'People' in the Bible

Your servant [is] in the middle of your people whom you have chosen; a great people who cannot be counted or numbered because of abundance.

Give to your servant a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and bad, because who is able to judge this, your difficult people?"

The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people of [the] east and more than all the wisdom of Egypt.

When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly, and he said, "Blessed be Yahweh this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people."

Besides the chiefs of the officers Solomon had, there were three thousand three hundred having charge over the people who were doing the work.

And I will dwell {among} the {Israelites}, and I will not forsake my people Israel."

'From the day that I brought out my people Israel from Egypt I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house where my name might be, but I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'

You must listen to the plea of your servant and your people Israel which they pray [toward] this place; and you must hear from the place where you live, from heaven you must hear and you must forgive.

When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy {because} they sinned against you, and [when] they turn to you and confess your name and pray and beg for mercy from you in this house,

then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and you shall bring them back to the ground which you gave to their ancestors.

then you shall hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, for you will teach them the good way in which they should go, and you will give rain upon your land which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

any prayer or any plea which is [offered] by any person for all of your people Israel, who each knows the infestation of his [own] heart and spreads out his palms to this house,

Also for the foreigner who is not from your people Israel, and he comes from a distant land because of your name,

you shall hear in heaven, the place of your dwelling, and act according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been invoked over this house that I have built.

If your people go out to battle against his enemy in the way that you shall send them and they pray to Yahweh, toward the city which you have chosen and the house which I have built for your name,

You shall forgive your people who sinned against you, [even] for all their transgressions which they committed against you. You shall give them compassion before their captors so that they may have compassion on them,

for they [are] your people and your inheritance whom you brought from Egypt from the middle of the smelter of iron.

[O,] that your eyes [may] be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of your people Israel, to listen to them in all things [when] they call to you.

"Blessed be Yahweh who gave a resting place to his people Israel. According to all that he promised, not one word has fallen from all of his promises [concerning] the good which he spoke through the hand of Moses his servant.

Let these my words which I pleaded before Yahweh [be] near to Yahweh our God, by day and by night, to maintain the justice of his servant and the justice of his people Israel {as each day requires}

so that all of the people of the earth may know that Yahweh, he [is] God; there is none other.

On the eighth day, he sent the people away, and they blessed the king, and they went to their tents rejoicing and {in good spirits} because of all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David his servant and to Israel his people.

All of the people who were remaining from the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites who [were] not of the {Israelites},

These [were] the commanders of the overseers who [were] over the work for Solomon, five hundred and fifty, ruling over the people doing the work.

He said, "Go up for three days and then return to me"; so the people went away.

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who had been {serving} before Solomon his father when he was alive, saying, "How [are] you advising [me] {to answer this people}?"

They said to him, "If you will be a servant today to this people, then you will serve them; and if you answer them and speak good words to them, they will always be your servants."

He said to them, "What [are] you advising that we should reply to this people who spoke to me by saying, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us.'"

Then the youngsters who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you: 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten [it] for us,' you shall say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

Jeroboam and all of the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken: "Return to me on the third day."

Then the king answered all the people harshly, [as] he had rejected the advice of the old men that they had offered.

So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turning of events from Yahweh in order to fulfill his word which Yahweh had spoken through the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

When all of Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "{What share do we have in David}? [There is] no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your house, David!" Then Israel went to their tents.

"Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon the king of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the remainder of the people, saying,

if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The heart of this people will return to their master Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they shall kill me and {return to him}."

This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan.

After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but he returned and [again] made priests for the high places of people from {all walks of life}. He filled his hand with all [his] desire and became [one of] the priests of the high places [himself].

Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you [are] the wife of Jeroboam, and go [to] Shiloh. Look, Ahijah the prophet is there, and he spoke concerning me [before I became] king over this people.

Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: "Because I raised you from the midst of the people and I made you leader over my people Israel,

"Because I exalted you from the dust and I made you a leader over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and you caused my people Israel to sin, to provoke me with their sins,

At that time, the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people went after Tibni the son of Ginath to make him king, and the other half went after Omri.

The people who went after Omri overcame the people who went after Tibni the son of Ginath, so that he died and Omri became king.

Elijah approached to all the people and said, "How long [will] you [go] limping over two opinions? If Yahweh [is] God, go after him; but if Baal, go after him." But the people did not answer him a word.

Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone [am] left a prophet of Yahweh, but the prophets of Baal [are] four hundred and fifty men.

Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh, and it shall be that the god who answers by fire, he [is] God." Then all the people answered and said, "The word [is] good!"

Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me," so all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh [that had been] destroyed.

Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me; that this people may know that you, O Yahweh, [are] God and that you have turned their hearts back again."

When all the people saw, they fell on their faces and said, "Yahweh, he [is] God! Yahweh, he [is] God!"

So he returned from after him, and he took a pair of oxen and slaughtered them, and with the yoke of the oxen he boiled the flesh and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and served him.

All of the elders and all of the people said to him, "Do not listen and do not consent."

Then Ben-Hadad sent to him and said, "Thus may the gods do to me and thus may they add if the dust of Samaria is sufficient for the hollow of a hand for all of the people who are at my feet."

He said to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have let the man I devoted for destruction go from [your] hand, your life shall be in place of his life and your people in place of his people.'"

She had written in the letters, saying, "Call a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people.

