'People' in the Bible

Now look, I have made you {today} as a fortified city and as an iron pillar and a bronze wall against all the land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

Has a nation exchanged gods? And they [are] not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.

"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, [the] source of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes will {shave} your skull.

O generation, you see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a desert to Israel? Or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We roam about freely, we will not come again to you'?

Can a young woman forget her ornaments? [Or] a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'It will be peace for you,' while the sword reaches up to the throat."

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "{A hot wind from the barren heights} in the desert, {in the direction of} the daughter of my people, not to winnow and not to cleanse,

"For my people [are] foolish, they have not known me. They [are] foolish children, and they do not have insight. They [are] skillful at doing evil, and they do not know [how] to do good."

Then I said, "[They are] just simple people, they are foolish, for they know not the way of Yahweh, the law of their God.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, look, I [am] making my words in your mouth like a fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

{And then}, when you [people] say, 'Why has Yahweh our God done all of these [things] to us?' Then you will say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in {a land that does not belong to you}.'

Hear this please, foolish and {senseless} people, {who have eyes} but do not see, {who have ears} but do not hear.'

But for this people is a stubborn and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and have gone [away].

For wicked people are found among my people, they lie in wait like the hiding of fowlers, they set up a trap, they catch humans.

The prophets prophesy {falsely}, and the priests rule {by their own authority}, and my people love [it] so much. But what will you do {when the end comes}?

And they have treated the wound of my people lightly, {saying}, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.

Hear, O earth, look, I [am] about to bring disaster to this people, the fruit of their plans, because they have not listened attentively to my words, and my teaching, they have rejected it also.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh: "Look, I [am] about to put before this people stumbling blocks, and they will stumble against them, fathers and children together, neighbor and his friend will perish."

Thus says Yahweh: "Look, a people [is] coming from [the] land of [the] north, a great nation is woken up from [the] farthest part of [the] earth.

O daughter of my people, gird yourself [with] sackcloth, and roll about in the ashes in mourning, a mourning ceremony [as for] an only child. Make for yourself wailing of bitterness, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

"I have made you an assayer among my people, a fortification, so that you may know and put to the test their ways.

"For go now to my place that [was] in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, and see what I did to it {because of} the wickedness of my people Israel.

"And you, you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty or a prayer, and you must not plead with me, for I [will] not hear you.

But I only commanded them this word, {saying}, 'Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.'

For the people of Judah have done evil in my eyes," {declares} Yahweh, "They have set their abominations in the house that is called {by my name}, to defile it.

And the dead bodies of this people [will be] as food for the birds of the heavens, and for the animals of the earth, without anyone to scare [them] away.

Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away [in] enduring apostasy? They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.

Even [the] stork in heaven knows its appointed time, and [the] turtledove, and [the] swallow, and [the] song bird, they observe the time of their coming. But my people do not know the ordinance of Yahweh.

And they have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly, {saying}, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.

Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land, 'Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her?' Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with idols of a foreign land?"

"Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down, I mourn, horror has seized me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

{Oh that my head were waters}, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, [for] the slain of the daughter of my people.

{Oh that I had} in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers, that I may leave my people and go from them, for all of them [are] adulterers, a band of traitors.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I [am] about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the {presence} of the daughter of my people?

Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison,

Silver beaten from Tarshish is brought, and gold from Uphaz, the work of [the] craftsman and [the] hands of the goldsmith. Blue and purple [are] their clothing, all of them [are] the work of skillful people.

"Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the {people} of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

which I commanded your ancestors in the day of my bringing them from the land of Egypt, from the furnace of iron, {saying}, 'Listen to my voice and do according to all that I command you, {so will you be my people, and I will be your God}.'

And Yahweh said to me, "A conspiracy is found among the {people} of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Therefore you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty, or a prayer, for I [will] not listen in the time of their calling to me, in the time of their trouble.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the people of Anathoth who seek your life, {saying}, "You shall not prophesy in the name of Yahweh {or} you will die by our hand."

And a remnant will not be [left] for them, for I will bring disaster to the people of Anathoth, the year of their punishment."

Thus says Yahweh concerning all of the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance [to] my people Israel: "Look, I [am] about to drive them out from their land, and the house of Judah I will drive out from among them.

{And then}, if they diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, '{as Yahweh lives},' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will live in the midst of my people.

This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who go in the stubbornness of their hearts, and have gone after other gods, to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, let them be like this loincloth which is not good for anything.

For as the loincloth clings to [the] loins of a person, so I caused to cling to me all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to be for me a people, and a name, and a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.'

Thus says Yahweh concerning this people: "They have loved so much to wander, they have not spared their feet. Therefore Yahweh is not favorable to them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins."

