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/mkjv'>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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By these were the coasts of the nations divided in 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 you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing.
As for Me, behold! My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name any more be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations. read more. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, greatly so, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you.
And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah.
And Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the persons of the earth shall be blessed in him?
And there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was 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 was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
And He said, Behold! I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. And all the people in whose midst you are shall see the work of Jehovah, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
And you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her.
Both your male slaves, and your female slaves whom you shall have, shall be of the nations that are all around you. You shall buy male slaves and female slaves from them.
And will You kill this people as one man? Then the nations who have heard Your fame will speak, saying,
O, Jehovah God, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness, and Your mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven or in earth who can do according to Your works, and according to Your might?
Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter to your son.
For Jehovah your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, the mighty, and a terrible God, who does not respect persons nor take a bribe.
only if you carefully listen to the voice of Jehovah your God to be careful to do all these commandments which I command you today.
For they are a nation without wisdom, neither is there any understanding in them.
And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know Jehovah, nor even the works which He had done for Israel.
Therefore You are great, O Jehovah God. For there is none like You, neither is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
And they came to Ophir, and brought gold from there, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.
And also the navy of Hiram which brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great abundance of almug trees and precious stones.
And Micaiah said, If you return at all in peace, Jehovah has not spoken by me. And he said, Listen, O people, all of them!
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem for war. And they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome 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, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
He gives greatness to the nations, and destroys them. He spreads out the nations, and leads them away.
In a moment they die, and a people are shaken at midnight and pass away; and the mighty shall be taken away without a hand.
You have rebuked the heathen, You have destroyed the wicked, You have put out their name forever and ever.
The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made; their foot is caught in the net which they hid.
The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.
Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a shame to any people.
Woe, sinful nation, a people heavy with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, sons who corrupt! They have forsaken Jehovah; they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger; they have gone away backward.
And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
For You have forsaken Your people the house of Jacob, because they have become full from the east, and are fortune-tellers like the Philistines. And they clap their hands with the children of strangers.
And it happened in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not overcome it.
Surely they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. In all this His hand is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.
And in that day there shall be the Root of Jesse standing for a banner of the people; to Him the nations shall seek; and His resting place shall be glorious.
And He shall lift up a banner for the nations, and shall gather the outcasts of Israel and gather together the scattered ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and shall sow it a fresh shoot.
The burden against Egypt: Behold, Jehovah rides on a swift cloud and comes into Egypt. And the idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.
The Word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prize, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall defile it.
The sons of Arvad and your army were on your walls all around, and warriors were in your towers. They hung their shields on your walls all around; they have made your beauty perfect.
And I will betroth you to Me forever. Yea, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.
For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples. And Judah has multiplied cities. But I will send a fire on his cities, and it shall burn up her palaces.
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first-fruit in the fig tree at her first time. But they went to Baal-peor and set themselves apart to a shameful thing; and they became abominable like that which they loved.
You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.
He is a merchant; the scales of deceit are in his hand; he loves to oppress.
I will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely; for My anger has turned away from him.
And I raised up prophets from your sons and Nazarites from your young men. Is it not even so, O sons of Israel? says Jehovah.
And I will strike the winter house together with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish. And the great houses shall be swept away, says Jehovah.
So, because of your trampling on the poor, and you take tribute of grain from him; you have built houses of carved stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted desirable vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from them.
Have you offered sacrifices and offerings to Me forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
The Lord Jehovah has sworn by Himself, says Jehovah, the God of Hosts: I despise the glory of Jacob, and hate his palaces; and I will shut up the city and all its fullness.
saying, When will the new moon be gone so that we may sell grain? And the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and perverting the balances by deceit;
And many nations shall come 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 the Law shall go forth out of Zion, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not keep His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.
And it shall be in the day of Jehovah's sacrifice, I will punish the rulers, and the king's sons, and all who are clothed in foreign clothing.
Howl, people of Maktesh, for all the people of Canaan are cut down; all those who carry silver are cut off.
Therefore I say to you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing out its fruits.
Then the Jews said among themselves, Where is he about to go that we shall not find him? Is he about to go to the Dispersion of the Greeks, and to teach the Greeks?
And those of the circumcision, who believed (as many as came with Peter), were astonished because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on the nations also.
For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also certain of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who has worked out evil; of the Jew first, and also of the Greek.
What then? Do we excel? No, in no way; for we have before charged both Jews and Greeks all with being under sin,
so that the blessing of Abraham might be to the nations in Jesus Christ, and that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.