'Foreign' in the Bible

She gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom (stranger); for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

If she does not please her master who has chosen her for himself [as a wife], he shall let her be redeemed [by her family]. He does not have the authority to sell her to a foreign people, because he has been unfair to her.

“So the Lord alone led him;There was no foreign god with him.

“Now then, remove the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your hearts toward the Lord, the God of Israel.”

So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer.

Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth (pagan goddesses) from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him only; and He will rescue you from the hand of the Philistines.”

Now king Solomon [defiantly] loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

And he did the same for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

“I dug wells and drank foreign waters,And with the sole of my feet I dried upAll the rivers of [the Lower Nile of] Egypt.”

He removed the foreign altars and high places and tore down the [pagan] pillars (obelisks, memorial stones), and cut to pieces the Asherim [the symbols of the goddess Asherah].

He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he threw them outside the city.

Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.

Therefore let us now make a covenant with our God to send away all the [foreign] wives and their children, in accordance with the advice of my lord and of those who tremble [in reverent obedience] at the commandment of our God; and let it be done in accordance with the Law.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful [to God] and have married foreign (pagan) women, adding to the guilt of Israel.

So now, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from [your] foreign wives.”

Let our leaders stand for and represent the entire assembly; let all those in our cities who have married foreign wives come at appointed times, together with the elders and judges of each city, until the burning anger of our God over this matter is turned away from us.”

And by the first day of the first month they finished investigating all the men married to foreign wives.

All these had married foreign women, and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

When the Jews heard the law, they separated from Israel all who were of foreign descent.

Thus I cleansed and purified them from everything foreign (pagan), and I defined the duties of the priests and Levites, each one in his task;

So he sent letters to all the royal provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, saying that every man should be the master and rule in his own home and that he should speak [in the household] in the language of his own people.

And like the hunted gazelle,Or like sheep that no man gathers,Each [foreign resident] will turn [and go back] to his own people,And each one flee to his own land.

‘I dug wells and drank [foreign] waters,And with the sole of my feet I dried upAll the canals [of the Nile] of Egypt.’

“You have gone to the king [of a pagan land] with oilAnd increased your perfumes;You have sent your messengers a great distanceAnd made them go down to Sheol (the realm of the dead).

As their deeds deserve, so He will repay:Wrath to His adversaries, retribution to His enemies;To the islands and coastlands He will repay.

Behold, [hear the sound of] the cry of the daughter of my people from the distant land [of Babylon]:“Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King within her?”[But the Lord answers] “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images and with foreign idols?”

“What will you say [O Jerusalem] when the Lord appoints [foreign nations to rule] over you—Those former friends and allies whom you have encouraged [to be your companions]—Will not pain seize youLike [that of] a woman in childbirth?

and all the foreign (mixed) population, all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (and [their cities of] Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);

all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign population who live in the desert;

Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives [who served their foreign gods], your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives [who imitated the sin of the queens], which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

“A sword against their horses and against their chariotsAnd against all the foreign troops that are in her midst,And they will become [as weak and defenseless as] women!A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered!

For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel,

not to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you and pay attention to My message;

And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves, but you have chosen foreigners [to please yourselves] and have set them in charge of My sanctuary.”

He will act against the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and he will cause them to rule over the many, and will parcel out land for a price.

“Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrificeThat I will punish the princes and the king’s sonsAnd all who are clothed in [lavish] foreign apparel [reflecting their paganism].

For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into the hand of another and into the hands of his [foreign] king. And the enemy will strike the land, and I will not rescue the people from their hand.”

Judah has been treacherous (disloyal), and an repulsive act has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].

And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to engage in conversation with him. And some said, “What could this idle babbler [with his eclectic, scrap-heap learning] have in mind to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities”—because he was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

For you are bringing some startling and strange things to our ears; so we want to know what they mean.”

(Now all the Athenians and the foreigners visiting there used to spend their [leisure] time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in [unknown] tongues (languages) and prophesying.

And I often punished them [making them suffer] in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme; and in my extreme rage at them, I kept hunting them even to foreign cities [harassing and persecuting them].