'People' in the Bible

For the Lord God says this, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there; and [many years later Sennacherib] the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

But now, what do I have here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that My people have been taken away without reason? Those who rule over them howl [with taunting and mockery of salvation],” declares the Lord, “and My name is continually blasphemed all day long.

Therefore My people shall know My Name and what it means. Therefore in that day I am the One who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’”

Break forth, shout joyfully together,You ruins of Jerusalem;For the Lord has comforted His people,He has redeemed Jerusalem.

After oppression and judgment He was taken away;And as for His generation [His contemporaries], who [among them] concerned himself with the factThat He was cut off from the land of the living [by His death]For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke [of death] was due?

Do not let the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,“The Lord will most certainly separate me from His people.”And do not let the eunuch say, “Look, I am a dry tree.”

And it will be said,“Build up, build up, clear the way.Remove the stumbling block out of the way [of the spiritual return] of My people.”

“Cry aloud, do not hold back;Lift up your voice like a trumpet,And declare to My people their transgressionAnd to the house of Jacob their sins.

“Then all your people will be [uncompromisingly and consistently] righteous;They will possess the land forever,The branch of My planting,The work of My hands,That I may be glorified.

But you shall be called the priests of the Lord;People will speak of you as the ministers of our God.You will eat the wealth of nations,And you will boast of their riches.

Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;And instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over their portion.Therefore in their land they will possess double [what they had forfeited];Everlasting joy will be theirs.

Then their offspring will be known among the nations,And their descendants among the peoples.All who see them [in their prosperity] will recognize and acknowledge themThat they are the people whom the Lord has blessed.

Go through, go through the gates,Clear the way for the people;Build up, build up the highway,Remove the stones, lift up a banner over the peoples.

And they will call them “The Holy People,The Redeemed of the Lord”;And you will be called “Sought Out, A City Not Deserted.”

For He said, “Be assured, they are My people,Sons who will not be faithless.”So He became their Savior [in all their distresses].

Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses [and they said],Where is He who brought our fathers up out of the [Red] Sea, with the shepherds of His flock [Moses and Aaron]?Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in their midst,

Like the cattle that go down into the valley [to find better pasture and rest],The Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.So You led Your people [O Lord]To make for Yourself a beautiful and glorious name [preparing the way for the acknowledgment of Your name by all nations].

Look down from heaven and see from Your lofty dwelling place, holy and glorious.Where are Your zeal and Your mighty acts [Your miracles which you did for Your people]?The stirring of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained and withheld from me.

Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for [only] a little while;Our adversaries have trampled it down.

Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord,Do not remember our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing] forever.Now look, consider, for we are all Your people.

“I have spread out My hands all the day long to a rebellious and stubborn people,Who walk in the way that is not good, [following] after their own thoughts and intentions,

The people who continually provoke Me to My face,Sacrificing [to idols] in gardens and making offerings with incense on bricks [instead of at the designated altar];

“And [the plain of] Sharon will be a place for flocks to graze,And the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds,For My people who seek Me [who long for Me and require My presence in their lives].

“But be glad and rejoice forever over what I create;Behold, I am creating Jerusalem to be a source of rejoicingAnd her people a joy.

“I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;And there will no longer be heard in herThe voice of weeping and the sound of crying.

“They will not build and another occupy;They will not plant and another eat [the fruit].For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,And My chosen [people] will fully enjoy [and long make use of] the work of their hands.

“He who kills an ox [for pagan sacrifice] is [as guilty] as one who kills a man;He who sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck;He who offers a grain offering, as one who offers swine’s blood;He who offers incense, as one who blesses an idol.Such people have chosen their own ways,And their soul delights in their repulsive acts;

Now behold, I have made you today like a fortified city and like an iron pillar and like bronze walls against the whole land—against the [successive] kings of Judah, against its leaders, against its priests, and against the people of the land [giving you divine strength which no hostile power can overcome].

“Has a nation [ever] changed godsEven though they were not gods [but merely man-made objects]?But My people have exchanged their Glory (the true God)For that [man-made idol] which does not benefit [them].

“Be appalled, O heavens, at this;Be shocked and shudder with horror [at the behavior of the people],” says the Lord.

“For My people have committed two evils:They have abandoned (rejected) Me,The fountain of living water,And they have carved out their own cisterns,Broken cisternsThat cannot hold water.

