Reference: Nations
Hastings
In many places where in the AV we have 'Gentiles' and 'heathen' the RV bas rightly substituted 'nations,' and it might with advantage have carried out the change consistently.
The Heb. (goi) and Greek (ethnos) words denote invariably a nation or a people, never a person. Where in the AV (only NT) we find 'Gentile' in the singular (Ro 2:9 f.) the RV has 'Greek,' following the original. In nearly every example the singular 'nation' stands for 'Israel,' though we have a few exceptions, as in Ex 9:24 (of Egypt), Pr 14:34 (general), and Mt 21:43. It is often applied to Israel and Judah when there is an implication of disobedience to God, sinfulness and the like: see De 32:28; Jg 2:10; Isa 1:4 etc. This shade of meaning became very common in the later writings of the OT. Quite early in Israelitish history the singular as a term for Israel was discarded for the word translated 'people' ('am), so that 'am ('people') and goi ('nation') came to be almost antithetic terms = 'Israelites' and 'non-Israelites,' as in Rabbinical Hebrew. For the reason of the change in the use of goi ('nation'), see below.
In the AV 'Gentiles' often corresponds to 'Greeks' in the original, as in Joh 7:35; Ro 3:9 etc. In the RV the word 'Greeks' is rightly substituted, though the sense is the same, for to the Jews of the time Greek culture and religion stood for the culture and religion of the non-Jewish world.
The two words (Heb. and Greek) translated 'nation' have their original and literal sense in many parts of the OT and NT, as in 10/5/type/darby'>Ge 10:5,10 etc., Isa 2:4 (= Mic 4:2 f.), Job 12:23; 34:20; Ac 17:28; Ga 3:14. In other passages this general meaning is narrowed so as to embrace the descendants of Abraham, e.g. in Ge 12:2; 18:18; 17:4-6,15. But it is the plural that occurs by far the most frequently, standing almost invariably for non-Israelitish nations, generally with the added notion of their being idolatrous and immoral: see Ex 9:24; 34:10; Le 25:44 ff., Nu 14:15; De 15:5; 1Ki 4:31; Isa 11:10,12, and often. These are contrasted with Israel 'the people of Jahweh' in 2Sa 7:22; 1Ch 17:21 etc.
This contrast between Israel (united or divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah) as Jahweh's people, and all the rest of the human race designated 'nations,' runs right through the OT. Such a conception could have arisen only after the Israelites bad developed the consciousness of national unity. At first, even among the Israelites, each nation was thought to be justified in worshipping its deity (see De 3:24; 10:17; 1Ki 8:23; Isa 19:1 etc.). As long as this idea prevailed there could be no necessary antagonism between Israelites and foreign nations, except that which was national, for the nation's god was identified with the national interests. But when the belief in Jahweh's absolute and exclusive claims possessed the mind of Israel, as it began to do in the time of the earliest literary prophets (see Am 9 ff., Mic 7:18 etc.), the nations came to be regarded as worshippers of idols (Le 18:20), and in Ps 9:5,15,17 (cf. Eze 7:21) 'nations' and 'wicked people' are, as being identical, put in parallelism. It will be gathered from what has been said, that the hostile feelings with which Israelites regarded other peoples varied at various times. At all periods it would be modified by the laws of hospitality (see art. Stranger), by political alliances (cf. Isa 7:1 ff., and 2Ki 16:5 ff., Ahaz and Assyria against Israel and Syria), and by the needs of commerce (see Eze 27:11 [Tyre], 1Ki 9:28; 10:11; 22:28 etc.).
The reforms instituted by king Josiah in the Southern Kingdom (2Ki 22:1 f.), based upon the Deuteronomic law newly found in the Temple, aimed at stamping out all syncretism in religion and establishing the pure religion of Jahweb. This reformation, as also the Rechabite movement (Jer 35), had a profound influence upon the thoughts and feelings of Jews, widening the gulf between them and alien nations. The teaching of the oldest prophets looked in the same direction (see Am 2:11; 3:15; 5:11,25; 6:8; 8:5; Ho 2:19; 8:14; 9:10; 10:13; 12:7 ff; Ho 14:4; Isa 2:6; 10:4; 17:10; Zep 1:8,11; Jer 35:1 ff; Jer 37:6 f. etc.).
But the Deuteronomic law (about b.c. 620) made legally obligatory what earlier teachers had inculcated. Israelites were not to marry non-Israelites (De 7:3), or to have any except unavoidable dealings with them.
