'People' in the Bible

Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land.

“Has a nation changed godsWhen they were not gods?But My people have changed their gloryFor that which does not profit.

“For My people have committed two evils:They have forsaken Me,The fountain of living waters,To hew for themselves cisterns,Broken cisternsThat can hold no water.

“O generation, heed the word of the Lord.Have I been a wilderness to Israel,Or a land of thick darkness?Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam;We will no longer come to You’?

“Can a virgin forget her ornaments,Or a bride her attire?Yet My people have forgotten MeDays without number.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’; whereas a sword touches the throat.”

In that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of the daughter of My people—not to winnow and not to cleanse,

“For My people are foolish,They know Me not;They are stupid childrenAnd have no understanding.They are shrewd to do evil,But to do good they do not know.”

“Shall I not punish these people,” declares the Lord,“And on a nation such as thisShall I not avenge Myself?

Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts,“Because you have spoken this word,Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fireAnd this people wood, and it will consume them.

‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people,Who have eyes but do not see;Who have ears but do not hear.

‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;They have turned aside and departed.

‘For wicked men are found among My people,They watch like fowlers lying in wait;They set a trap,They catch men.

‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the Lord,‘On a nation such as thisShall I not avenge Myself?’

The prophets prophesy falsely,And the priests rule on their own authority;And My people love it so!But what will you do at the end of it?

“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’But there is no peace.

“Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people,The fruit of their plans,Because they have not listened to My words,And as for My law, they have rejected it also.

Therefore, thus says the Lord,“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.And they will stumble against them,Fathers and sons together;Neighbor and friend will perish.”

Thus says the Lord,“Behold, a people is coming from the north land,And a great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth.

O daughter of my people, put on sackclothAnd roll in ashes;Mourn as for an only son,A lamentation most bitter.For suddenly the destroyerWill come upon us.

“I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people,That you may know and assay their way.”

“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

“As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.

But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’

The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

“Why then has this people, Jerusalem,Turned away in continual apostasy?They hold fast to deceit,They refuse to return.

“Even the stork in the skyKnows her seasons;And the turtledove and the swift and the thrushObserve the time of their migration;But My people do not knowThe ordinance of the Lord.

“They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’But there is no peace.

Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”“Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?”

For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken;I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

Oh that my head were watersAnd my eyes a fountain of tears,That I might weep day and nightFor the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the desertA wayfarers’ lodging place;That I might leave my peopleAnd go from them!For all of them are adulterers,An assembly of treacherous men.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,“Behold, I will refine them and assay them;For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.

which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’

“Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.

Thus says the Lord concerning all My wicked neighbors who strike at the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel, “Behold I am about to uproot them from their land and will uproot the house of Judah from among them.

Then if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people.

This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.

For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.’

Thus says the Lord to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account.”

So the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.

The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will pour out their own wickedness on them.

“You will say this word to them,‘Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day,And let them not cease;For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,With a sorely infected wound.

Then the Lord said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!

“I will winnow them with a winnowing forkAt the gates of the land;I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;They did not repent of their ways.

“Then I will make you to this peopleA fortified wall of bronze;And though they fight against you,They will not prevail over you;For I am with you to save youAnd deliver you,” declares the Lord.

For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My lovingkindness and compassion.

“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’

‘For My people have forgotten Me,They burn incense to worthless godsAnd they have stumbled from their ways,From the ancient paths,To walk in bypaths,Not on a highway,

Thus says the Lord, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests.

and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial.

Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people:

Then afterwards,” declares the Lord, “I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even those who survive in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their foes and into the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion.”’

“You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates.

For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.

Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord.

“Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

“But if they had stood in My council,Then they would have announced My words to My people,And would have turned them back from their evil wayAnd from the evil of their deeds.

who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord.

“Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The Lord declares, ‘I will abandon you.’

Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.

I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

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

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

Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and all his people;

and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod);

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

The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.

When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You must die!

Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, “A death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied against this city as you have heard in your hearing.”

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, “The Lord 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, “No death sentence for this man! For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”

Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

“Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus the Lord of hosts has said,“Zion will be plowed as a field,And Jerusalem will become ruins,And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.”’

And they brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body into the burial place of the common people.

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

I spoke words like all these to Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!

Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, famine and pestilence, as the Lord has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?

Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon’; for they are prophesying a lie to you.

Now in the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,

Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord,

Yet hear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people!

Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Even so will I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.

Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

for thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile—

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants; he will not have anyone living among this people, and he will not see the good that I am about to do to My people,” declares the Lord, “because he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”’”

For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.’”

‘You shall be My people,And I will be your God.’”

“At that time,” declares the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

Thus says the Lord,“The people who survived the swordFound grace in the wilderness—Israel, when it went to find its rest.”

For thus says the Lord,“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,And shout among the chief of the nations;Proclaim, give praise and say,‘O Lord, save Your people,The remnant of Israel.’

“I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance,And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the Lord.

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.