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can connote “renown” and “continuance” (in those remaining after one): “And
they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty
princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown” (Num. 16:2). This
significance is in the phrase “to raise up his name after him”: “What day thou buyest the
field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the
dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance” (cf. Deut. 9:14; 25:6; Ruth
4:5).
NATION
(
%
, 1471), “nation; people; heathen.” Outside the Bible, this noun appears only
in the Mari texts (Akkadian) and perhaps in Phoenician-Punic. This word occurs about 56
times and in all periods of biblical Hebrew.
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refers to a “people or nation,” usually with overtones of territorial or
governmental unity/identity. This emphasis is in the promise formulas where God
promised to make someone a great, powerful, numerous “nation” (Gen. 12:2). Certainly
these adjectives described the future characteristics of the individual’s descendants as
compared to other peoples (cf. Num. 14:12). So
represents a group of individuals
who are considered as a unit with respect to origin, language, land, jurisprudence, and
government. This emphasis is in Gen. 10:5 (the first occurrence): “By these were the isles
of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in
their nations.” Deut. 4:6 deals not with political and national identity but with religious
unity, its wisdom, insight, righteous jurisprudence, and especially its nearness to God:
“Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight
of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a
wise and understanding people.” Certainly all this is viewed as the result of divine
election (Deut. 4:32ff.). Israel’s greatness is due to the greatness of her God and the great
acts He has accomplished in and for her.
The word
, “people, nation,” suggests subjective personal interrelationships based
on common familial ancestry and/or a covenantal union, while
suggests a political
entity with a land of its own: “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy
sight, show me thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and
consider that this nation is thy people” (Exod. 33:13).
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may be used of a people,
however, apart from its territorial identity: “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6).
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is sometimes almost a derogatory name for non-Israelite groups, or the
“heathen”: “And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword …”
(Lev. 26:33). This negative connotation is not always present, however, when the word is
used of the heathen: “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold
him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations”
(Num. 23:9). Certainly in contexts dealing with worship the
are the nonIsraelites:
“They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom
they carried away from thence” (2 Kings 17:33). In passages such as Deut. 4:38
specifically describes the early inhabitants of Canaan prior to the Israelite conquest. Israel