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/isv'>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 whom the coastal nations spread into their own lands and nations, each with their own language and family groups.
His kingdom began in the region of Shinar with the cities of Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh.
I'll make a great nation of your descendants, I'll bless you, and I'll make your reputation great, so that you will be a blessing.
"Look, I've made a covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. Your name is no longer to be Abram. Instead your name will be Abraham, since I'll make you the father of many nations. read more. I'm going to cause you to have many descendants, and I'll bring nations from you. Kings will come from you.
God told Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are not to call her Sarai any longer, because her name is to be Sarah.
"since Abraham's descendants will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?
There was very heavy hail, and lightning was flashing continuously in the midst of the hail. There had not been anything like it in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
There was very heavy hail, and lightning was flashing continuously in the midst of the hail. There had not been anything like it in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
Then the LORD said, "I'm now going to make a covenant. I'll do miraculous deeds in full view of your people that haven't been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, because it's an awesome thing that I'll do with you.
"You are not to have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and thereby become ceremonially unclean with her."
"As for your male and maid slaves who will be with you, you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations.
But if you slaughter this people all at the same time, then the nations who heard about your fame will say,
"LORD God, you've begun to show your greatness and your strong power to your servant. For what god in heaven or on earth can equal your works and mighty deeds?
You are not to intermarry with them. You are not to give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons,
For the LORD your God is the God of all gods, the LORD of all lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who does not show favoritism or take bribes.
Only be certain to obey the voice of the LORD your God. Carefully observe all of these commands that I'm commanding to you today.
They are a nation devoid of purpose and without insight.
After that whole generation had died, another generation grew up after them that was not acquainted with the LORD or with what he had done for Israel.
And therefore you are great, Lord GOD, there is no one like you, there is no God except for you, just as we've heard with our own ears.
Hiram's ships that brought gold from Ophir, also brought from Ophir lots of algum wood and precious stones.
"If you return alive," Micaiah responded, "then the LORD has not spoken by me." Then he added, "Listen, all you people!"
Later, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah's son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem to attack it. They besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him.
Josiah was an eight year old child when he began to reign, and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
He makes nations great, and then destroys them; he enlarges nations, but then sends them away to captivity.
"They die suddenly, in the middle of the night; people suffer seizures and pass away; even valiant men can be taken away and not by human hands.
You rebuked the nations, you destroyed the wicked, you wiped out their name forever and ever.
The nations have sunk down into the pit they made, their feet are ensnared in the trap they set.
The wicked will turn back to where the dead are all the nations that have forgotten God.
Righteousness makes a nation great, but sin diminishes any people.
"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.
He will judge between the nations, and will render verdicts for the benefit of many. "They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations will not raise swords against nations, and they will not learn warfare anymore.
For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with practices learned from the East and they are fortune-tellers like the Philistines. They cut deals with foreigners.
During the reign of Jotham's son Ahaz, Uzziah's grandson, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Remaliah's son Pekah, king of Israel, approached Jerusalem and waged war against it, but they could not mount an attack against it.
so you won't have to crouch among those in chains or fall among the slain? "Yet for all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is still stretched out, ready to strike."
At that time, as to the root of Jesse, who will be standing as a banner for the nations, the nations will rally to him, and his resting place is glorious.
He will raise a banner for the nations and will assemble the dispersed of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from the corners of the earth.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock that is your strength. Therefore even though you plant delightful plants, sowing them with imported vine-seedlings,
A message about Egypt: "Watch out! The LORD rides on a swift cloud, and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.
This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD during the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah:
I'll give it as plunder into the control of strangers and as the spoils of war to the wicked who will invade the land to profane it.
Mercenaries from Arvad and Helech stood guard duty on your walls, while brave men manned your towers. They hung their shields all around your walls just the right touch to perfect your interior decorating!"
I will make you my wife forever I will make you my wife in a way that is righteous, in a manner that is just, by a love that is gracious, and by a motive that is mercy.
"Israel has neglected its maker in building palaces. Judah has multiplied its fortified cities, but I will send fire to their cities, and it will consume their fortresses."
"I found Israel, as one finds grapes in the wilderness; Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit gleaned from a fig tree's first harvest. When they went to Baal-peor, they devoted themselves to that filth, and they became loathsome, like what they loved.
You have plowed evil; you have reaped unrighteousness; you have eaten the fruit of hypocrisy; because you trusted in your own direction, and in the number of your mighty forces.
"Now as for the merchant, deceitful balances remain in his hand, and he loves to defraud.
"I will correct their apostasy, loving them freely, since my anger will have turned away from them.
I also raised up your sons to be prophets, and from your young men I raised up Nazirites. Is this not true, people of Israel?" declares the LORD.
I will wreck both the winter house and the summer house, and the ivory houses will fall. These palaces will surely fall," declares the LORD.
"Therefore, since you trample the poor continuously, taxing his grain, building houses of stone in which you won't live and planting fine vineyards from which you won't drink
"Was it to me that you brought offerings and gifts in the desert for 40 years, house of Israel?
"The Lord GOD has sworn by himself," declares the LORD, the God of the Heavenly Armies, "I utterly detest the arrogance of Jacob; I hate his fortresses; and I will deliver up the city, along with everyone in it.
and who are saying, "When will the New Moon fade so we may sell grain, and the Sabbath conclude so we may market winnowed wheat? shortchanging the measure, raising the price, falsifying the scales by treachery,
Many nations will approach and say, "Come, let's go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the Temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk according to his directions.' "Indeed, the Law will proceed from Zion, and the message of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Is there any God like you, forgiving iniquity, passing over transgressions by the survivors who are your heritage? He is not angry forever, because he delights in gracious love.
"It will come about during the LORD's sacrifice that I'll punish the officials, the royal descendants, and all who wear foreign clothing.
"Wail, you who live in the market district, because all of the merchants will be crushed and all of their customers will be eliminated.
That is why I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce fruit for it.
Then the Jewish leaders asked one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we won't be able to find him? Surely he's not going to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he?
Then the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the gentiles, too,
For we live, move, and exist because of him, as some of your own poets have said: ""Since we are his children, too.'
There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well.
What, then, does this mean? Are we Jews any better off? Not at all! For we have already accused everyone, both Jews and Greeks, of being under the power of sin.
This happened in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the gentiles through the Messiah Jesus, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.