'Nation' in the Bible

I will make you into a great nation,I will bless you,I will make your name great,and you will be a blessing.

However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him; I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father 12 tribal leaders, and I will make him into a great nation.

Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

But I will also make a nation of the slave’s son because he is your offspring.”

Get up, help the boy up, and support him, for I will make him a great nation.”

God also said to him:I am God Almighty.Be fruitful and multiply.A nation, indeed an assembly of nations,will come from you,and kings will descend from you.

God said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a populous nation.”

The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

Now if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, please teach me Your ways, and I will know You and find favor in Your sight. Now consider that this nation is Your people.”

And the Lord responded: “Look, I am making a covenant. I will perform wonders in the presence of all your people that have never been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.

I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.”

Carefully follow them, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the eyes of the peoples. When they hear about all these statutes, they will say, ‘This great nation is indeed a wise and understanding people.’

For what great nation is there that has a god near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call to Him?

And what great nation has righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

Leave Me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.’

You are to respond by saying in the presence of the Lord your God:My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with a few people and lived there. There he became a great, powerful, and populous nation.

“The Lord will bring you and your king that you have appointed to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, of wood and stone.

The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you don’t understand,

a ruthless nation, showing no respect for the old and not sparing the young.

They have provoked My jealousywith their so-called gods;they have enraged Me with their worthless idols.So I will provoke their jealousywith an inferior people;I will enrage them with a foolish nation.

Israel is a nation lacking sensewith no understanding at all.

The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord spoke to Joshua:

After the entire nation had been circumcised, they stayed where they were in the camp until they recovered.

And the sun stood stilland the moon stoppeduntil the nation took vengeance on its enemies.Isn’t this written in the Book of Jashar?So the sun stoppedin the middle of the skyand delayed its settingalmost a full day.

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He declared, “Because this nation has violated My covenant that I made with their fathers and disobeyed Me,

And who is like Your people Israel? God came to one nation on earth in order to redeem a people for Himself, to make a name for Himself, and to perform for them great and awesome acts, driving out nations and their gods before Your people You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt.

As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear they had not found you.

When the Arameans came against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Please strike this nation with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to Elisha’s word.

But the people of each nation were still making their own gods in the cities where they lived and putting them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made.

wandering from nation to nationand from one kingdom to another,

And who is like Your people Israel? God, You came to one nation on earth to redeem a people for Yourself, to make a name for Yourself through great and awesome works by driving out nations before Your people You redeemed from Egypt.

Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress.

So now, don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, and don’t let him mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my power or the power of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my power!’”

Happy is the nation whose God is Yahweh—the people He has chosen to be His own possession!

Vindicate me, God, and defend my causeagainst an ungodly nation;rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man.

They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nationso that Israel’s name will no longer be remembered.”

wandering from nation to nationand from one kingdom to another,

so that I may enjoy the prosperityof Your chosen ones,rejoice in the joy of Your nation,and boast about Your heritage.

He has not done this for any nation;they do not know His judgments.Hallelujah!

Righteousness exalts a nation,but sin is a disgrace to any people.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Open the gatesso a righteous nation can come in—one that remains faithful.

You have added to the nation, Lord.You have added to the nation; You are honored.You have expanded all the borders of the land.

For when he sees his children,the work of My hands within his nation,they will honor My name,they will honor the Holy One of Jacoband stand in awe of the God of Israel.

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.

so you will summon a nation you do not know,and nations who do not know you will run to you.For the Lord your God,even the Holy One of Israel,has glorified you.”

They seek Me day after dayand delight to know My ways,like a nation that does what is rightand does not abandon the justice of their God.They ask Me for righteous judgments;they delight in the nearness of God.”

For the nation and the kingdomthat will not serve you will perish;those nations will be annihilated.

The least will become a thousand,the smallest a mighty nation.I am Yahweh;I will accomplish it quickly in its time.

“I was sought by those who did not ask;I was found by those who did not seek Me.I said: Here I am, here I am,to a nation that was not called by My name.

Who has heard of such a thing?Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one dayor a nation be delivered in an instant?Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,she gave birth to her sons.

Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?(But they were not gods!)Yet My people have exchanged their Gloryfor useless idols.

Should I not punish them for these things?This is the Lord’s declaration.Should I not avenge Myselfon such a nation as this?

I am about to bring a nationfrom far away against you,house of Israel.This is the Lord’s declaration.It is an established nation,an ancient nation,a nation whose language you do not knowand whose speech you do not understand.

Should I not punish them for these things?This is the Lord’s declaration.Should I not avenge Myselfon such a nation as this?

This is what the Lord says:Look, an army is coming from a northern land;a great nation will be awakenedfrom the remote regions of the earth.

You must therefore declare to them: This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths.

Should I not punish them for these things?This is the Lord’s declaration.Should I not avenge Myselfon such a nation as this?

At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.

However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.

At another time I announce that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom.

When the 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, and I will make it a ruin forever.

“This is what the Lord of Hosts says:Pay attention! Disaster spreadsfrom nation to nation.A great storm is stirred upfrom the ends of the earth.”

“As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“until through him I have destroyed it.

But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will cultivate it and reside in it.” This is the Lord’s declaration.

Why should you and your people die by the sword, famine, or plague as the Lord has threatened against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

If this fixed order departs from My presence—this is the Lord’s declaration—then also Israel’s descendants will ceaseto be a nation before Me forever.

“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The Lord has rejected the two families He had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.

I will bring the four winds against Elamfrom the four corners of the heavens,and I will scatter them to all these winds.There will not be a nationto which Elam’s banished ones will not go.

For a nation from the north will come against her;it will make her land desolate.No one will be living in it—both man and beast will escape.

Look! A people comes from the north.A great nation and many kings will be stirred upfrom the remote regions of the earth.

ע AyinAll the while our eyes were failingas we looked in vain for assistance;we watched from our towersfor a nation that refused to help.

“This is what the Lord God says: Because people are saying to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of children,’

therefore, you will no longer devour men and deprive your nation of children.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

“I will no longer allow the insults of the nations to be heard against you, and you will not have to endure the reproach of the peoples anymore; you will no longer cause your nation to stumble.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.

I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. They will no longer be two nations and will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

A herald loudly proclaimed, “People of every nation and language, you are commanded:

Therefore, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and every kind of music, people of every nation and language fell down and worshiped the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Therefore I issue a decree that anyone of any people, nation, or language who says anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb and his house made a garbage dump. For there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.”

King Nebuchadnezzar, To those of every people, nation, and language, who live in all the earth: May your prosperity increase.

Then King Darius wrote to those of every people, nation, and language who live in all the earth: “May your prosperity abound.

He was given authority to rule,and glory, and a kingdom;so that those of every people,nation, and languageshould serve Him.His dominion is an everlasting dominionthat will not pass away,and His kingdom is onethat will not be destroyed.

The four horns that took the place of the shattered horn represent four kingdoms. They will rise from that nation, but without its power.

After an alliance is made with him, he will act deceitfully. He will rise to power with a small nation.

For a nation has invaded My land,powerful and without number;its teeth are the teeth of a lion,and it has the fangs of a lioness.

I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation, for the Lord has spoken.

Therefore, the Lord says:I am now planning a disasteragainst this nation;you cannot free your necks from it.Then you will not walk so proudlybecause it will be an evil time.

He will settle disputes among many peoplesand provide arbitration for strong nationsthat are far away.They will beat their swords into plows,and their spears into pruning knives.Nation will not take up the sword against nation,and they will never again train for war.