'Nation' in the Bible

Ah, sinful nation,A people loaded down with wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing],Offspring of evildoers,Sons who behave corruptly!They have abandoned (rejected) the Lord,They have despised the Holy One of Israel [provoking Him to anger],They have turned away from Him.

And He will judge between the nations,And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples;And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.Nation will not lift up the sword against nation,And never again will they learn war.

You [O God] will increase the nation,You will multiply their joy;They will rejoice before YouLike the joy and jubilation of the harvest,As men rejoice when they divide the spoil [of victory].

I send Assyria against a godless nationAnd commission it against the people of My wrathTo take the spoil and to seize the plunder,And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

“Then what answer will one give the messengers of the [Philistine] nation?That the Lord has founded Zion,And the afflicted of His people will seek and find refuge in it.”

Which sends ambassadors by the sea,Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),To a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hostsFrom a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),From a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the place [of worship] of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].

“Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,The one that remains faithful and trustworthy.

You have increased the nation, O Lord;You have increased the nation, You are glorified;You have extended all the borders of the land.

In that day [it will be said of the redeemed nation of Israel],“A vineyard of wine, sing in praise of it!

“I have declared [the future] and saved [the nation] and proclaimed [that I am God],And there was no strange (alien) god among you;Therefore you are My witnesses [among the pagans],” declares the Lord,“That I am God.

“In fact, they are like stubble;Fire burns them.They cannot save themselves from the power of the flame [much less save the nation],There is no blazing coal for warmingNor fire before which to sit!

“Oh, that you had paid attention to My commandments!Then your peace and prosperity would have been like a [flowing] river,And your righteousness [the holiness and purity of the nation] like the [abundant] waves of the sea.

“Listen carefully to Me [says the Lord], O My people,And hear Me, O My nation;For a [divine] law will go forth from Me,And I will quickly establish My justice as a light to the peoples.

“Yet they seek Me day by day and delight [superficially] to know My ways,As [if they were in reality] a nation that has done righteousnessAnd has not abandoned (turned away from) the ordinance of their God.They ask of Me righteous judgments,They delight in the nearness of God.

“For the nation or the kingdom which will not serve you [Jerusalem] shall perish,And the nations [that refuse to serve] shall be utterly ruined.

“The smallest one will become a thousand (a clan),And the least one a mighty nation.I, the Lord, will quicken it in its [appointed] time.”

“I let Myself be sought by those who did not ask for Me;I let Myself be found by those who did not seek Me.I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’To the nation [Israel] which did not call on My Name.

“Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one day?Or can a nation be brought forth in a moment?As soon as Zion was in labor, she also brought forth her sons.