'People' in the Bible

On the far side of Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses gave the people this law, saying,

Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts feeble with fear by saying, The people are greater and taller than we are, and the towns are great and walled up to heaven; and more than this, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.

And give the people orders, saying, You are about to go through the land of your brothers, the children of Esau, who are living in Seir; and they will have fear of you; so take care what you do:

(In the past the Emim were living there; a great people, equal in numbers to the Anakim and as tall;

So when death had overtaken all the men of war among the people,

They were a great people, tall as the Anakim, and equal to them in number; but the Lord sent destruction on them and the children of Ammon took their place, living in their land;

Then Sihon came out against us with all his people, to make an attack on us at Jahaz.

And the Lord our God gave him into our hands; and we overcame him and his sons and all his people.

Then turning we took the road to Bashan: and Og, king of Bashan, came out against us with all his people, and made an attack on us at Edrei.

And the Lord said to me, Have no fear of him: for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hands; do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon.

So the Lord our God gave up Og, king of Bashan, and all his people into our hands; and we overcame him so completely that all his people came to their end in the fight.

But give my orders to Joshua, comforting him and making him strong; for he is to go over Jordan at the head of this people, and he will give them this land which you will see for their heritage.

So keep these laws and do them; for so will your wisdom and good sense be clear in the eyes of the peoples, who hearing all these laws will say, Truly, this great nation is a wise and far-seeing people.

That day when you were waiting before the Lord your God in Horeb, and the Lord said to me, Make all the people come together, so that hearing my words they may go in fear of me all the days of their life on earth and give this teaching to their children.

But the Lord has taken you out of the flaming fire, out of Egypt, to be to him the people of his heritage, as you are today.

Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did?

Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations:

You will have greater blessings than any other people: no male or female among you or among your cattle will be without offspring.

A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are forced to give way before the sons of Anak.

Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go; they have made themselves a metal image.

And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this people is stiff-necked:

And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand.

Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-doing and their sin:

But still they are your people and your heritage, whom you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out arm.

Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them.

All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said.

When the people of the land where you are going have been cut off before you by the Lord your God, and you have taken their land and are living in it;

But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.

That good-for-nothing persons have gone out from among you, turning the people of their town from the right way and saying, Let us go and give worship to other gods, of whom you have no knowledge;

Then take up arms against the people of that town and give it up to the curse, with all its cattle and everything in it.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death; the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

You are to make judges and overseers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, for every tribe: and they are to be upright men, judging the people in righteousness.

The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you.

And all the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear and put away their pride.

And he is not to get together a great army of horses for himself, or make the people go back to Egypt to get horses for him: because the Lord has said, You will never again go back that way.

Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions.

The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to him;

And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and never again do such evil among you.

And when you are on the point of attacking, let the priest come forward and say to the people,

And let the overseers say to the people, If there is any man who has made for himself a new house and has not gone into it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not take his house for himself.

And let the overseers go on to say to the people, If there is any man whose heart is feeble with fear, let him go back to his house before he makes the hearts of his countrymen feeble.

Then, after saying these words to the people, let the overseers put captains over the army.

And if it gives you back an answer of peace, opening its doors to you, then all the people in it may be put to forced work as your servants.

Have mercy, O Lord, on your people Israel whom you have made free, and take away from your people the crime of a death without cause. Then they will no longer be responsible for the man's death.

No man whose private parts have been wounded or cut off may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

One whose father and mother are not married may not come into the meeting of the Lord's people, or any of his family to the tenth generation.

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their people to the tenth generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people:

Their children in the third generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people.

And these are the words which you will say before the Lord your God: My father was a wandering Aramaean, and he went down with a small number of people into Egypt; there he became a great and strong nation:

So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you are to keep all his orders;

And that he will make you high over all the nations he has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said.

Then Moses and the responsible men of Israel gave the people these orders: Keep all the orders which I have given you this day;

Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, said to all Israel, Be quiet and give ear, O Israel; today you have become the people of the Lord your God.

That same day Moses said to the people,

These are to take their places on Mount Gerizim for blessing the people when you have gone over Jordan: Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin;

Cursed is the man who makes any image of wood or stone or metal, disgusting to the Lord, the work of man's hands, and puts it up in secret. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who does not give honour to his father or mother. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's landmark from its place. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he by whom the blind are turned out of the way. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who gives a wrong decision in the cause of a man from a strange land, or of one without a father, or of a widow. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who has sex relations with his father's wife, for he has put shame on his father. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who has sex relations with any sort of beast. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who has sex relations with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who has sex relations with his mother-in-law. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's life secretly. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who for a reward puts to death one who has done no wrong. And let all the people say, So be it.

Cursed is he who does not take this law to heart to do it. And let all the people say, So be it.

The Lord will keep you as a people holy to himself, as he has said to you in his oath, if you keep the orders of the Lord your God and go on walking in his ways.

Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will be wasted away with looking and weeping for them all the day: and you will have no power to do anything.

And so that he may make you his people today, and be your God, as he has said to you, and as he made an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then Moses sent for Joshua, and before the eyes of all Israel said to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go with this people into the land which the Lord, by his oath to their fathers, has given them; by your help they will take it for their heritage.

Make all the people come together, men and women and children, and anyone from another country who is with you, so that hearing they may become wise in the fear of the Lord your God, and take care to do all the words of this law;

And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them.

Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.

For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage.

They have given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation,

For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up or free.

Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people.

So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun.

And after saying all this to the people,

And let death come to you on the mountain where you are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to rest with his people:

Moses gave us a law, a heritage for the people of Jacob.

And there was a king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel came together.

And this is the blessing of Judah: he said, Give ear, O Lord, to the voice of Judah and make him one with his people: let your hands take up his cause, and be his help against his attackers.

They will send out the word for the people to come to the mountain, taking there the offerings of righteousness: for the store of the seas will be theirs, and the secret wealth of the sand.

Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people whose saviour is the Lord, whose help is your cover, whose sword is your strength! All those who are against you will put themselves under your rule, and your feet will be planted on their high places.