham, might come about in Jesus Christ, - in order that, the promise of the Spirit, we might receive through means of 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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But, if he hear them amiss, tell it to the assembly, - And, if, even the assembly, he hear amiss, Let him be unto thee, just as the man of the nations and the tax-collector.
But I beseech you, brethren, to keep an eye upon them who are causing divisions and occasions of stumbling, aside from the teaching which, ye, have learned, - and be turning away from them;
Smith
Hea'then.
[GENTILES]
See Gentiles