'Nation' in the Bible

I'll make a great nation of your descendants, I'll bless you, and I'll make your reputation great, so that you will be a blessing.

However, I will judge the nation that they serve, and later they will leave there with many possessions.

And as for Ishmael, I've heard you. I'll bless him, and he'll have many descendants. I will multiply him greatly, he'll father twelve tribal leaders, and I'll cause his descendants to become a great nation.

"since Abraham's descendants will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?

Now Abimelech had not yet come near her, so he asked, "LORD, will you destroy an innocent nation?

Nevertheless, I will make the slave girl's son into a nation, since he, too, is your offspring."

Get up! Pick up the youth and grab his hand, because I will make a great nation of his descendants."

So God called his name Israel and also told him, "I am God Almighty. You are to be fruitful and multiply. You will become a nation in fact, an assembly of nations! Kings will come from you they'll emerge from your own loins!

"I'm God, your father's God. Don't be afraid to move down to Egypt, because I'm going to turn you into a mighty nation there.

He told me, "Pay attention! I'm going to make you fruitful and numerous. I'm going to build you into a vast nation of people and then I'll give this land to your descendants for an eternal possession.'

But his father refused. "I know," he said. "I know. He's going to produce a large nation, and he's going to be very great. However, his younger brother will become even greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations."

There was very heavy hail, and lightning was flashing continuously in the midst of the hail. There had not been anything like it in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

but you are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to me.' These are the words you are to declare to the Israelis."

Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I'll make a great nation of you."

Now, if I've found favor in your sight, please show me your ways so I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. And remember, this nation is your people."

Then the LORD said, "I'm now going to make a covenant. I'll do miraculous deeds in full view of your people that haven't been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, because it's an awesome thing that I'll do with you.

I cannot carry this whole nation! The burden is too heavy for me!

"That's why I'm going to attack them with pestilence and disinherit them. Instead, I'll make you a great nation even mightier than they are!"

Edom will be a conquered nation and Seir will be Israel's defeated foe, while Israel performs valiantly.

Starting today I will begin to instill fear and terror of you on the part of every nation under heaven who hears reports about you. They'll tremble in anguish before you.'"

Observe them carefully, because this will show your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of people who'll listen to all these decrees. Then they'll say: "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.'

For what great nation has a god so near like the LORD our God whenever we call on him?

And what great nation has all the decrees and righteous ordinances like all this teaching that I'm giving you today?

Do not gaze toward the heavens and observe the sun, the moon, the stars the entire array of the sky with the intent to worship and serve what the LORD your God gave every nation.

Or has any god ever taken for himself one nation out from another nation with testings, signs, wonders, wars, awesome power, and magnificent, terrifying deeds as the LORD your God did in Egypt before your eyes?

Let me alone! I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I'll make you into a nation that will be mighty and more numerous than they are.'

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, who went down to Egypt and traveled there with very few family members, yet there he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. But the Egyptians oppressed us, afflicted us, and assigned us to hard labor.

so he may elevate you far above all the nations that he has made. Then you will live to the praise, fame, and glory of God, and so be a nation that is holy to the LORD your God, as he has promised."

"The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you'll serve other gods of wood and stone.

"The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture,

it will be a nation whose language you don't understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young.

They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I'll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I'll provoke them to anger.

They are a nation devoid of purpose and without insight.

The priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan River, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan River.

As soon as the entire nation had completed its crossing of the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua. He said,

The Israelis traveled 40 years in the wilderness until the entire nation that is, the warriors who had departed from Egypt had perished because they hadn't listened to the voice of the LORD. The LORD had promised them that he would not let them see the land that he had sworn to give us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

When the circumcision of the entire nation was complete, they remained in their places within the camp until they were healed.

So the sun remained still and the moon stood in place until the nation settled their score with their enemies. This is recorded, is it not, in the book of Jashar? The sun stood in place in the middle of the sky and seemed not to be in a hurry to set for nearly an entire day.

Then the entire Israeli nation from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the territory of Gilead came out for war. The army assembled as one united force to God at Mizpah.

The officials of the entire nation, including every tribe of Israel, took their stand in the assembly of the people of God: 400,000 foot soldiers, all of them expert swordsmen.

"And who is like your people, like Israel, the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, to make a name for himself, and to carry out for them great and awe-inspiring accomplishments, driving out nations and their gods in front of your people, whom you redeemed to yourself from Egypt?

Then the king asked, "Where is your master's son?" "He's staying in Jerusalem!" Ziba answered the king. "He's saying "The nation of Israel will restore my father's kingdom to me today!'"

So the king called together the Gibeonites and conferred with them. Now the Gibeonites weren't part of the nation of Israel, but were the survivors from the Amorites. Although the Israelis had promised to spare them, Saul had started to execute them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.

You save the nation who is humble but your eyes watch the proud, to bring them down.

As surely as the LORD your God lives, there isn't a nation or kingdom where my master hasn't tried to find you. Whenever they would say "He isn't here,' he forced that kingdom or nation to swear that they hadn't seen you.

Nevertheless, each nation continued to craft their own gods and install them in the temples on the high places that the people of Samaria had constructed every nation in their own cities where they continued to live.

wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another,

What other one nation on the earth is like your people Israel, God, which you have redeemed from slavery to become your own people, making a great name for yourself when you redeemed your people from Egypt. You did awesome miraculous deeds, driving out nations that stood in their way.