“In vain I have punished your people [with the consequences of their disobedience];They received no insight from correction [and refused to change].Your [own] sword has devoured your prophetsLike a destroying lion.

“O generation [that you are], consider and regard carefully the word of the Lord.Have I been a wilderness to Israel [like a land without food],A land of thick and deep darkness [like a path without light]?Why do My people say, ‘We [have broken loose and we] are free to roam [at will];We will no longer come to You’?

“Can a virgin forget [to wear] her ornaments,Or a bride her attire [that identifies her as a married woman]?Yet My people have forgotten MeDays without number.

Then I said, “Alas, Lord God! Surely You have completely deceived and misled this people and Jerusalem, [for the prophets represented You as] saying [to Your people], ‘You will have peace,’ but [in fact] a sword reaches to their throat.”

In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the barren heights in the wilderness [comes at My command] against the daughter of My people—not [a wind] to winnow and not to cleanse [from chaff, as when threshing, but]

a wind too strong and full for this comes at My word. Now I will also speak judgment against My people.”

My soul, my soul! I writhe in anguish and pain! Oh, the walls of my heart!My heart is pounding and throbbing within me;I cannot be silent,For you have heard, O my soul,The sound of the trumpet,The alarm of war.

How long [O Lord] must I see the banner [marking the way for flight]And hear the sound of the trumpet [urging the people to run for safety]?

“For My people are stupid and foolish,” [says the Lord to Jeremiah];“They do not know Me;They are foolish childrenAnd have no understanding.They are shrewd [enough] to do evil,But they do not know [how] to do good.”

Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts,“Because you [people] have spoken this word,Behold, I am making My words a fire in your mouth [Jeremiah]And this people wood, and My words will consume them.

It will come about when your people say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘As you have abandoned (rejected) Me,’ [says the Lord,] ‘and have served strange and foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

‘Now hear this, O foolish people without heart,Who have eyes but do not see,Who have ears but do not hear.

‘But this people has a stubborn heart and a rebellious will [that draws them away from Me];They have turned away and have gone [into idolatry].

‘For wicked men are found among My people,They watch like fowlers who lie in wait;They set a trap,They catch men.

The prophets prophesy falsely,And the priests rule on their own authority;And My people love [to have] it so!But what will you do when the end comes?

“They have treated superficially the [bloody] broken wound of My people,Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’When there is no peace.

“Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people,The fruit of their schemes,Because they have not listened and paid attention to My words,And as for My law, they have rejected it also.

Therefore, thus says the Lord,“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.The fathers and the sons togetherWill stumble against them;The neighbor and his friend will perish.”

Thus says the Lord,“Behold, a people is coming from the north country,And a great nation shall be stirred up and put into action from the remote parts of the earth.

O daughter of my people [says Jeremiah],Clothe yourself in sackcloth and wallow in ashes;Mourn [aloud] as for an only son,A most bitter cry [of sorrow and regret],For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us [on both prophet and people].

“I [the Lord] have set you as an assayer [O Jeremiah] and as a tester [of the ore] of My people,That you may know and analyze their acts.”

“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh [in Ephraim], where I first set My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

“Therefore, do not pray for this people [of Judah] or lift up a cry or entreaty for them or make intercession to Me, for I do not hear you.

But this thing I did command them: ‘Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, so that it may be well with you.’

Yet they did not listen to Me and obey Me or bend their ear [to hear Me], but stiffened their neck; they did more evil and behaved worse than their fathers.

And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth and no one will frighten them away.

“Why then has this people of JerusalemTurned away with a perpetual turning away [from Me]?They hold tightly to deceit (idolatry);They refuse to repent and return [to God].

“Even the stork in the skyKnows her seasons [of migration],And the turtledove, the swallow and the craneObserve the time of their return.But My people do not knowThe law of the Lord.

“For they have treated the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’When there is no peace.

Why are we sitting still [the people wonder]?Assemble yourselves, and let us enter the fortified citiesAnd let us die there,For the Lord our God has decreed our ruinAnd given us bitter and poisonous water to drink,Because we have sinned against the Lord.

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?”

“The harvest is past, the summer has ended and the gathering of fruit is over,But we are not saved,” [comes the voice of the people again].

