STRANGERS

The Hebrew Words Must Be Distinguished

The English words stranger, foreigner, alien, and sojourner do not identify one fixed class of people. They translate several Hebrew words whose meanings overlap in places but are not interchangeable. The identity of the person must therefore be established from the inspired setting: who is speaking, who is being addressed, the land involved, the covenant involved, the relationship to Israel, and the law governing the case.

H1616 ​​ gēr: a sojourner, guest, or temporary resident; often one living where he possesses no inherited land.

H2114 ​​ zûr or zār: one who is outside, turned aside, or unauthorized in relation to a household, office, tribe, priesthood, or people.

H5236 ​​ nēkār: foreignness, that which belongs to another people or country, or a foreign person or thing.

H5237 ​​ nokrî: a foreign or nonrelated person, with the degree and application determined by context.

H1481 ​​ gûr: to sojourn, dwell temporarily, or live as a guest away from one's inherited place.

H8453 ​​ tôshāb: a resident or dependent sojourner, often paired or contrasted with the native-born and the gēr.

These words describe different kinds of distance. The distance may be from inherited land, from a household, from the Aaronic priesthood, from an Israelite tribe, from the covenant people, or from lawful fellowship. In another passage the same English word ‘strangers’ may identify an invading enemy. The English translation alone cannot decide which distance is meant.

The rule governing this study is therefore simple: never build doctrine upon the English word stranger by itself. The word supplies a question, not an answer. The passage must identify the stranger.

Israel Was a Stranger

The first controlling fact is that Scripture repeatedly calls Israelites strangers. Abraham confessed that he was a stranger and a sojourner among the sons of Heth because he possessed no inherited holding there and needed a burial place for Sarah (Genesis 23:4). Moses named his son Gershom because he had been a stranger in a strange land (Exodus 2:22). Israel in Egypt was a people living away from its promised inheritance, and Yahweh made that condition the reason Israel was never to oppress the sojourner within its own gates.

Genesis 15:13 — Know certainly that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.

Leviticus 19:34 — The stranger who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Neither passage changes Abraham's seed into another people. Stranger describes their condition in a land that was not their inherited possession. This single fact destroys the careless assumption that every stranger is necessarily a racial foreigner or a person outside Israel. Israelites could be strangers; brothers could be strangers to one another; a member of one tribe could stand as an outsider to an office belonging to another tribe.

The Covenant Has Named Parties

The stranger laws were not given to a people without boundaries. They were given inside a covenant already made with named fathers and a named seed. Yahweh called Abram out, separated him from his former country and household, and promised to make of him a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). The covenant continued through Isaac, not Ishmael, and through Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob and Esau came from the same womb, yet Yahweh declared before their birth that two nations and two manner of people were present and that the elder would serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). Shared ancestry did not erase the Divine election or the distinction between the nations that came from them.

When Israel groaned in Egypt, Yahweh did not merely respond to human misery in the abstract. He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He knew the children of Israel; and He sent Moses to bring His son out of bondage (Exodus 2:23-25; 4:22-23). Redemption had a named object.

Exodus 6:6-7 — I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God.

Israel Was Separated in Order to Serve Yahweh

Separation is not an accidental feature of Israel's history. It is part of the purpose for which Israel was called, delivered, governed, and preserved. Abram was called out. Jacob was distinguished from Esau. Israel was brought out of Egypt so that Yahweh's son might serve Him. In the wilderness, Moses declared that Yahweh's presence with Israel was the mark by which Israel would be distinguished from every other people upon the face of the earth (Exodus 33:13-16).

Leviticus 20:24, 26 — I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from other people... You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that you should be Mine.

That separation had moral, religious, national, and household consequences. Israel was forbidden to imitate the abominations of the Canaanite nations. Israel was commanded to distinguish clean from unclean and holy from profane. Israel was warned against covenants and marriages that would turn the people toward other gods (Exodus 23:31-33; 34:12-16; Deuteronomy 7:1-6). These commands name the peoples involved.

The New Covenant does not deny the separation established in the former Scriptures. It is expressly made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, the same houses whose fathers broke the former covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8:8-10). The law is written within the covenant people; the identity of the covenant parties is not rewritten.

2Corinthians 6:14, 17-18 — Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers... Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters.

The apostolic command rests upon the same covenant pattern: light is not joined to darkness, the temple of God is not joined to idols, and the sons and daughters of Yahweh are called out of corrupt fellowship. Biblical hospitality is not covenantal confusion. Justice is not amalgamation. Love does not require the destruction of every boundary Yahweh established.

