'Strangers' in the Bible

God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.

“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

“You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers who were living among them.

When they were only a few in number,Very few, and strangers in it,

For strangers have risen against meAnd violent men have sought my life;They have not set God before them. Selah.

When they were only a few men in number,Very few, and strangers in it.

Let the creditor seize all that he has,And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

The Lord protects the strangers;He supports the fatherless and the widow,But He thwarts the way of the wicked.

And strangers will be filled with your strengthAnd your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;

Let them be yours aloneAnd not for strangers with you.

Your land is desolate,Your cities are burned with fire,Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence;It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers.

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.

When the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

For You have made a city into a heap,A fortified city into a ruin;A palace of strangers is a city no more,It will never be rebuilt.

Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks,And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.

“Keep your feet from being unshodAnd your throat from thirst;But you said, ‘It is hopeless!No! For I have loved strangers,And after them I will walk.’

‘Only acknowledge your iniquity,That you have transgressed against the Lord your GodAnd have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree,And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.

It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

‘It shall come about on that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from off their neck and will tear off their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves.

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,Our houses to aliens.

“And I will bring you out of the midst of the city and deliver you into the hands of strangers and execute judgments against you.

You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!

Therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you,The most ruthless of the nations.And they will draw their swordsAgainst the beauty of your wisdomAnd defile your splendor.

‘You will die the death of the uncircumcisedBy the hand of strangers,For I have spoken!’ declares the Lord God!”’”

“Moreover, I will make the Nile canals dryAnd sell the land into the hands of evil men.And I will make the land desolateAnd all that is in it,By the hand of strangers; I the Lord have spoken.”

Strangers devour his strength,Yet he does not know it;Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,Yet he does not know it.

For they sow the windAnd they reap the whirlwind.The standing grain has no heads;It yields no grain.Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

Then you will know that I am the Lord your God,Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.So Jerusalem will be holy,And strangers will pass through it no more.

“On the day that you stood aloof,On the day that strangers carried off his wealth,And foreigners entered his gateAnd cast lots for Jerusalem—You too were as one of them.

He *said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?”

When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt.

And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers.

A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

In the Law it is written, “By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me,” says the Lord.

remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

having a reputation for good works; and if she has brought up children, if she has shown hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saints’ feet, if she has assisted those in distress, and if she has devoted herself to every good work.

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers;