'People' in the Bible

The ox knows its owner,and the donkey its master’s feeding trough,but Israel does not know;My people do not understand.”

Oh sinful nation,people weighed down with iniquity,brood of evildoers,depraved children!They have abandoned the Lord;they have despised the Holy One of Israel;they have turned their backs on Him.

Hear the word of the Lord,you rulers of Sodom!Listen to the instruction of our God,you people of Gomorrah!

For You have abandoned Your people,the house of Jacob,because they are full of divination from the Eastand of fortune-tellers like the Philistines.They are in league with foreigners.

People will go into caves in the rocksand holes in the ground,away from the terror of the Lordand from His majestic splendor,when He rises to terrify the earth.

On that day people will throwtheir silver and gold idols,which they made to worship,to the moles and the bats.

The people will oppress one another,man against man, neighbor against neighbor;the youth will act arrogantly toward the elder,and the worthless toward the honorable.

On that day he will cry out, saying:“I’m not a healer.I don’t even have food or clothing in my house.Don’t make me the leader of the people!”

Youths oppress My people,and women rule over them.My people, your leaders mislead you;they confuse the direction of your paths.

The Lord rises to argue the caseand stands to judge the people.

The Lord brings this chargeagainst the elders and leaders of His people:“You have devastated the vineyard.The plunder from the poor is in your houses.

Why do you crush My peopleand grind the faces of the poor?”This is the declarationof the Lord God of Hosts.

Therefore My people will go into exilebecause they lack knowledge;her dignitaries are starving,and her masses are parched with thirst.

Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against His people.He raised His hand against them and struck them;the mountains quaked,and their corpses were like garbage in the streets.In all this, His anger is not removed,and His hand is still raised to strike.

Then I said:Woe is me for I am ruinedbecause I am a man of unclean lipsand live among a people of unclean lips,and because my eyes have seen the King,the Lord of Hosts.

And He replied:Go! Say to these people:Keep listening, but do not understand;keep looking, but do not perceive.

Dull the minds of these people;deafen their ears and blind their eyes;otherwise they might see with their eyesand hear with their ears,understand with their minds,turn back, and be healed.

Then I said, “Until when, Lord?” And He replied:Until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants,houses are without people,the land is ruined and desolate,

and the Lord drives the people far away,leaving great emptiness in the land.

When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

The head of Aram is Damascus,the head of Damascus is Rezin(within 65 yearsEphraim will be too shattered to be a people),

The Lord will bring on you, your people, and the house of your father, such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah—the king of Assyria is coming.”

Because these people rejectedthe slowly flowing waters of Shiloahand rejoiced with Rezinand the son of Remaliah,

For this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people:

Do not call everything an alliancethese people say is an alliance.Do not fear what they fear;do not be terrified.

When they say to you, “Consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

The people walking in darknesshave seen a great light;a light has dawnedon those living in the land of darkness.

You have enlarged the nationand increased its joy.The people have rejoiced before Youas they rejoice at harvest timeand as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

All the people—Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—will know it.They will say with pride and arrogance:

The people did not turn to Him who struck them;they did not seek the Lord of Hosts.

The leaders of the people mislead them,and those they mislead are swallowed up.

The land is scorchedby the wrath of the Lord of Hosts,and the people are like fuel for the fire.No one has compassion on his brother.

to keep the poor from getting a fair trialand to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice,so that widows can be their spoiland they can plunder the fatherless.

I will send him against a godless nation;I will command him to goagainst a people destined for My rage,to take spoils, to plunder,and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

Israel, even if your people were as numerousas the sand of the sea,only a remnant of them will return.Destruction has been decreed;justice overflows.

Therefore, the Lord God of Hosts says this: “My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though he strikes you with a rod and raises his staff over you as the Egyptians did.

They crossed over at the ford, saying,“We will spend the night at Geba.”The people of Ramah are trembling;those at Gibeah of Saul have fled.

On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover—from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west—the remnant of His people who survive.

But they will swoop downon the Philistine flank to the west.Together they will plunder the people of the east.They will extend their power over Edom and Moab,and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

The Lord will divide the Gulf of Suez.He will wave His hand over the Euphrateswith His mighty windand will split it into seven streams,letting people walk through on foot.

There will be a highway for the remnant of His peoplewho will survive from Assyria,as there was for Israelwhen they came up from the land of Egypt.

Listen, a tumult on the mountains,like that of a mighty people!Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,like nations being gathered together!The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

Like wandering gazellesand like sheep without a shepherd,each one will turn to his own people,each one will flee to his own land.

All the earth is calm and at rest;people shout with a ringing cry.

You will not join them in burial,because you destroyed your landand slaughtered your own people.The offspring of evildoerswill never be remembered.

What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?The Lord has founded Zion,and His afflicted people find refuge in her.

On that day people will look to their Maker and will turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

sends couriers by sea,in reed vessels on the waters.Go, swift messengers,to a nation tall and smooth-skinned,to a people feared far and near,a powerful nation with a strange language,whose land is divided by rivers.

At that time a gift will be brought to Yahweh of Hosts from a people tall and smooth-skinned, a people feared far and near, a powerful nation with a strange language, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Yahweh of Hosts.

The Lord of Hosts will bless them, saying, “Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance are blessed.”

My people who have been crushedon the threshing floor,I have declared to youwhat I have heard from the Lord of Hosts,the God of Israel.