For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I (Jeremiah) am broken;I mourn, anxiety has gripped me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?Why then has not the [spiritual] health of the daughter of my people been restored?

Oh that my head were watersAnd my eyes a fountain of tears,That I might weep day and nightFor the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the wildernessA lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men,That I might leave my peopleAnd go away from them!For they are all adulterers [worshiping idols instead of the Lord],[They are] an assembly of treacherous men [of weak character, men without integrity].

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,“Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them;For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bitter and poisonous water to drink.

For the shepherds [of the people] have become [like brutes,] irrational and stupid,And have not searched for the Lord or asked about Him or realized their need for Him;Therefore they have not been wise and have not prospered,And all their flocks are scattered.

O Lord, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself;It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life].

which I commanded your fathers at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice and do according to all that I command you. So you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’

“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I shall not listen when they cry to Me in the time of their disaster.

Thus says the Lord regarding all My evil neighbors (Gentile nations) who strike at the inheritance which I have granted to My people Israel, “Behold, I will uproot them from their land and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.

And if these [neighboring nations] will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My Name, saying, ‘As the Lord lives’—even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up among My people.

These wicked and malevolent people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubborn way of their heart and have followed other gods [which are nothing—just man-made carvings] to serve them and to worship them, let them be just like this waistband which is completely worthless.

For as the waistband clings to the body of a man, so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,’ says the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory; but they did not listen and obey.’

“Therefore you are to speak this word to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Every jar should be filled with wine.”’ The people will say to you, ‘Do we not already know that every jar should be filled with wine?’

“Judah mournsAnd her gates languish;Her people sit on the ground in mourning clothesAnd the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

Thus says the Lord to this people [Judah], “In the manner and to the degree [already pointed out] they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will now remember [in detail] their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”

So the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good things for this people.

And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword; and they will have no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will pour out their [own] wickedness on them [and not only on the imposters posing as prophets, for the people could not have been deceived without their own consent].

“Therefore [Jeremiah] you will say this word to them,‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,And let them never cease;For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a great blow,With a very serious and severely infected wound.

Then the Lord said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me [interceding for them], My heart would still not be [turned with favor] toward this people [Judah]. Send them away from My presence and out of My sight and let them go!

“I will winnow (sort, separate) them with a winnowing forkAt the gates of the land;I will deprive them of children, I will destroy My people;They did not repent and turn from their [evil] ways.

Therefore, thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah],“If you repent [and give up this mistaken attitude of despair and self-pity], then I will restore you [to a state of inner peace]So that you may stand before Me [as My obedient representative];And if you separate the precious from the worthless [examining yourself and cleansing your heart from unwarranted doubt concerning My faithfulness],You will become My spokesman.Let the people turn to you [and learn to value My values]—But you, you must not turn to them [with regard for their idolatry and wickedness].

“And I will make you to this peopleA fortified wall of bronze;They will fight against you,But they will not prevail over you,For I am with you [always] to save youAnd protect you,” says the Lord.

For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of mourning, nor go to lament (express grief) or bemoan [the dead], for I have taken My peace away from this people,” says the Lord, “even My lovingkindness and compassion.

“Now when you tell these people all these words and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed all this great tragedy against us? And what is our iniquity, what is the sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’

Thus the Lord said to me, “Go and stand in the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, and [stand] also in all the gates of Jerusalem;

People will come from the cities of Judah and the places all around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the South (the Negev), bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.

if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent and reverse My decision concerning the devastation that I intended to do.

‘Yet My people have forgotten Me;They burn incense to worthless gods,They have stumbled from their waysFrom the ancient roads,To walk in pathways,Not on a highway,

Thus says the Lord, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests

Because the people [of Jerusalem] have abandoned (rejected) Me and have made this an alien and profaned place by burning sacrifices and incense in it to other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent

I will pour out and nullify the counsel (plans) of [the men of] Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make their people fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives; and I will give their dead bodies as food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “This is the way I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it cannot be mended. They will bury [corpses] in Topheth until there is no more room left [in that place] to bury [the dead].

Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people:

Then afterward,” says the Lord, “I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the virulent disease, the sword, and the famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemy, into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he will strike them with the edge of the sword; he will not spare them nor have mercy and compassion on them.”’

“And to this people you (Jeremiah) shall also say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.