'People' in the Bible

Lord God, let Your promise to my father David now come true. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

Now grant me wisdom and knowledge so that I may lead these people, for who can judge this great people of Yours?”

God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart, and you have not requested riches, wealth, or glory, or for the life of those who hate you, and you have not even requested long life, but you have requested for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king,

Then King Hiram of Tyre wrote a letter and sent it to Solomon:Because the Lord loves His people, He set you over them as king.

Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors to make the people work.

“Since the day I brought My people Israelout of the land of Egypt,I have not chosen a city to build a temple inamong any of the tribes of Israel,so that My name would be there,and I have not chosen a manto be ruler over My people Israel.

But I have chosen Jerusalemso that My name will be there,and I have chosen Davidto be over My people Israel.”

Hear the petitions of Your servantand Your people Israel,which they pray toward this place.May You hear in Your dwelling place in heaven.May You hear and forgive.

If Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy,because they have sinned against You,and they return to You and praise Your name,and they pray and plead for mercybefore You in this temple,

may You hear in heavenand forgive the sin of Your people Israel.May You restore them to the landYou gave them and their ancestors.

may You hear in heavenand forgive the sin of Your servantsand Your people Israel,so that You may teach them the good waythey should walk in.May You send rain on Your landthat You gave Your people for an inheritance.

whatever prayer or petitionanyone from your people Israel might have—each man knowing his own affliction and suffering,and spreading out his hands toward this temple—

Even for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israelbut has come from a distant landbecause of Your great nameand Your mighty hand and outstretched arm:when he comes and prays toward this temple,

may You hear in heaven in Your dwelling place,and do all the foreigner asks You.Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name,to fear You as Your people Israel doand know that this temple I have builtis called by Your name.

When Your people go out to fight against their enemies,wherever You send them,and they pray to Youin the direction of this city You have chosenand the temple that I have built for Your name,

may You hear their prayer and petitions in heaven,Your dwelling place,and uphold their cause.May You forgive Your peoplewho sinned against You.

Now therefore:Arise, Lord God, come to Your resting place,You and Your powerful ark.May Your priests, Lord God, be clothed with salvation,and may Your godly people rejoice in goodness.

The king and all the people were offering sacrifices in the Lord’s presence.

King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep. In this manner the king and all the people dedicated God’s temple.

The priests and the Levites were standing at their stations. The Levites had the musical instruments of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord—“for His faithful love endures forever”—when he offered praise with them. Across from the Levites, the priests were blowing trumpets, and all the people were standing.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and with happy hearts for the goodness the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people,

and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

These were King Solomon’s deputies: 250 who ruled over the people.

Rehoboam replied, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to these people?”

They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”

The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the Lord might carry out His word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:What portion do we have in David?We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.Israel, each man to your tent;David, look after your own house now!So all Israel went to their tents.

“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 cavalrymen, and countless people who came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkiim, and Cushites.

Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and 500,000 choice men of Israel were killed.

He told the people of Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors and to carry out the instruction and the commands.

So he said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we sought the Lord our God. We sought Him and He gave us rest on every side.” So they built and succeeded.

Then Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell until they had no survivors, for they were crushed before Yahweh and His army. So the people of Judah carried off a great supply of loot.

Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison because of his anger over this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at that time.

They taught throughout Judah, having the book of the Lord’s instruction with them. They went throughout the towns of Judah and taught the people.

Then after some years, he went down to visit Ahab in Samaria. Ahab sacrificed many sheep and cattle for him and for the people who were with him. Then he persuaded him to march up to Ramoth-gilead,

for Israel’s King Ahab asked Judah’s King Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead?”He replied to him, “I am as you are, my people as your people; we will be with you in the battle.”

But Micaiah said, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he said, “Listen, all you people!”

Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, and once again he went out among the people from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim and brought them back to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.

People came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast number from beyond the Dead Sea and from Edom has come to fight against you; they are already in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, En-gedi).

Are You not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and who gave it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend?

Then he consulted with the people and appointed some to sing for the Lord and some to praise the splendor of His holiness. When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing:Give thanks to the Lord,for His faithful love endures forever.

Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to gather the plunder. They found among them an abundance of goods on the bodies and valuable items. So they stripped them until nobody could carry any more. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.

However, the high places were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.

Yahweh is now about to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a horrible affliction.

This continued day after day until two full years passed. Then his intestines came out because of his disease, and he died from severe illnesses. But his people did not hold a fire in his honor like the fire in honor of his fathers.

No one is to enter the Lord’s temple but the priests and those Levites who serve; they may enter because they are holy, but all the people are to obey the requirement of the Lord.