Sonship and Adoption Do Not Begin With Unrelated Strangers

Modern adoption commonly means bringing an unrelated child into a family. Scripture uses the placing of sons within an existing family and covenant order. The foundation appears in Genesis 48. Ephraim and Manasseh were not foreign children discovered outside Abraham's house. They were Joseph's sons and Jacob's own grandsons. Jacob declared, 'Ephraim and Manasseh... are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine' (Genesis 48:5). He elevated them from grandsons to sons, placed his covenant name upon them, and gave them standing and inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

The New Testament term translated adoption is huiothesia, the placing as a son. Paul identifies those to whom it pertains: 'who are Israelites; to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises' (Romans 9:4). The people under the law were the people Jesus Christ came to redeem from its curse and restore to the standing of sons (Galatians 4:4-7). Redemption brings back what belonged to the Redeemer and had been alienated; it does not make every unrelated nation a genealogical tribe of Israel.

This principle is essential to the stranger question. Scripture can describe an Israelite as alienated, scattered, divorced, uncircumcised, without standing, and a stranger to his own covenant inheritance. Restoration then places the estranged son back into his proper position. A word describing estrangement does not erase his ancestry, and a word describing welcome does not manufacture ancestry for someone else.

The Gēr Was Protected Without Abolishing Israel's Order

Yahweh forbade oppression of the gēr because Israel knew the heart of a sojourner in Egypt (Exodus 22:21; 23:9). The gēr was protected from violence and judicial abuse. He shared Sabbath rest. He could receive gleanings with the widow and the fatherless. When living within Israel's jurisdiction, he was accountable to the law governing the land (Leviticus 16:29; 17:8-15; 18:26; 24:16, 22; Numbers 15:14-16, 29).

These protections are strong and exact. They do not prove that the gēr in every passage was a person of any possible nation, that every gēr could marry into Israel, that every gēr inherited tribal land, or that every gēr entered every holy office. They establish righteous judgment within Israel's gates. The native-born was not permitted to murder, defraud, starve, or pervert judgment against a lawful sojourner merely because the sojourner lacked native inheritance.

Exodus 12 itself preserves both inclusion and distinction. No nēkār was to eat the Passover (verse 43). A circumcised servant could eat (verse 44). A tôshāb and hired servant could not eat (verse 45). A gēr who would keep the Passover had to circumcise every male; only then could he come near, and one law governed the native-born and the gēr (verses 48-49). The chapter does not say that all strangers were one class. It gives different rules to different persons and attaches participation to stated conditions.

One law does not mean one ancestry, one tribe, one inheritance, or one office. It means that persons under Israel's jurisdiction were not governed by contradictory moral standards. The same prohibition of murder, idolatry, blasphemy, blood-eating, and sexual abomination applied within the gates. Equal judgment before the law did not make the Levite a Judahite, the Ephraimite an Aaronic priest, the resident a tribal heir, or the foreigner a brother by blood.

The Stranger Could Be a Brother, an Outsider, or an Enemy

The Hebrew vocabulary proves why every passage must be identified separately. Zār can describe one who is outside the authorized priestly family. A priest's daughter who married a zār could no longer eat of the holy offering while joined to that household (Leviticus 22:12). The point is not that she had married a man of another race (which is forbidden); the point is that the man stood outside the priestly household. Likewise, the 'stranger' forbidden to approach the tabernacle or perform Aaronic service could be an Israelite from another tribe, because every non-Aaronite was unauthorized for that office (Numbers 1:51; 3:10; 18:4-7).

The same word can widen with its setting. In Isaiah 1:7, zārîm devour Israel's land and overthrow its cities. There the strangers are hostile outsiders, not protected household guests and not Israelite tribesmen barred only from priestly service. The immediate acts identify them: they burn, devour, and desolate.

Nokrî also requires context. Rachel and Leah complained that their father counted them as nokriyyot after treating them as property sold away (Genesis 31:15). Job became a nokrî in the eyes of those who lived in his own house (Job 19:15). Jacob became a nokrî in the day of his calamity from Edom's hostile viewpoint (Obadiah 12). None of these people changed ancestry. The word marks alienation or foreign standing in a relationship.

Elsewhere nokrî plainly stands opposite an Israelite brother. A foreign debtor could be treated differently from a brother under the release and usury laws (Deuteronomy 15:3; 23:20). Israel could not place a nokrî who was not a brother upon the throne (Deuteronomy 17:15). The Levite in Judges 19 refused to lodge in Jebus because it was a city of a nokrî people who were not of the children of Israel (Judges 19:12). Solomon's foreign wives are identified by their nations and by the gods to whom they turned him (1Kings 11:1-10). Ezra and Nehemiah likewise identify the foreign marriages by their historical setting and covenant offense. The word ‘stranger’ does not float free from those facts.

Mercy Does Not Cancel Prohibition

A command to love a lawful sojourner cannot be used to nullify a command concerning a named hostile or forbidden people. Deuteronomy 23 distinguishes the Ammonite and Moabite because of their conduct toward Israel, while it gives different treatment to the Aramite (Syrian) as a brother and the Egyptian because Israel had been a stranger in his land (Deuteronomy 23:3-8). The passage itself refuses a universal rule. It names different peoples, different histories, different relationships, and different judgments.

