26 Bible Verses about Nomads

When the Hebrews were few in number so very few and were sojourners in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who also inherited the same promise,

From there Abram traveled on to the hill country east of Bethel and set up his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

He journeyed by stages from the Negev to Bethel, the place where his tent had formerly been, between Bethel and Ai,

In response, Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. He also pitched his tents there and his servants dug a well.

Meanwhile, Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, where Laban had caught up with him. Laban and his relatives encamped on that same mountain in the hill country of Gilead, too.

Jacob continued his travels, and eventually pitched his tent facing Migdal Eder.

Then you are to affirm and declare in the presence of the LORD your God:

when he told Israel, "To you I will give the land of Canaan as your joyful inheritance." When you were few in number very few, and strangers at that wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another,

"The LORD's anger had flared up against Israel so that he made them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation, who committed evil in the eyes of the LORD, had died.

"""You won't be building a house for me to inhabit, will you? After all, I haven't lived in a house from the day I brought out Israel until today. Instead, I've lived from tent to tent and from one place to another. Wherever I've moved within all of Israel, did I ever ask even one judge of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, "Why haven't you built me a cedar house?'"'

Adah gave birth to Jabal, who became the ancestor of those who live in tents and herd livestock.

Meanwhile, Sisera had escaped on foot to a tent belonging to Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, since there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the household of Heber the Kenite.

Whenever the Israelis sowed their crops, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups from the east would come up and invade them.

I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, and the tent curtains of the land of Midian in anguish.

How terrible for me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I reside among the tents of Kedar!

To Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed: This is what the LORD says: "Arise, go against Kedar! Plunder the people of the east! Take their tents and their flocks, their tent curtains and all their goods. Take their camels away from them. Cry out against them, "Terror is all around!'

therefore you'd better look out! I'm going to turn you over to men from the East, who will dominate you. You will become their property. They will set up military encampments and permanent places in which to live among you, and then they'll eat your fruit and drink your milk.

It will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Bedouin will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD during the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah: "Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them. Bring them into the LORD's Temple, to one of the offices, and offer them wine to drink." So I took Jeremiah's son Jaazaniah (a descendant of Habazziniah), his brothers, all his sons, and the whole family of the Rechabites. read more.
I brought them to the LORD's Temple to the office of the descendants of Igdaliah's son Hanan, the man of God, which was next to the office of the officials, and which was above the office of Shallum's son Maaseiah, the keeper of the threshold. I put containers full of wine and cups in front of the members of the Rechabite clan and told them, "Drink the wine!" But they said, "We won't drink wine, because our ancestor, Rechab's son Jonadab commanded us: "You and your descendants are never to drink wine! You aren't to build houses, you aren't to sow seeds, and you aren't to plant vineyards, or own them. Instead, you are to live in tents all your lives, so you will enjoy a long life in the land where you reside.' We have obeyed everything that our ancestor, Rechab's son Jonadab, commanded us. So we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters have drunk no wine all our lives, and have built no houses to live in. We don't have vineyards, fields, or seed. We have lived in tents. We have obeyed and have done everything that our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. Now when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, "Come on! Let's go to Jerusalem because of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram. And now we're living in Jerusalem.'"

Gideon went up by a caravan route east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked their encampment when they were off guard.

"Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? You have sat beside the road, waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. And you have polluted the land with your fornication and your wickedness.

Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and exiles to keep on abstaining from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

All these people died having faith. They did not receive the things that were promised, yet they saw them in the distant future and welcomed them, acknowledging that they were strangers and foreigners on earth. For people who say such things make it clear that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking about what they had left behind, they would have had an opportunity to go back. read more.
Instead, they were longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them.

If you call "Father" the one who judges everyone impartially according to what they have done, you must live in reverent fear as long as you are strangers in a strange land.

Jesus told him, "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest."