'Foreigner' in the Bible

There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to live as a foreigner there, for the famine was severe in the land.

Throughout your generations, every male among you at eight days old is to be circumcised. This includes a slave born in your house and one purchased with money from any foreigner. The one who is not your offspring,

{You must certainly circumcise} {the servant born in your house and the one bought from any foreigner}. And my covenant shall be with your flesh as an everlasting covenant.

And all the men of his household—both slaves born in his house and those purchased with money from a foreigner—were circumcised with him.

“Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as a foreigner, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door.

Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar.

Therefore swear an oath here by God that you won't deal falsely with me, my sons, or my descendants. Just as I've dealt graciously with you, won't you do so with me and with the land in which you live as a foreigner?"

And Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines for many days.

"I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight."

stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now.

When she bore a son, Moses named him Gershom, for he said, "I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land."

For seven days yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast -- that person will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner or one born in the land.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it.

A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.

If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

The same law will apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”

and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (for Moses had said, "I have been a foreigner in a foreign land"),

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates.

"You must not wrong a foreigner nor oppress him, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

You must not oppress a foreign resident; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

“This is to be a permanent statute for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month you are to practice self-denial and do no work, both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.

Therefore I say to the Israelites: None of you and no foreigner who lives among you may eat blood.

“Any Israelite or foreigner living among them, who hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten must drain its blood and cover it with dirt.

“Every person, whether the native or the foreigner, who eats an animal that died a natural death or was mauled by wild beasts is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening; then he will be clean.

But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these detestable things—not the native or the foreigner who lives among you.

You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him.

You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.

“Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him.

“No one outside a priest’s family is to eat the holy offering. A foreigner staying with a priest or a hired hand is not to eat the holy offering.

Neither you nor a foreigner are to present food to your God from any of these animals. They will not be accepted for you because they are deformed and have a defect.”

When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.'"

and one who misuses the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.

There will be one regulation for you, whether a foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.'"

Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you—for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you.

“If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among you, you are to support him as a foreigner or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you.

He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee,

“If a foreigner or temporary resident living among you prospers, but your brother living near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner living among you, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan,

“If a foreigner resides with you and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, he is to do so according to the Passover statute and its ordinances. You are to apply the same statute to both the foreign resident and the native of the land.”

When a foreigner resides with you or someone else is among you and wants to prepare a fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he is to do exactly as you do throughout your generations.

The assembly is to have the same statute for both you and the foreign resident as a permanent statute throughout your generations. You and the foreigner will be alike before the Lord.

The same law and the same ordinance will apply to both you and the foreigner who resides with you.”

The entire Israelite community and the foreigner who resides among them will be forgiven, since it happened to all the people unintentionally.

You are to have the same law for the person who acts in error, whether he is an Israelite or a foreigner who lives among you.

"'But the person who acts defiantly, whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults the Lord. That person must be cut off from among his people.

Then the one who gathers up the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them.

These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or temporary resident among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

I furthermore admonished your judges at that time that they should pay attention to issues among your fellow citizens and judge fairly, whether between one citizen and another or a citizen and a resident foreigner.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the foreigner who lives within your gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do.

He executes justice for the orphan and the widows, loves the foreigner, and gives them food and clothing."

You also must love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

“You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to a temporary resident living within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;

and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.

you are to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a king from your brothers. You are not to set a foreigner over you, or one who is not of your people.

If a Levite comes from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he lives as a foreigner, and comes with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose;

You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner in his land.

You may charge a foreigner interest, but you must not charge your brother interest, so that the Lord your God may bless you in everything you do in the land you are entering to possess.

Don't take advantage of a hired person who is poor and needy, whether he's your fellow citizen or a foreigner who lives in your city.

"Don't deny justice to a foreigner or to an orphan, nor take a widow's garment as collateral for a loan.

"When you are reaping in the field, and you overlook a sheaf, don't return to get it. Let it remain for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless everything you undertake.

When you harvest the olives from your trees, don't go back to the branches a second time. What remains is for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.

When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don't go back a second time. What remains are for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.

"When two brothers are living together and one of them dies without leaving a son, his widow must not be married outside the family to a foreigner. Instead, the brother-in-law must go to her, take her as his wife, and by doing so perform the duty of a brother-in-law.

Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number, but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people.

Then set it in the presence of the LORD your God and worship him. Rejoice with the descendants of Levi and the foreigner among you at all the good things that the LORD your God has given you and your family."

When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.

You shall say before Yahweh your God, "I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me: I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them:

""Cursed is the one who perverts justice due the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.' "Then all the people are to respond by saying, "Amen!'

The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little.

along with your children, your wives, even the foreigner in your camp, including the woodchopper and the water drawer

“Future generations of your children who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant country will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the Lord has inflicted on it.

Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your foreigner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;

All Israel, foreigner and citizen alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on either side of the ark of the Lord’s covenant facing the Levitical priests who carried it. As Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded earlier, half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, to bless the people of Israel.

These were appointed to be cities for all the Israelis and for the foreigner who lives among them, so that whoever kills anyone unintentionally may run there and not die at the hands of a closely related avenger until he stands for trial before the community.

Gilead has remained beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan dwell as a foreigner [with] ships? Asher sat at [the] coast of [the] waters, and by his coves he has been settling down.

There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the clan of Judah; he [was] a Levite and [was] dwelling as a foreigner there.

And the man went from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live as a foreigner wherever he could find [a place]. And he came [to] the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to continue his journey.

And Micah said to him, "From where do you come?" And he said to him, "I [am] a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah; I [am] going to dwell as a foreigner wherever I can find [a place]."

In those days there was no king in Israel; there was a man, a Levite, who dwelled as a foreigner in the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah.

Then behold, an old man [was] coming from his work from the field in the evening, and the man [was] from the hill country of Ephraim, and he [was] dwelling as a foreigner in Gibeah. (The people of the place [were] descendants of Benjamin.)

During the time of the judges there was a famine in the land of Judah. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live as a resident foreigner in the region of Moab, along with his wife and two sons.

She bowed with her face to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?”

David inquired of the young man who had brought him the report, “Where are you from?”“I’m the son of a foreigner,” he said. “I’m an Amalekite.”

The king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why are you also going with us? Go back and stay with the new king since you’re both a foreigner and an exile from your homeland.

Even for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israelbut has come from a distant landbecause of Your name—

may You hear in heaven, Your dwelling place,and do according to all the foreigner asks You for.Then all the people on earth will know Your name,to fear You as Your people Israel doand know that this temple I have builtis called by Your name.

Elijah the foreigner, who was an alien resident from Gilead, told Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I'm standing, there will be neither dew nor rain these next several years, except when I say so."

That's when this message from the LORD came to Elijah the foreigner:

Later, this message from the LORD came to Elijah the foreigner:

But the angel of the LORD spoke to Elijah the foreigner, "Get up and go meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Ask them "Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to consult with Ekron's god Baal-zebub?

They answered, "The man was a hairy fellow. He wore a leather sash around his waist." The king responded, "It's Elijah, that foreigner!"

Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Get ready, you and your household, and go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the Lord has announced a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.”

So they returned and reported to Jehu, and he responded, "This fulfills this message from the LORD that he spoke through his servant Elijah the foreigner, who said:

Even for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israelbut has come from a distant landbecause of Your great nameand Your mighty hand and outstretched arm:when he comes and prays toward this temple,

may You hear in heaven in Your dwelling place,and do all the foreigner asks You.Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name,to fear You as Your people Israel doand know that this temple I have builtis called by Your name.