The same precision must govern every later passage. Rahab cannot be identified merely by attaching a modern racial meaning to the name of a city or land. Ruth cannot be identified merely by treating every occurrence of Moabite as a complete genealogical statement without examining Israel's earlier conquest and settlement east of Jordan. An Israelite living in foreign territory could bear a geographical designation. A foreigner could live inside Israel's territory without becoming an Israelite. Geography, nationality, genealogy, covenant standing, and present loyalty must be examined rather than assumed.

Nor does personal faith authorize the interpreter to rewrite descent. Faith and obedience determine faithfulness before Yahweh; they do not change a person's fathers. Conversely, Israelite ancestry never licenses unbelief, idolatry, injustice, or rebellion. Yahweh purges rebels from among His people and judges Israel more severely because Israel received the law and covenant. Election establishes responsibility; it is not permission to sin.

Inheritance, Office, and Fellowship Must Remain Distinct

Many false conclusions arise because Scripture's separate questions are forced into one. The following distinctions must remain in place throughout the word examination:

• A person may dwell in the land without inheriting the land by tribe.

• A person may receive equal judgment under the law without belonging to every covenant office.

• An Israelite may be a sojourner outside his inherited territory and remain an Israelite by descent.

• An Israelite from another tribe may be a stranger to Aaronic service without being foreign to Israel.

• A person may be near geographically while remaining foreign by people, worship, or covenant standing.

• A person may be distant or alienated relationally without changing genealogy.

• A protected resident is not the same class as an invading enemy.

• Mercy toward the weak does not authorize the practices, marriages, offices, or alliances that Yahweh forbade.

Ezekiel 47:21-23 must be read with these distinctions intact. The passage concerns the apportionment of the land among the tribes and the gēr who had settled and begotten children among them. It orders that such families receive an inheritance in the tribe where they sojourn. It does not identify every possible nation on earth as the gēr in view, overturn the boundaries already given in the law, abolish the tribes, or open the Aaronic priesthood. The surrounding chapters, including Ezekiel 44:6-9, still condemn bringing unauthorized foreigners into the sanctuary. Context must govern both passages.

The New Testament Continues the Same Story

The apostles did not abandon Israel's Scriptures and begin a universal story detached from the covenants. The scattered sheep, the divorced house, the uncircumcision, the nations, the strangers, and the adoption all arise from Israel's Old Testament history. Jesus Christ came to confirm the promises made to the fathers (Romans 15:8). He died to gather together the children of God who were scattered abroad (John 11:51-52). The New Covenant restores the two houses under one King; it does not transfer Israel's name, covenants, and tribal promises to an undefined mass of mankind.

Paul therefore speaks of estranged Israelites as having been without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, but made near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:11-19). Nearness answers alienation. Reconciliation answers divorce. Adoption answers displaced sonship. The passage must be read through the prophets who announced Israel's casting away and promised Israel's restoration.

Peter likewise writes to elect sojourners scattered through named regions and calls them a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people (1Peter 1:1-2; 2:9-12). Their status as pilgrims among the nations does not make them people without ancestry. It describes the dispersed condition of the covenant people living away from their proper order while being gathered to obedience in Jesus Christ.

Rules for Identifying the Stranger in Each Passage

Begin with the Hebrew word. Record the Strong's number and its range of use, but do not let a dictionary gloss replace the verse.

Identify the speaker and the audience. A priest speaking of a zār (zur) may mean anyone outside the authorized priestly line; a national prophecy may use the same term for hostile foreign powers.

Identify the land and inheritance. Ask who owns the inherited land, who merely resides there, and whether the passage concerns residence, tribal allotment, debt, worship, or war.

Identify kinship. Look for brother, native-born, house, tribe, fathers, seed, genealogy, and named nations.

Identify covenant standing. Determine whether the person is obedient, circumcised, apostate, divorced, restored, forbidden, or outside the covenant administration.

Identify the governing law. Priesthood, Passover, marriage, debt, inheritance, gleaning, Sabbath, sanctuary, and warfare do not impose identical qualifications.

Read the immediate actions. A man seeking shelter, a laborer under Israel's law, a foreign wife serving other gods, and an army devouring the land cannot be placed into one class merely because an English translation uses stranger.

Reconcile the whole law. No interpretation is sound if it makes Yahweh command Israel to receive in one verse the very conduct or alliance He forbids in another.

The Foundation Established

Scripture does not teach a single, undefined class called strangers. It speaks of Israel sojourning outside its inheritance, lawful residents under Israel's jurisdiction, household outsiders, non-Aaronites barred from priestly work, alienated brethren, foreign peoples, forbidden wives, and invading enemies. The same English word may appear over several of these categories, but the Hebrew word and the inspired context keep them distinct.

The covenant remains with the people Yahweh named. Sonship rests upon His election and His promises to the fathers. Adoption restores and places sons. Separation preserves a people for His service. Justice protects the lawful sojourner. One law governs righteous judgment within the gates. None of these truths requires the abolition of genealogy, tribe, inheritance, office, marriage law, national boundary, or the Scriptural distinction between brother, resident, foreigner, and enemy.

