Reference: People
Hastings
This is the translation used in AV for a large number of Hebrew and Greek terms. In some cases ambiguity occurs, as the pl. 'peoples' is not used in AV except in Re 10:11; 17:15. Thus 'people' is used sometimes of the people of Israel, and often of heathen nations. RV uses 'peoples' freely, and this makes the meaning much clearer in such passages as Ps 67:4; Isa 55:4; 60:2 etc. (see art. Nations, also preface to RV).
A special phrase 'the people of the land' occurs frequently in the OT, especially in Jeremiah, Ezeklel, 2Kings., and 2 Ch. In most of these cases it means the general body of the people, the common people as opposed to the courtiers or the ruling class. In Ge 23:7,12-13; Nu 14:9 the term is applied to non-Israelites. In the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah the 'people of the land' are the half-heathen, half-Jewish population with whom the less scrupulous Jews intermarried, but who were avoided by the stricter party represented by Ezra and Nehemiah (Ezr 10:2,11; Ne 10:30-31; cf. Ne 9:1,30). The same phrase was used by the Rabbis to describe the common people, who were lax in observing the Mosaic law (Joh 7:49).
W. F. Boyd.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Abraham rose up, and bowed down to the people of the land, to the sons of Heth,
And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land; and he spoke to Ephron, in the ears of the people of the land, saying, But if only thou wouldst listen to me, I give the money for the field: take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.
only rebel not against Jehovah; and fear not the people of the land; for they shall be our food. Their defence is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.
And Shechaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully toward our God, and have taken foreign wives of the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.
And now make confession to Jehovah the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign wives.
And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
And many years didst thou forbear with them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit through thy prophets; but they would not give ear: and thou gavest them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons: and that if the peoples of the land brought wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we would not take it of them on the sabbath, or on any holy day; and that we would leave the land uncultivated the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.
Let the nations rejoice and sing for joy: for thou wilt judge the peoples equitably; and the nations upon earth, thou wilt guide them. Selah.
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander to the peoples.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen on thee.
But this crowd, which does not know the law, are accursed.
And it was said to me, Thou must prophesy again as to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings.
And he says to me, The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.