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
Once again, Abraham bowed down. He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land. He said: If you will only please listen to me. I will give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.
Do not rebel against Jehovah. Do not be afraid of the people who live there. We will conquer them easily. Jehovah is with us and has defeated the gods who protected them. Do not be afraid.
Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God, and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of the land. But still there is hope for Israel in this question.
Give praise to Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the strange women.
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel came together, taking no food and putting sackcloth and dust on their bodies.
You put up with them for years. You admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets. Still they did not listen. So you gave them up into the hands of the peoples of the lands.
That way we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the lands, or take their daughters for our sons; If the peoples of the lands come to do trade in goods or food on the Sabbath day, that we would do no trade with them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. In the seventh year we would take no payment from any debtor.
Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you will judge the peoples with uprightness, and govern the nations on earth.
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the nations.
Darkness now covers the earth! Thick darkness overwhelms the nations. But Jehovah shines for you. His glory appears to you.
This crowd does not know the law. It is contemptible
He said: You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations, tongues and kings.
He says to me: The waters that you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, and crowds, and nations, and languages.