Every passage must now be allowed to testify for itself. The question is never merely, 'Does the English Bible say stranger?' The questions are: Which word is used? Stranger to whom? Stranger from what? Living under whose law? Standing in what land? Related by what blood? Included in which covenant duty? Barred from which office? Acting as guest, brother, apostate, foreigner, or enemy? When those questions are answered from the text, the stranger is no longer hidden behind an English label.

Genesis 12:1–3 — Abram Called Out and the Covenant Line Established

Genesis 12:1 ​​ Now Yahweh had said unto Abram, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred (H4138), and from your father's house, unto a land that I will shew you:

​​ 12:2 ​​ And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great (honored); and you shalt be a blessing:

​​ 12:3 ​​ And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curseth you: and in you shall all families (H4940) of the earth (land) be blessed.

The Hebrew is more specific:

“I will bless those blessing you, and the one treating you lightly I will curse; and in you shall all the families of the soil be blessed.”

The word translated curse in “him who curses you” is H7043, qalal, meaning to make light of, bring into contempt, despise, or curse. Yahweh answers that contempt with H779, arar, a direct and severe curse. The passage therefore concerns more than spoken insults. It establishes Yahweh’s judgment upon those who despise, dishonor, or oppose Abram and the covenant line proceeding from him.

Abram’s native land was Ur of the Chaldees. Terah took Abram, Sarai, and Lot from Ur and traveled northward and westward to Haran, where they settled.

Terah’s household lived amid the idolatry of Mesopotamia. Joshua confirms the religious condition of Abram’s ancestral house:

Joshua 24:2
“Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods.”

Yahweh called Abram out of the land of his birth, from his kindred, and from his father’s household. This was not merely a change of residence. It was the separation of an appointed man and lineage from an idolatrous order so that Yahweh could establish His covenant nation.

H4138 — môledeth

The word translated kindred is H4138, môledeth. Strong’s defines it as nativity, birthplace, lineage, native country, offspring, family, or kindred.

Yahweh called Abram away from his native land and the authority of his father’s house. Abram did not become a man without ancestry, nor did he abandon every person related to him. Sarai and Lot traveled with him, and the promised line later obtained wives from Abram’s extended kindred. Yahweh separated a chosen branch from the surrounding idolatrous order and placed that branch under His direct calling and covenant.

The Book of Jasher records:
“Abram knew the Lord from three years old, and he went in the ways of the Lord until the day of his death, as Noah and his son Shem had taught him.” Jasher 9:6

Abram’s allegiance was demonstrated through obedience. When Yahweh commanded him to leave, Abram departed.

“By faith—allegiance—Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should afterward receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” Hebrews 11:8

Biblical faith is not merely an inward belief or religious profession. Abraham believed Yahweh and acted upon His command. His allegiance separated him from the idolatrous order and carried him toward the land that his descendants would inherit.

H4940 — mishpachah

The word translated families is H4940, mishpachah. Strong’s defines it as a family, circle of relatives, clan, tribe, kindred, or people.

The Hebrew expression is:

kol mishpechoth ha’adamah

This means:

“All the families or clans of the soil.”

Genesis 18:18 restates the promise in national terms:

“Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.” Genesis 18:18

Genesis 22:18 identifies Abraham’s seed as the appointed channel through which the blessing would proceed:

Genesis 22:18
“In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

The reach of the blessing does not abolish the exclusiveness of the covenant. Yahweh did not establish His covenant with an undefined humanity. He called Abram, appointed his seed, excluded rival lines from the birthright (Ishmael, sons of Keturah, later Esau), confirmed the covenant through Isaac, continued it through Jacob-Israel, and established the twelve tribes as His covenant nation.

Other peoples could receive preservation, order, justice, material prosperity, or knowledge of Yahweh through Abraham’s seed without becoming that seed. Receiving a benefit from Abraham does not make another people Israelite, give them Israel’s name, place them within an Israelite tribe, or make them co-heirs of the birthright and national promises.

The blessing extends outward through the appointed seed, but the covenant, inheritance, sonship, land, and ruling authority remain with that seed.

The National Scope of the Covenant

Genesis 12 begins with the formation of a nation, not an offer of universal salvation. Yahweh promised:

• To make Abram a great nation.

• To bless Abram.

• To make Abram’s name great and honored.

• To make Abram a blessing.

• To bless those who blessed him.

• To curse the one who treated him with contempt.

• To bring blessing to other families and nations through him and his seed.

The following verses add the promised land:

“Unto your seed will I give this land.” Genesis 12:7

Genesis 15 defines the territorial grant as extending from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. Genesis 17 establishes the covenant through Abraham’s generations and declares that he would become the father of many nations.

“Your name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made you. And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come out of you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you and to your seed after you.” Genesis 17:5–7

The promise therefore includes a multiplying seed, many nations, kings, land possession, national greatness, covenant sonship, and ruling authority. It cannot be exhausted by one small state or by a religious population generically called “the Jews.”

