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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Abraham being, shall be for a great and numerous nation, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves in him.
And ye shall not walk in the laws of the nations which I sent out from before you: for they did all these things and I shall be disgusted with them.
And if ye will not hear to me, and will not do all these commands; And if ye shall reject my laws. and if your soul shall abhor my judgments so as not to do all my commands, to your breaking my covenant: read more. Surely I will do this to you, and I appointed over you terror, consumption, and burning fever, destroying the eyes and consuming the soul: and ye sowed in vain your seed, and your enemies shall eat it. And I gave my face against you, and ye were slain before your enemies: and they hating you ruled over you, and ye fled and none pursued you. And if yet these ye will not hear to me, I added to chastise you seven times for your sins. And I broke the pride of your strength: and I gave your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be exhausted to no purpose: and your land shall not give its produce, and the tree of the land shall not give its fruit And if ye shall go hostile with me, and shall not be willing to hear to me, and I added upon you seven blows for your sins. And I sent upon you the beast of the field, and it bereaved you of children, and cut off your cattle, and, diminished you, and your ways were laid waste. And if by these ye will not be admonished by me, and ye went hostile with me; And I went also hostile with you, and I struck you, also I, seven for your sins. And I brought upon you the sword to avenge vengeance of the covenant: and ye were gathered into your cities and I sent death in the midst of you, and ye were given into the hand of the enemy. In my breaking to you the rod of bread, and ten women baked your bread in one oven, and they returned your bread by weight: and ye ate, and ye shall not be satisfied. And if by this ye shall not hear to me, and ye went hostile with me; And I went hostile with you in anger; and I chastised you, I also, seven for your sins. And ye ate the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I laid waste your high places, and I cut off your images, and I gave your carcasses upon the carcasses of your blocks, and my soul abhorred you. And I gave your cities a desert, and I laid waste your holy places, and I will not smell upon the odor of your sweetness. And I laid the land waste, and your enemies were astonished at it, they dwelling upon it And I will scatter you among the nations, and I drew out after you a sword: and your land was a desert, and your cities shall be a desolation. Then shall the land delight with its Sabbaths, all the days of its desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies: then shall the land rest and delight with its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation shall it rest, which it did not rest in your Sabbaths, in your dwelling upon it And they remaining of you, and I brought timidity into their heart in the land of their enemies; and the voice of a driven leaf pursued them, and they fled, fleeing the sword; and they fell, and none pursued. And they faltered each upon his brother, as from before the sword, and none pursued: and there shall be to you no power of standing before your enemies. And ye were destroyed in the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they being left of you, shall pine away in their sin in the land of your enemies, and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, and the transgression which they dealt treacherously against me, and also that they went hostile with me; I also will go hostile with them, and I brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart shall be humbled, and then they shall be satisfied with their iniquity; And I remembered my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaak, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. And the land shall be left of them, and shall delight with its Sabbaths in its desolation from them: and they shall be satisfied because of their iniquity, and because they rejected my judgments, and my laws their soul abhorred. And yet also this in their being in the land of their enemies, I did not reject them, and I did not abhor them, to cut them off, and to break my covenant with them: for I Jehovah their God. And I remembered for them the covenant of their beginnings, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt, in the eyes of the nations to be to them for God: I Jehovah.
So as not to come among these nations, these being left with you; and ye shall not make mention of the name of their gods, and ye shall not swear, and ye shall not serve them, and ye shall not worship to them:
Thou didst rebuke the nations, thou didst destroy the unjust one, wiping off their name forever and ever.
The nations sank into the pit they made: in the net they hid, their foot was taken by it
The unjust shall be turned away into hades, all the nations forgetting God.
Save us, O Jehovah our God, and gather us from the nations to confess to thy holy name, to boast in thy praise
Lest Hezekiah shall stimulate you, saying, Jehovah will deliver us. Did each of the gods of the nations deliver his land from the hand of the king of Assur?
Thou shalt not fear, O my servant Jacob, says Jehovah: for I am with thee; for I will make a completion among all nations where I thrust thee away there: and I will not make a completion with thee, and I will correct thee for judgment; and acquitting, I will not let thee go unpunished.
Judah was carried away captive from affliction, and from the greatness of her serving: she dwelt in the nations, she found no rest: all pursuing her overtook her between straitnesses.
And praying, talk ye not vainly as the nations; for they think that by their profaneness of speech they shall be listened to.
And he said to me, Go: for I will send thee far off to the nations.
And the writing, foreseeing that of faith God justifies the nations, announced beforehand the good news to Abraham, That in thee shall all nations be praised.
That the praise of Abraham might be to the nations in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the 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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And if he refuse hearing them, speak to the church: and if he refuse hearing the church, let him be to thee as of the nations and a publican.
And I beseech you, brethren, to observe narrowly them having made divisions and scandals against the teaching which ye learned; and bend away from them.
Smith
Hea'then.
[GENTILES]
See Gentiles