They called a fast, and they seated Naboth at the head of the people.

Then the two men, {scoundrels}, came, sat opposite him, and the {scoundrels} witnessed against Naboth before the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God and the king," so they brought him outside of the city and stoned him with stones, and he died.

Then he said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to the battle for Ramoth-Gilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "{I am like you}; {my people are like your people}; {my horses are like your horses}."

He walked in all of the way of Asa his father, and he did not turn aside from it, doing right in the eyes of Yahweh. Only he did not remove the high places; the people [were] still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

He went and sent [a message] to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, saying, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab for the battle?" And he said, "I will go up. {I am like you}; {my people are like your people}; {my horses are like your horses}."

He said to him, "Please say to her, 'Look, you took all this trouble, showing care for us; what is there [for me] to do for you? To speak for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" She said, "I [am] living among my people."

Then he said, "Bring [some] flour," and he threw it into the pot. He then said, "Serve the people and let them eat." There was nothing harmful in the pot.

A man came from Baal-Shalishah and brought food to the man of God: firstfruits and twenty loaves of barley bread, with ripe grain in his sack. He said, "Give [it] to the people and let them eat."

Then his servant said, "How can I set this before a hundred men?" He said, "Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus Yahweh says, 'They shall eat and have some left over.'"

They came down to him, and Elisha prayed to Yahweh and said, "Please strike this people with blindness," so he struck them with blindness as {Elisha had spoken}.

It happened that when the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes. Now he had been walking on the wall, and the people saw, and behold, sackcloth was over his flesh underneath.

So the people went out and plundered the camp of [the] Arameans. A seah of wheat flour [went] for a shekel and two seahs of barley [went] for a shekel according to the word of Yahweh.

Then the king appointed the officer he was depending on over the gate, but the people trampled him and he died, according to that which the man of God had said which he spoke when the king came down to him.

So it had happened to him; the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

He got up and went to the house, and poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'I hereby anoint you as king over the people of Yahweh, over Israel.

It happened in the morning that he went out, stood, and said to all of the people, "You [are] righteous. Look, I conspired against my master and killed him. But who killed all of these?

Then Jehu assembled all of the people and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will worship him greatly.

When Athaliah heard the sound of the runners of the people, she came to the people at the temple of Yahweh.

She looked, and there was the king standing by the pillar according to the custom. The commanders and the trumpeters [were] by the king, and all of the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing on the trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and she called, "Treason, treason!"

Then Jehoiada {made} a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that the people should be as a people for Yahweh, and [also a covenant] between the king and the people.

Then all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down, and its altars and its images they broke completely into pieces. Mattan the priest of Baal they killed in front of the altars. Then the priest put guards over the house of Yahweh.

He took the commanders of the hundreds and the Carites and the runners and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the temple of Yahweh. And they marched by the way of the runner's gate [to] the palace of the king, and he sat on the throne of the kings.

All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city rested; [for] Athaliah had been killed with the sword in the palace of the king.

Only the high places were not removed; the people [were] still making sacrifices and offering incense on the high places.

So the priests agreed not to take money from the people and not to repair the damage to the temple.

Only the high places were not removed; the people [were] still sacrificing and offering incense on the high places.

All of the people of Judah took sixteen-year-old Azariah and made him king in place of this father Amaziah.

Only he did not remove the high places; the people [were] still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

Yahweh struck the king, and he was infected with a skin disease until the day of his death. He lived in a separate house, [while] Jotham the son of the king [was] over the house, governing the people of the land.

Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, struck him in front of the people, killed him, and reigned in his place.

Only the high places were not removed; the people still [were] sacrificing and offering incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the temple of Yahweh.

Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, saying, "On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the grain offering of the evening, the burnt offering of the king and his grain offering, the burnt offering of all of the people of the land, their offerings, their libations, and all of the blood of the burnt offerings, the blood of the sacrifices you must dash on it. But the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire [by]."

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the chief commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we [are] understanding, but you must not speak Judean with us in the ears of the people who [are] on the wall."

The people were silent, and they did not answer him a word, for the command of that king was saying, "You shall not answer him."

"Return; you must say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'Thus says Yahweh the God of David your ancestor, "I have heard your prayer and I have seen your tears. Look, I [am about to] heal you. On the third day you shall go up [to] the temple of Yahweh.

But the people of the land killed all who conspired against the king and made Josiah his son king in his place.

"Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let them count the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people,

"Go, inquire of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this scroll [that was] found. For the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us [is] great because our ancestors did not listen to the words of this scroll to do according to all that is written concerning us!"

Then the king went up [to] the temple of Yahweh, and all of the men of Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem [were] with him, [including] the priests, the prophets, and all of the people from smallest to greatest; and in their {hearing} he read all of the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the temple of Yahweh.

Then the king stood by the pillar, and he {made} a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of [his] heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people {joined} in the covenant.

He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it {there}; then he pulverized [it] to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people.

Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant.

So his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

The silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; however, he taxed the land to give the silver {to meet the demands of Pharaoh}. Each according to assessment, he exacted [payment] of the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Neco.

He deported all of Jerusalem: all of the commanders, ten thousand of the skilled warriors, and the artisans; no one was left over except the poorest of the people of the land.

In the ninth month, the famine became severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.

The remainder of the people left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard deported.