The covenant is everlasting and secured by Yahweh’s own oath. Its existence and national fulfillment rest upon His promise. Man did not create it, and man cannot prevent Yahweh from accomplishing His declared purpose. Nevertheless, covenant members remain responsible for obedience. The rebellious can be chastened, dispossessed, scattered, or cut off, while Yahweh’s oath concerning the ultimate destiny of Abraham’s seed continues toward fulfillment.

The national promises came to fulfillment among the Christian Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Celtic, Scandinavian, European, and American peoples descended from dispersed Israel. These became the many nations, great nations, ruling peoples, and Christian kingdoms through whom the God of Abraham and Jesus Christ were proclaimed throughout the earth.

The Abrahamic Oath Remembered in Christ

Genesis 12:1–3 points forward to Luke 1:67–75, where Zacharias interprets the coming of Jesus Christ as Yahweh remembering His covenant and the oath sworn to Abraham.

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David . . . to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” Luke 1:68–75

Zacharias does not describe the Abrahamic oath as an indiscriminate promise of salvation to all mankind. He identifies it with the God of Israel visiting and redeeming His people, remembering the covenant made with their fathers, delivering Israel from its enemies, and enabling the covenant people to serve Him in holiness and righteousness.

Genesis 12 is the starting point of that oath program. Jesus Christ did not abolish the Abrahamic covenant or transfer it to an unrelated people. He confirmed the promises made to the fathers and accomplished the redemption necessary to restore the covenant people to faithful service.

The Christian Zionist Misuse of Genesis 12:3

Most modern pulpits interpret Genesis 12:3 as a command to support “the Jews.” They teach that nations and individuals will be blessed or cursed according to how they treat world Jewry or the modern State of Israeli. This interpretation has become one of the principal foundations of Christian Zionism and is used to demand financial, political, military, and religious support for that state.

Genesis 12:3 says nothing about modern Jews, rabbinic Judaism, political Zionism, or a twentieth-century state bearing Israel’s name. The promise concerns Abram and the covenant seed subsequently identified through Isaac and Jacob-Israel.

Modern Jewish identity cannot be inserted wherever Scripture speaks of Abraham, Israel, Judah, the house of Israel, the house of Judah, or the covenant seed. It cannot even be inserted wherever Scripture reads ‘Jews’, because ‘Jews’ is a later replacement for multiple Hebrew and Greek words that do not always mean ‘Jews’. These designations are not interchangeable. The identity of Abraham’s seed must be followed through genealogy, tribal descent, covenant history, national division, captivity, dispersion and migration patterns, and prophetic fulfillment.

The covenant line proceeds:

• Through Isaac rather than Ishmael (or the sons of Keturah).

• Through Jacob, whose name became Israel. Not through Esau.

• Through the twelve tribes of Israel.

• Through the birthright transferred to Joseph.

• Through Ephraim’s promised company of nations.

• Through the separate houses of Israel and Judah.

• Through the Assyrian captivity and Israel’s dispersion.

• Through the New Covenant redemption accomplished in Jesus Christ.

The promise was not transferred to another people because they adopted a religious designation or established a political state bearing Israel’s name. The covenant name belongs to the descendants upon whom Yahweh placed it and through whom He fulfilled the national promises.

The words “all families” and “all nations” do not teach that all races inherit the covenant indiscriminately. Scripture records Yahweh’s judgments upon Egypt, Canaan, Amalek, Moab, Edom, and other nations. Some peoples could receive secondary benefits through contact with Abraham’s seed while remaining outside the covenant inheritance.

Joseph preserved Egypt during the famine, but the Egyptians did not thereby become Israelites or co-heirs with Israel. Their land became Pharaoh’s, and the people became his servants, while Israel was settled separately in Goshen and multiplied exceedingly. Egypt received preservation through Joseph, but Israel retained its separate identity, covenant, and inheritance.

The blessing of Genesis 12:3 is therefore not the universal distribution of Israel’s birthright. It is the extension of benefit, order, and righteous dominion through Abraham’s appointed seed. Those outside the covenant may benefit from that rule, but they do not thereby become the seed, inherit the land, receive tribal standing, or possess Israel’s covenant promises.

Genesis 12 establishes Yahweh’s pattern of election and separation. His purpose proceeds through a chosen lineage, an appointed seed, a covenant nation, and ultimately through Jesus Christ. It supplies no foundation for Judeo-universalism or Christian Zionism.

Genesis 12:10 ​​ And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn (H1481- gur- to temporarily reside) there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Sojourn is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell for a time, remain, inhabit, tarry, or live as a temporary resident.

Abram entered Egypt because the famine in Canaan was severe. He did not go there to establish a permanent inheritance but to remain temporarily until the famine had passed. Genesis 13:1 confirms that Abram afterward departed Egypt and returned toward Canaan.

The word describes Abram’s temporary residential status in Egypt. He could sojourn in Egypt without becoming an Egyptian. His ancestry and covenant identity remained unchanged while he lived temporarily in another people’s land.

