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
seeing that Abraham shall be a great and a mighty people, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
And see that ye walk not in the manners of the nations which I cast out before you: For they committed all these things, and I abhorred them.
"'But and if ye will not hearken unto me, nor will do all these my commandments, or if ye shall despise mine ordinances, either if your souls refuse my laws, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but shall break mine covenant: read more. then I will do this again unto you: I will visit you with vexations, swelling, and fevers, that shall make your eyes dazzle; and with sorrows of heart. 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 fall before your enemies, and they that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when no man followeth you. "'And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then will I punish you seven times more for your sins, and will break the pride of your strength. For I will make the heaven over you as hard as iron, and your land as hard as brass. And so your labour shall be spent in vain. For your land shall not give her increase, neither the trees of the land shall give their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will send in wild beasts upon you, which shall rob you of your children and destroy your cattle, and make you so few in number that your highways shall grow unto a wilderness. And if ye will not be learned yet for all this, but shall walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. I will send a sword upon you, that shall avenge my covenant with you. And when ye are fled unto your cities, I will send the pestilence among you: ye shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies. And when I have broken the staff of your bread: that ten wives shall bake your bread in one oven and men shall deliver you your bread again by weight, then shall ye eat and shall not be satisfied. "'And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, but shall walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also wrathfully, and will also chastise you seven times for your sins: so that ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your altars built upon high hills, and overthrow your images, and cast your carcasses upon the bodies of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities desolate, and bring your sanctuaries unto nought, and will not smell the savours of your sweet odours. "'And I will bring the land unto a wilderness: so that your enemies which dwell therein shall wonder at it. And I will straw you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be waste, and your cities desolate. Then the land shall rejoice in her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth void and ye in your enemies' land: even then shall the land keep holy day and rejoice in her Sabbaths. And as long as it lieth void it shall rest, for that it could not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt therein. "'And upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies: so that the sound of a leaf that falleth, shall chase them and they shall flee as though they fled a sword, and shall fall no man following them. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword even no man following them, and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies: And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you, shall pine away in their unrighteousness, even in their enemies' land, and also in the misdeeds of their fathers shall they consume. And they shall confess their misdeeds and the misdeeds of their fathers; in their trespasses which they have trespassed against me, and for that also that they have walked contrary unto me. Therefore I also will walk contrary unto them, and will bring them into the land of their enemies. And then at the least way their uncircumcised hearts shall be tamed, and then they shall make an atonement for their misdeeds. "'And I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham, and will think on the land. For the land shall be left of them and shall have pleasure in her Sabbaths, while she lieth waste without them, and they shall make an atonement for their misdeeds, because they despised my laws and their souls refused mine ordinances. And yet, for all that; when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not so cast them away nor my soul shall not so abhor them, that I will utterly destroy them and break mine covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. I will therefore remember unto them the first covenant made when I brought them out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen to be their God: for I am the LORD.'"
and that ye go not unto these nations that remain with you: and that ye neither make mention or swear by the names of their gods, and that ye neither serve them nor bow yourselves unto them.
Thou hast rebuked the heathen, and destroyed the ungodly; thou hast put out their name forever and ever.
The Heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made; in the same net which they hid privily, is their own foot taken.
The wicked must be turned unto hell, and all the people that forget God.
Deliver us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the Heathen; that we may give thanks unto thy holy name, and make our boast of thy praise.
Let not Hezekiah deceive you, when he sayeth unto you, 'The LORD shall deliver us.' Might the gods of the Gentiles keep every man's land, from the power of the king of the Assyrians?
Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, sayeth the LORD, for I am with thee: and will destroy all nations, among whom I have scattered thee. Nevertheless I will not consume thee, but chasten thee and correct thee: yea and that with discretion: neither will I spare thee as one that were faultless."
{Gimel} Judah is taken prisoner, because she was defiled: and for serving so many strange gods, she dwelleth now among the heathen. She findeth no rest: all they that persecuted her, took her in strait places where she could not escape.
"And when ye pray, babble not much, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard, for their much babbling's sake.
And he said unto me, 'Depart for I will send thee afar hence unto the gentiles.'"
For the scripture saw aforehand, that God would justify the heathen through faith, and therefore showed beforehand glad tidings unto Abraham: "In thee shall all nations be blessed."
that the blessing of Abraham might come on the gentiles through Jesus Christ, and 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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If he hear not them, tell it unto the congregation: if he hear not the congregation, take him as a heathen man, and as a publican.
I beseech you, brethren: mark them which cause division, and give occasions of evil contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Smith
Hea'then.
[GENTILES]
See Gentiles