Therefore I said,“Look away from me! Let me weep bitterly!Do not try to comfort meabout the destruction of my dear people.”

For the Lord God of Hostshad a day of tumult, trampling, and confusionin the Valley of Vision—people shouting and crying to the mountains;

Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people who no longer exist.Assyria destined it for desert creatures.They set up their siege towersand stripped its palaces.They made it a ruin.

people and priest alike,servant and master,female servant and mistress,buyer and seller,lender and borrower,creditor and debtor.

The earth mourns and withers;the world wastes away and withers;the exalted people of the earth waste away.

Therefore, a strong people will honor You.The cities of violent nations will fear You.

Lord, Your hand is lifted up to take action,but they do not see it.They will see Your zeal for Your people,and they will be put to shame.The fire for Your adversaries will consume them!

Go, my people, enter your roomsand close your doors behind you.Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.

When its branches dry out, they will be broken off.Women will come and make fires with them,for they are not a people with understanding.Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them,and their Creator will not be gracious to them.

On that daythe Lord of Hosts will become a crown of beautyand a diadem of splendorto the remnant of His people,

So He will speak to this peoplewith stammering speechand in a foreign language.

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you mockerswho rule this people in Jerusalem.

The Lord said:Because these people approach Me with their mouthsto honor Me with lip-service—yet their hearts are far from Me,and their worship consists of man-made ruleslearned by rote—

therefore I will again confound these peoplewith wonder after wonder.The wisdom of their wise men will vanish,and the understanding of the perceptive will be hidden.

The humble will have joyafter joy in the Lord,and the poor people will rejoicein the Holy One of Israel.

everyone will be ashamedbecause of a people who can’t help.They are of no benefit, they are no help;they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.

An oracle about the animals of the Negev:Through a land of trouble and distress,of lioness and lion,of viper and flying serpent,they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeysand their treasures on the humps of camels,to a people who will not help them.

They are a rebellious people,deceptive children,children who do not want to obey the Lord’s instruction.

For you people will live on Zion in Jerusalem and will never cry again. He will show favor to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He will answer you.

for the ground of my peoplegrowing thorns and briers,indeed, for every joyous house in the joyful city.

Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place,in safe and secure dwellings.

Your spoil will be gathered as locusts are gathered;people will swarm over it like an infestation of locusts.

You will no longer see the barbarians,a people whose speech is difficult to comprehend—who stammer in a language that is not understood.

and none there will say, “I am sick.”The people who dwell therewill be forgiven their iniquity.

When My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,it will then come down on Edomand on the people I have set apart for destruction.

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

Lord, because of these promises people live,and in all of them is the life of my spirit as well;You have restored me to healthand let me live.

“Comfort, comfort My people,”says your God.

The grass withers, the flowers fadewhen the breath of the Lord blows on them;indeed, the people are grass.

This is what God, Yahweh, says—who created the heavens and stretched them out,who spread out the earth and what comes from it,who gives breath to the people on itand life to those who walk on it—

“I, Yahweh, have called Youfor a righteous purpose,and I will hold You by Your hand.I will keep You and appoint Youto be a covenant for the peopleand a light to the nations,

But this is a people plundered and looted,all of them trapped in holesor imprisoned in dungeons.They have become plunderwith no one to rescue themand loot, with no one saying, “Give it back!”

Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes,and are deaf, yet have ears.

All the nations are gathered together,and the peoples are assembled.Who among them can declare this,and tell us the former things?Let them present their witnessesto vindicate themselves,so that people may hear and say, “It is true.”

The animals of the field will honor Me,jackals and ostriches,because I provide water in the wilderness,and rivers in the desert,to give drink to My chosen people.

The people I formed for Myselfwill declare My praise.

Who, like Me, can announce the future?Let him say so and make a case before Me,since I have established an ancient people.Let these gods declare the coming things,and what will take place.

Such people do not comprehendand cannot understand,for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see,and their minds so they cannot understand.

I was angry with My people;I profaned My possession,and I placed them under your control.You showed them no mercy;you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.

This is what the Lord,the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, saysto one who is despised,to one abhorred by people,to a servant of rulers:“Kings will see and stand up,and princes will bow down,because of the Lord, who is faithful,the Holy One of Israel—and He has chosen you.”

This is what the Lord says:I will answer you in a time of favor,and I will help you in the day of salvation.I will keep you, and I will appoint youto be a covenant for the people,to restore the land,to make them possess the desolate inheritances,

Shout for joy, you heavens!Earth, rejoice!Mountains break into joyful shouts!For the Lord has comforted His people,and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

Pay attention to Me, My people,and listen to Me, My nation;for instruction will come from Me,and My justice for a light to the nations.I will bring it about quickly.

Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,the people in whose heart is My instruction:do not fear disgrace by men,and do not be shattered by their taunts.

I have put My words in your mouth,and covered you in the shadow of My hand,in order to plant the heavens,to found the earth,and to say to Zion, “You are My people.”

Wake yourself, wake yourself up!Stand up, Jerusalem,you who have drunk the cup of His furyfrom the hand of the Lord;you who have drunk the goblet to the dregs—the cup that causes people to stagger.

This is what your Lord says—Yahweh, even your God,who defends His people—“Look, I have removedthe cup of staggering from your hand;that goblet, the cup of My fury.You will never drink it again.

For this is what the Lord God says:“At first My people went down to Egypt to live there,then Assyria oppressed them without cause.