Genesis 15:13–14 — Abraham’s Seed as Strangers

Genesis 15 records Yahweh’s covenant with Abram. Yahweh promised to give the land of Canaan to Abram’s offspring and declared that his seed would become as numerous as the stars of heaven. These promises were made before Abraham and Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

For what says the Scripture? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Romans 4:3

Genesis 15:13 ​​ And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger (H1616- ger-sojourner) in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;  ​​​​ (Exo 1:1-14)

​​ 15:14 ​​ And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge (execute judgment upon): and afterward shall they come out with great substance (possessions).  ​​​​ (Exo 12:40-41, Acts 7:7)

Yahweh identifies the strangers in this prophecy as Abram’s own seed. The prophecy was fulfilled when the children of Israel sojourned in Egypt, were brought into bondage, and were afterward delivered with great possessions.

H1616 — gēr

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun derived from H1481, gûr, “to sojourn.”

Strong’s defines gēr as a guest, sojourner, stranger, or foreigner. It describes someone living outside his inherited place as a guest or temporary resident.

The word itself does not determine ancestry. A gēr may be an Israelite living outside his inherited land, a member of another Israelite tribe residing among brethren, or a person of another people dwelling under Israel’s jurisdiction. The context must identify him.

In Genesis 15:13, there is no uncertainty. Yahweh declares:

“Your seed shall be a gēr.”

These strangers were Abraham’s biological descendants. Their status as strangers concerned residence and inheritance. They would live in a land that did not belong to them, under the authority of another nation, while remaining the covenant seed of Abraham.

The passage therefore establishes an essential rule for the entire stranger study: the word gēr cannot automatically be interpreted as a non-Israelite. Abraham’s Israelite descendants were themselves gērîm while living outside their inherited land.

The Four Hundred Years

Genesis 15:13 does not say that Israel would be enslaved for the entire four hundred years. It presents the complete period during which Abraham’s seed would be strangers in lands not belonging to them, would serve another nation, and would suffer affliction.

The exact covenant period was 430 years:

Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred thirty years, even the selfsame day, that all the hosts of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:40–41

Paul measures this period from the Abrahamic promise to the giving of the law:

And this I say, that the covenant, which was confirmed before by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years afterward, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect. Galatians 3:17

The Septuagint reading of Exodus 12:40 states:

“And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, was four hundred thirty years.”

The Samaritan Pentateuch likewise includes both Canaan and Egypt. The 430 years therefore cover the entire patriarchal sojourn from Abraham’s entrance into Canaan until the Exodus, rather than 430 years of Israelite slavery in Egypt.

The chronology is established from Scripture:

• Abraham was seventy-five years old when he entered Canaan.

• Abraham was one hundred when Isaac was born: 25 years.

• Isaac was sixty when Jacob was born: 60 years.

• Jacob was 130 when he entered Egypt: 130 years.

Twenty-five plus sixty plus 130 equals 215 years from Abraham’s entrance into Canaan until Jacob entered Egypt. Subtracting those 215 years from the complete 430-year covenant period leaves approximately 215 years for Israel’s residence (not slavery) in Egypt.

Josephus preserves the same chronology in Antiquities, 2.15.2:

“They left Egypt four hundred and thirty years after our forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen years only after Jacob removed into Egypt.”

Israel Was Not Enslaved for the Entire Egyptian Sojourn

Jacob and his family initially entered Egypt under favorable conditions. Joseph was governor over Egypt, Pharaoh gave Israel the land of Goshen, and the family received provision during the famine.

Joseph was approximately thirty-nine years old when Jacob entered Egypt. He had been thirty when he stood before Pharaoh, followed by seven years of plenty and two years of famine. Joseph lived to 110, meaning he remained alive for approximately seventy-one years after Jacob and his household entered Egypt.

And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph. Exodus 1:6–8

The oppression began after Joseph and his generation had died and after Israel had multiplied greatly. It was already underway when Moses was born, because Pharaoh had ordered the destruction of the Hebrew male children. Moses was eighty years old at the Exodus. The bondage therefore lasted more than eighty years, but Scripture does not give the exact year in which the oppression began.

The direct Levitical genealogy also supports a shorter Egyptian residence:

• Levi entered Egypt with Jacob.

• Kohath was the son of Levi and also entered Egypt.

• Amram was the son of Kohath.

• Moses was the son of Amram.

Moses was not separated from Levi by enough named generations to accommodate four hundred years of Israelite slavery. The complete 430 years began with Abraham’s entrance into Canaan, while Israel’s actual residence in Egypt lasted approximately 215 years.

The Land Was Not Theirs

The controlling expression is:

“In a land that is not theirs.”

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned in Canaan before their descendants possessed it. Egypt was likewise not Israel’s inherited land. The stranger condition therefore extended across the patriarchal residence in Canaan and the later residence in Egypt.

This explains how Abraham’s seed could be strangers in more than one land without ceasing to be the covenant people. Their location and civil condition changed; their ancestry did not.