So Yahweh said to me, "You must not pray for this people, for [their] happiness.

And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.

"And you shall say to them this word, 'Let my eyes melt [with] tears night and day, and let them not cease, for [with] a great wound the virgin daughter of my people is broken, [with] a very incurable wound.

Then Yahweh said to me, "[Even] if Moses and Samuel stood {before me}, my heart [would] not [be] to this people. Send [them] away from my {sight}, and let them go out.

And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land. I am bereaved. I have destroyed my people. They did not turn back from their ways.

And I will make you to this people a wall of fortified bronze, and they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I [am] with you, to save you, and to deliver you," {declares} Yahweh.

For thus says Yahweh, "You must not enter [the] house of [the] funeral meal, and you must not go to lament, and you must not show sympathy for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people," {declares} Yahweh, "the loyal love and the compassion.

{And then} when you tell this people all these words and they ask you, '{Why} has Yahweh pronounced against us all this great evil, and what [is] our iniquity, and what [is] our sin that we have sinned against Yahweh our God?'

then kings and officials who sit on the throne of David will enter through the gates of this city riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their officials, the people of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited {forever}.

"So now then, say, please, to the {people} of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] preparing evil against you, and [I am] planning a plan against you. Please turn back, each one from his evil way, and walk rightly [in] your ways and your deeds." '

But my people have forgotten me. They make smoke offerings to the idols, and they caused them to stumble in their ways, [the] ancient ways, to go [into] {bypaths}, not [one that] is built up.

Thus said Yahweh, "Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar, and [take] some of the elders of the people, and some of the leaders of the priests,

And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, [so] that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury {until there is no room to bury}.

Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people,

And {afterward}," {declares} Yahweh, "I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who remain in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and he will strike them with [the] {edge} of [the] sword. He will not take pity on them, and he will not have compassion, nor will he show compassion." '

"And to this people you shall say, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] setting {before you} the way of life and the way of death.

And you must say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates.

And if you indeed obey this word, then kings who sit for David on his throne will enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people, "You yourselves have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you do not attend to them. Look, I [will] punish you [for] the evil of your deeds," {declares} Yahweh.

"Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing. They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err.

But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words [to] my people, and they would have caused them to turn from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.

who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell each one to his neighbor, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal?

Look, I [am] against those who prophesy dreams of lies," {declares} Yahweh, "and tell them, and they caused my people to err through their lies, and in their recklessness, when I myself have not sent them nor commanded them, so they profit not this people at all," {declares} Yahweh.

"Now when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, ask you, {saying}, 'What [is] the burden of Yahweh?' then you shall say to them, '{You are the burden}, and I will forsake you,'" {declares} Yahweh.

"And the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, 'The burden of Yahweh,' I will punish that man and his house.

And I will give to them a heart to know me, that I [am] Yahweh, and {they will be my people}, and {I will be their God}, for they will return to me with the whole of their heart.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that [was] the first year of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon,

which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, {saying},

Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his officials, and all his people;

and all the other people; and all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of [the] Philistines--Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the other people who dwell in the desert;

And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of Yahweh.

{And then} as Jeremiah finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded [him] to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, {saying}, "You will die!

Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, {saying}, 'This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be in ruins, {without} inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of Yahweh.

Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "{This man deserves the death sentence}, because he has prophesied against this city as that [which] you have heard with your ears."

Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, "{This man does not deserve} a sentence of death, for in the name of Yahweh our God, he has spoken to us."

Then men from the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people, {saying},

"Micah the Morashtite was prophesying in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah, {saying}: 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Zion will be plowed, and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the {temple} as high places of wood." '

And they brought out Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword, and he threw his dead body into the burial sites of the sons of the people.

However, the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hand of the people to put him to death.

And I spoke words like these to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, {saying}, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

Why should you die--you and your people--by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, {saying}, "Thus says Yahweh, 'You must not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, {saying}, "Look, the vessels of the house of Yahweh [are] about to be quickly brought back from Babylon", for they [are] prophesying a lie to you.

And it was in that [same] year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azzur, the prophet who [was] from Gibeon, said to me in the house of Yahweh before the eyes of the priests and all the people, {saying},

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh,

Nevertheless listen please [to] this word that I [am] speaking in your {hearing} and in the {hearing} of all the people,

Then Hananiah said before the eyes of all the people, {saying}, "Thus says Yahweh, 'This is how I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, {within two years}, from the neck of all the nations.'" And Jeremiah the prophet went on his way.

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, "Please listen, Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.

And these [are] the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the exiles, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem [to] Babylon,

for thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your fellow kinsmen who did not go with you into the exile--