Solomon addressed the entire nation of Israel, including the commanders of thousands and hundreds, the judges, all the other leaders of Israel, and all of the heads of the ancestral houses of Israel.

not including revenue from traders and merchants. In addition, all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the nation brought gold and silver to Solomon.

Nation battled nation, and city fought city, because God was afflicting them all with every kind of distress.

As a result, the Lord became angry with Amaziah and sent a prophet to him, who asked him, "Why did you seek the gods of a people who were unable to deliver their own nation from you?"

Now therefore, don't let Hezekiah lie to you or mislead you like this. Don't believe him, because no god of any nation has been able to deliver his people from my control or from the control of my predecessors. So how much less will your God deliver you from me?'"

At the dedication offering of the Temple of God, they presented 100 bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs, along with a sin offering of twelve male goats for the entire nation of Israel according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

"If he remains silent, who will condemn him? If he conceals his face, who can see him? He watches over both nation and individual alike,

How blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance.

You be my judge, God, and plead my case against an unholy nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man.

They say, "Let us go and erase them as a nation so the name of Israel will not be remembered anymore."

they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another.

He has not dealt with any other nation like this; they never knew his decrees. Hallelujah!

A nation falls through a lack of guidance, but victory comes through the counsel of many.

Righteousness makes a nation great, but sin diminishes any people.

"Oh, you sinful nation! You people burdened down by iniquity! You offspring of those who keep practicing what is evil! You corrupt children! "They've abandoned the LORD; they've despised the Holy One of Israel; in their estrangement, they've walked away from me.

You have increased the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice in your presence as they rejoice at the harvest, as they are glad when they're dividing the spoils of war.

I'm sending my fury against a godless nation, and I'll command him against the people with whom I'm angry to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

"How you have fallen from heaven, Day Star, son of the Dawn! How you have been thrown down to earth, you who laid low the nation!

How will they answer the messengers of the nation? "The LORD has founded Zion, and in it the afflicted among his people will find refuge."

which sends envoys by the sea, in papyrus boats over the water! Go, swift messengers, to a tall, smooth-skinned nation, to a people feared far and wide, a nation that metes out punishment and oppresses, whose land the rivers divide.

At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies from a tall and smooth-skinned people, from a people feared far and wide, a nation that metes out punishment and oppresses, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place that bears the name of the LORD.

Open your gates, so the righteous nation that safeguards its faith may enter.

"But you have enlarged the nation, LORD; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained honor; you have extended all the borders of the land.

An oracle about the animals of the Negev: "Through a land of trouble, dryness, and distress, of lionesses and roaring lions, where there is no water, a land of vipers and darting snakes, he carries their riches on donkeys' backs, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot benefit them,

Be careful not to let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, "The LORD will save us." Has any god of any nation ever delivered his country from the king of Assyria?

"This is what my Lord says the LORD your Redeemer, O Israel, and his Holy One to one despised by people, to those abhorred as a nation, to the servant of rulers: "Kings see and arise, and princes will bow down, because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, the one who has chosen you."

"Pay attention to me, my people! Listen to me, my nation! For instruction will go out from me, and my justice will become a light for the nations.

"Look! You will call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that does not know you will run to you, because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you."

They seek me day after day, and are eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practices righteousness and has not forsaken the justice of their God. "They ask me to reveal just decisions; they are eager to draw near to God.

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; those nations will be utterly ruined.

The least of them will become a thousand, and the smallest one a mighty nation. "I am the LORD; When the time is right, I will do this swiftly."

"I let myself be sought by those who didn't ask for me; I let myself be found by those who didn't seek me. I said, "Here I am! Here I am!' to a nation that didn't call on my name.

Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who ever sees such things? Can a country be born in a single day, or can a nation be brought forth in a single moment? Yet no sooner was Zion in labor than she delivered her children.

Has a nation ever changed gods when they aren't even gods? But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.

"Should I not punish them for these things?" asks the LORD, "And on a nation like this, should I not seek retribution?"

People of Israel, I'm now bringing a nation from far away to attack you," declares the LORD. "It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know. And you won't understand what they say.

"Should I not punish them for this?' asks the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?'

This is what the LORD says: "Look, people are coming from a northern country. A great nation is stirring from the ends of the earth.

You will say to them, "This is the nation that wouldn't listen to the voice of the LORD its God and wouldn't accept correction. Truth has perished; it has been eliminated from their discussions.'

Should I not punish them for these things?" asks the LORD, "and should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?"

But if they don't listen, then I'll completely uproot that nation and destroy it," declares the LORD.

At one moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom to uproot it, pull it down, or destroy it.

But if that nation about which I spoke turns from its evil way, I'll change my mind about the disaster that I had planned for it.

At another moment I may speak about a nation or kingdom to build it or plant it.

But if that nation does evil in my eyes by not obeying me, I'll change my mind about the good that I said I would bring on it.

"Then when the seventy years have passed, I'll judge the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, I'll judge the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity and I'll make it a desolation forever.

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Look, disaster is going from nation to nation, a great storm is being stirred up from the most distant parts of the earth.

If a nation and kingdom does not serve him King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and does not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I'll judge that nation with the sword, with famine, and with plague," declares the LORD, "until I've completely destroyed it by his hand.

But I'll let the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him remain in its own land," declares the LORD, "and they'll work it and remain in it."'"

Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague as the LORD has decreed about the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

"If these laws cease to function in my presence," declares the LORD, "then the descendants of Israel will cease to be a nation in my presence for all time!"

"Haven't you noticed what these people have been saying? "The LORD rejected the two families that he had chosen!' They have contempt for my people and no longer consider them a nation.