Egypt was called the land of Ham. Mizraim, from whom Egypt descended, was a son of Ham, while Abraham descended through Shem. Israel’s residence in Egypt placed the descendants of Shem within the territory and government of another people.

When the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph arose, Israel’s position changed from protected residents in Goshen to an oppressed and enslaved people. The Egyptians feared Israel’s numerical strength and conspired to weaken them through forced labor and the destruction of their male children.

The Hyksos Question

Some historical reconstructions identify the “new king” who arose over Egypt with the rise of the Hyksos, a foreign West Asiatic ruling dynasty. Under this reconstruction, the expression “arose over Egypt” describes a hostile seizure of power, and the new rulers feared that the multiplying Israelites might join their enemies in war.

Ancient accounts portray the Hyksos as harsh foreign rulers, and their western Asiatic origin could explain their suspicion of both the native Egyptians and the rapidly multiplying Israelites.

The Judgment of the Nations

Yahweh promised that the nation enslaving Abraham’s seed would be judged:

“And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance.” Genesis 15:14

This was fulfilled through the plagues upon Egypt, the death of the Egyptian firstborn, Israel’s departure with great possessions, and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the sea.

Yahweh also declared that Abraham’s descendants would return to Canaan after the iniquity of the Amorites had reached its fullness:

“But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” Genesis 15:16

The covenant land was then occupied by peoples who were not Abraham’s covenant seed:

• Kenites

• Kenizzites

• Kadmonites

• Hittites

• Perizzites

• Rephaim

• Amorites

• Canaanites

• Girgashites

• Jebusites

Some belonged to the Canaanite family, while others were separately named inhabitants of the land. Yahweh distinguished all of them from Abraham’s appointed seed and promised that their territory would eventually be given to Abraham’s descendants.

Genesis 15 therefore establishes three distinct parties:

• Abraham’s seed, who would temporarily live as strangers.

• The nation that would enslave them, which Yahweh would judge.

• The peoples occupying the promised land, whose territory would ultimately pass to Abraham’s seed.

The stranger in Genesis 15:13 is not an unknown foreign race dwelling among Israel. It is Israel itself before possessing the promised inheritance. Abraham’s descendants were gērîm because they lived temporarily under another people’s authority in lands that were not yet theirs.

Genesis 17 — The Covenant of Circumcision

Genesis 17:4 ​​ As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shalt be a father (the forefather) of many nations (H1471- goyim).

Father is H1, ab. It means a father in an immediate or remote sense and may identify an ancestor, forefather, founder, chief, or originator of a household, family, clan, or people.

Nations is H1471, gôyim, the plural of gôy. Strong’s defines it as nations or peoples.

Abraham became the biological forefather of several peoples. Ishmael became the father of twelve princes and a great nation. Abraham’s sons by Keturah produced additional peoples, including the Midianites. Isaac fathered Esau and Jacob, from whom came Edom and Israel.

The covenant line, however, was not given to every descendant of Abraham. Yahweh expressly distinguished general descent and national multiplication from the particular covenant inheritance:

“Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant will I establish with Isaac.” Genesis 17:19–21

Ishmael received multiplication and national blessing, but the covenant was established with Isaac. The covenant line was afterward continued through Jacob-Israel rather than Esau. The twelve sons of Jacob became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The many nations arising from Abraham must therefore be distinguished according to their appointed promises. Not every Abrahamic nation received Israel’s name, the birthright, the tribal inheritance, or the covenant land. Those promises proceeded through Isaac and Jacob-Israel.

​​ 17:7 ​​ And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you, and to your seed after you.

Galatians 3:17 ​​ And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after (the call of Abraham), cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

The Mosaic law did not create the Abrahamic covenant and could not abolish it. The covenant, seed, land, and national promises were already established by Yahweh’s oath.

The Land of Abraham’s Sojournings

​​ 17:8 ​​ And I will give unto you, and to your seed after you, the land wherein you art a stranger (H4033- magur magur-land of pilgrimage)(land of sojourning), all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

The underlying expression is “the land of your sojournings.”

Stranger is H4033, māgûr or māgôr, a noun derived from H1481, gûr, “to sojourn.” Strong’s defines it as a sojourning place, dwelling place, pilgrimage, or temporary abode; by extension, a residence.

In Genesis 17:8, the form is megurekha—“your sojournings.” The word describes the land in which Abraham was then living without possessing it as his permanent inheritance.

Canaan was not Abraham’s native land. Yahweh had called him out of Mesopotamia and brought him into Canaan, where he lived in tents and moved from place to place. Although Yahweh had promised the land to him and his seed, Abraham did not yet possess it. The same land was both Abraham’s temporary place of residence and his descendants’ promised inheritance.

Circumcision as the Covenant Sign

​​ 17:9 ​​ And God said unto Abraham, You shalt keep My covenant therefore, you, and your seed after you in their generations.

​​ 17:10 ​​ This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. ​​ 

​​ 17:11 ​​ And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token (sign) of the covenant betwixt Me and you.