The feeling of national exclusiveness and antipathy was intensified by the captivity in Babylon, when the prophetic and priestly instructors of the exiled Jews taught them that their calamities came upon them on account of their disloyalty to Jahweh and the ordinances of His religion, and because they compromised with idolatrous practices and heathen nations. It was in Babylon that Ezekiel drew up the programme of worship and organization for the nation after the Return, laying stress on the doctrine that Israel was to be a holy people, separated from other nations (see Eze 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48). Some time after the Return, Ezra and Nehemiah had to contend with the laxity to which Jews who had remained in the home land and others had yielded; but they were uncompromising, and won the battle for nationalism in religion.
Judaism was in even greater danger of being lost in the world-currents of speculation and religion soon after the time of Alexander the Great. Indeed, but for the brave Maccab
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From these came the distribution of the isles of the nations, according to their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
And I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.
It is I: behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations. And thy name shall no more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of a multitude of nations have I made thee. read more. And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
And God said to Abraham, As to Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
Since Abraham shall indeed become a great and mighty nation; and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
And there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there had been none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
And there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there had been none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels that have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people in the midst of which thou art shall see the work of Jehovah; for a terrible thing it shall be that I will do with thee.
And thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to become unclean with her.
And as for thy bondman and thy handmaid whom thou shalt have of the nations that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and handmaids.
if thou now slayest this people as one man, then the nations that have heard thy fame will speak, saying,
Lord Jehovah, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy powerful hand; for what God is in the heavens or in the earth that can do like to thy works, and like to thy might?
And thou shalt make no marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor take his daughter for thy son;
For Jehovah your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty and the terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward;
if thou only diligently hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all this commandment which I command thee this day.
For they are a nation void of counsel, And understanding is not in them.
And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the LORD or the work which he had done for Israel.
Wherefore thou art great, Jehovah Elohim; for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
and they went to Ophir, and fetched thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
(And the fleet also of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir sandal-wood in very great abundance, and precious stones.
And Micah said, If thou return at all in peace, Jehovah has not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O peoples, all of you!
Then Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle; and they besieged Ahaz, but were unable to conquer him.
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozcath.
He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in;
In a moment they die, even at midnight the people are convulsed and pass away; and the strong are taken away without hand.
Thou hast rebuked the nations, thou hast destroyed the wicked; thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid is their own foot taken.
The wicked shall be turned into Sheol, all the nations that forget God.
Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to peoples.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that corrupt themselves! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have despised the Holy One of Israel; they are turned away backward.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall reprove many peoples; and they shall forge their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-knives: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with what comes from the east, and use auguries like the Philistines, and ally themselves with the children of foreigners.
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they were not able to fight against it.
They can but crouch under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, standing as a banner of the peoples: the nations shall seek it; and his resting-place shall be glory.
And he shall lift up a banner to the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
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:
The burden of Egypt. Behold, Jehovah rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt are moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt melteth in the midst of it.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying,
And I will give it into the hands of strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.
The children of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadim were on thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they made thy beauty perfect.
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies;
For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness; as first-ripe fruit on the fig-tree, I saw your fathers at the beginning: they went to Baal-Peor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and became abominations like their lover.
Ye have ploughed wickedness, reaped iniquity, eaten the fruit of lies; for thou didst confide in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
He is a merchant, balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress.
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him.
And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, ye children of Israel? saith Jehovah.
And I will smite the winter-house with the summer-house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall have an end, saith Jehovah.
Forasmuch, therefore, as ye trample upon the poor, and take from him presents of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, and ye shall not drink the wine of them.
Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and oblations in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself, saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; and I will deliver up the city with all that is therein.
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat? making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances for deceit:
And many nations shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and Jehovah's word from Jerusalem.
Who is a God like unto thee, that forgiveth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in loving-kindness.
And it shall come to pass in the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's sons, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh; for all the people of Canaan are cut down, all they that are laden with silver are cut off.
Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.
The Jews therefore said to one another, Where is he about to go that we shall not find him? Is he about to go to the dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?
And the faithful of the circumcision were astonished, as many as came with Peter, that upon the nations also the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out:
for in him we live and move and exist; as also some of the poets amongst you have said, For we are also his offspring.
tribulation and distress, on every soul of man that works evil, both of Jew first, and of Greek;
What then? are we better? No, in no wise: for we have before charged both Jews and Greeks with being all under sin:
that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.