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 will rise up and will bow himself to the earth before the sons of Heth.
And Abraham will bow himself down before the face of the people of the land. And he will speak to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, saying, Surely, if thou art for it, hear me: I' gave silver for the field, take of me: and I will bury my dead there.
But against Jehovah ye shall not rebel, and ye shall not be afraid of the people of the land; for they our bread: for their shadow removed from them and Jehovah with us; ye shall not be afraid of them.
And Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the sons of Elam, will answer and say to Ezra, We transgressed against our God, and we were dwelling with strange wives from the people of the land: and now there is hope to Israel concerning this.
And now ye shall give praise to Jehovah the God of your fathers, and do acceptance: and separate from the people of the land and from the strange wives.
And in the twenty and fourth day to this month, the sons of Israel were gathered together with fasting and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.
And thou wilt protract over them many years, and thou wilt testify against them by thy spirit in the hand of thy prophets: and they gave not ear, and thou wilt give them into the hand of the people of the lands.
And that we will not give our daughters to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters to our sons: And the people of the land bringing wares and all grain in the day of the Sabbath to sell, we will not take from them in the Sabbath and in the holy day: and we will leave the seventh year, and the debt of every hand.
The nations shall be glad and rejoice, for thou wilt judge peoples in uprightness, and thou wilt pity the nations upon earth. Silence.
Behold, I gave him a witness of the nations, a leader and commanding the nations
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gloom the nations: and Jehovah shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
But the crowd, not knowing the law, are cursed.
And he says to me, Thou must again prophesy 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.