As she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance. The commanders and the trumpeters were by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets while the singers with musical instruments were leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason, treason!”

Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, the king, and the people that they would be the Lord’s people.

So all the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They broke its altars and images into pieces and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, at the altars.

Then he took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the king’s palace through the Upper Gate and seated the king on the throne of the kingdom.

All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death by the sword.

All the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought the tax, and put it in the chest until it was full.

The Spirit of God took control of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, “This is what God says, ‘Why are you transgressing the Lord’s commands and you do not prosper? Because you have abandoned the Lord, He has abandoned you.’”

At the turn of the year, an Aramean army went to war against Joash. They entered Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people among them and sent all the plunder to the king of Damascus.

Although the Aramean army came with only a few men, the Lord handed over a vast army to them because the people of Judah had abandoned Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. So they executed judgment on Joash.

Amaziah strengthened his position and led his people to the Valley of Salt. He struck down 10,000 Seirites,

As for the men of the division that Amaziah sent back so they would not go with him into battle, they raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, struck down 3,000 of their people, and took a great deal of plunder.

So the Lord’s anger was against Amaziah, and He sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why have you sought a people’s gods that could not deliver their own people from your hand?”

All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

So King Uzziah was diseased to the time of his death. He lived in quarantine with a serious skin disease and was excluded from access to the Lord’s temple, while his son Jotham was over the king’s household governing the people of the land.

He did what was right in the Lord’s sight as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he didn’t enter the Lord’s sanctuary, but the people still behaved corruptly.

Now you plan to reduce the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, to slavery. Are you not also guilty before Yahweh your God?

Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over how God had prepared the people, for it had come about suddenly.

because they were not able to observe it at the appropriate time. Not enough of the priests had consecrated themselves and the people hadn’t been gathered together in Jerusalem.

A very large assembly of people was gathered in Jerusalem to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month.

A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—were ritually unclean, yet they had eaten the Passover contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah had interceded for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement on behalf of

So the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

Then the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard their voice, and their prayer came into His holy dwelling place in heaven.

He told the people who lived in Jerusalem to give a contribution for the priests and Levites so that they could devote their energy to the law of the Lord.

When Hezekiah and his officials came and viewed the piles, they praised the Lord and His people Israel.

Azariah, the chief priest of the household of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began bringing the offering to the Lord’s temple, we eat and are satisfied and there is plenty left over because the Lord has blessed His people; this abundance is what is left over.”

Many people gathered and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land; they said, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?”

He set military commanders over the people and gathered the people in the square of the city gate. Then he encouraged them, saying,

He has only human strength, but we have Yahweh our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people relied on the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.

Who among all the gods of these nations that my predecessors completely destroyed was able to deliver his people from my power, that your God should be able to do the same for you?

So now, don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, and don’t let him mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my power or the power of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my power!’”

He also wrote letters to mock Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying against Him:Just like the national gods of the lands that did not deliver their people from my power, so Hezekiah’s God will not deliver His people from my power.

Then they called out loudly in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem, who were on the wall, to frighten and discourage them in order that he might capture the city.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn’t listen.

However, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.

Then the common people executed all those who conspired against King Amon and made his son Josiah king in his place.

The king went up to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people from great to small. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple.

He said to the Levites who taught all Israel the holy things of the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the temple built by Solomon son of David king of Israel. Since you do not have to carry it on your shoulders, now serve Yahweh your God and His people Israel.

Serve in the holy place by the divisions of the ancestral houses for your brothers, the lay people, and the distribution of the tribal household of the Levites.

Then Josiah donated 30,000 sheep, lambs, and young goats, plus 3,000 bulls from his own possessions, for the Passover sacrifices for all the lay people who were present.

His officials also donated willingly for the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, chief officials of God’s temple, gave 2,600 Passover sacrifices and 300 bulls for the priests.

They removed the burnt offerings so that they might be given to the divisions of the ancestral houses of the lay people to offer to the Lord, according to what is written in the book of Moses; they did the same with the bulls.

They roasted the Passover lambs with fire according to regulation. They boiled the holy sacrifices in pots, kettles, and bowls; and they quickly brought them to the lay people.

Then the common people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the Lord’s temple that He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

But Yahweh, the God of their ancestors sent word against them by the hand of His messengers, sending them time and time again, for He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.

But they kept ridiculing God’s messengers, despising His words, and scoffing at His prophets, until the Lord’s wrath was so stirred up against His people that there was no remedy.

This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a temple at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you of His people may go up, and may the Lord his God be with him.