Circumcision was the fleshly sign imposed upon Abraham’s household and continued through his generations. It marked those males who lived under the authority and discipline of the covenant household.

The sign itself did not make every circumcised male a genealogical descendant of Abraham or an heir of the promised land. Ishmael was circumcised, yet Yahweh declared that the covenant line would continue through Isaac. Household servants were circumcised, yet they did not thereby become Abraham’s biological seed.

Circumcision marked covenantal household submission; genealogy determined descent; Yahweh’s election determined the line through which the national covenant promises would continue.

The Purchased Household Members

​​ 17:12 ​​ And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations (H1755), he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger (H5236- nekar)(and H1121) (sons of a foreigner), which is not of your seed.

​​ 17:13 ​​ He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your money, must needs be circumcised: and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

​​ 17:14 ​​ And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people (H5971-am); he hath broken My covenant.

​​ 17:27 ​​ And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger (H5236- nekar)(and H1121)(sons of the foreigner), were circumcised with him.

Stranger in verses 12 and 27 is H5236, nēkār. Strong’s defines it as foreign, foreignness, an alien, or a foreigner.

The complete expression is ben-nēkār:

• H1121, ben: son.

• H5236, nēkār: foreignness or that which is foreign.

Together the words form the Hebrew expression “son of foreignness,” meaning a foreigner or one belonging to another people, family, household, or country.

H5236 is related to H5234, nākhar, a verb meaning to scrutinize or recognize, to acknowledge or be acquainted with, and in another application to disregard, reject, dissimulate, or behave as a stranger.

The wording of verses 12 and 27 describes two classes of males within Abraham’s household:

• Those born in Abraham’s house.

• Those acquired with money from a ben-nēkār, a foreigner who was not of Abraham’s seed.

The passage concerns Abraham’s entire household jurisdiction. Every male living under his authority was required to bear the covenant sign, whether naturally descended from Abraham, born to servants within the household, or acquired from outside it.

The phrase “who is not of your seed” preserves the genealogical distinction. The foreigner was not Abraham’s offspring. Circumcision did not rewrite ancestry or make the purchased man part of Abraham’s biological seed.

Eliezer of Damascus

Before Isaac’s birth, Abram referred to the steward of his house as “Eliezer of Damascus”:

“And Abram said, ‘Lord Yahweh, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘Behold, to me You have given no seed; and one born in my house is my heir.’” Genesis 15:2–3

Eliezer’s association with Damascus does not make him Abraham’s seed. He belonged to Abraham’s household and served as its steward, but Yahweh rejected a household servant as the fulfillment of the seed promise:

“This shall not be your heir, but he who shall come forth out of your own body shall be your heir.” Genesis 15:4

This distinction governs Genesis 17. A servant could be faithful, trusted, born in the house, circumcised, and placed under covenant household authority without becoming Abraham’s biological seed or inheriting the promises reserved for that seed.

The Identity of the Strangers

The strangers of Genesis 17:12 and 27 were foreigners standing outside Abraham’s seed. The purchased servants then came under Abraham’s authority and were circumcised with all the other males of his house.

The passage establishes that the covenant sign governed Abraham’s entire household while preserving the distinction between:

• Abraham’s biological seed.

• Those born within his household.

• Those purchased from foreign sources.

• The covenant line specifically appointed through Isaac.

Genesis 17 therefore contains two different stranger concepts. In verse 8, H4033 describes Canaan as the land of Abraham’s sojournings. In verses 12 and 27, H5236 identifies foreignness outside Abraham’s seed and household.

Abraham was a sojourner awaiting his promised inheritance. The ben-nēkār stood outside Abraham’s seed. Circumcision brought household males under the covenant sign and Abraham’s authority, but it did not erase genealogy, confer tribal descent, or transfer the land promise away from the appointed seed.

Genesis 19:9 — Lot as a Sojourner in Sodom

Chapter 19 concerns Sodom, Lot, and his household. Two Divine messengers came to Sodom, and Lot urged them to remain in his house. After they had eaten, the men of Sodom surrounded the house and demanded that Lot bring the visitors outside so they could know them sexually. Lot begged them not to act so wickedly.

Genesis 19:9 ​​ And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn (H1481- gur-to dwell, to live here), and he thinks he is a judge: now will we deal worse with you, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.

Sojourn is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, inhabit, remain, or live as a guest or temporary resident.

Lot had lived near Sodom and afterward within the city, but he was not a native Sodomite. He was Abraham’s nephew and a descendant of Terah. The men of Sodom still regarded him as an outsider who had come among them to sojourn. They especially resented his attempt to judge their wicked conduct.

The word describes Lot’s residential standing among the Sodomites. He could live in Sodom, possess a house there, and sit in the city gate without becoming one of its native people.

The Divine messengers struck the men outside the house with blindness. Lot warned his relatives, but they treated his warning as mockery. The following morning, the messengers brought Lot, his wife, and the two daughters who were with him out of Sodom. Yahweh then destroyed the cities of the plain with fire and brimstone. Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

Lot was a gûr—a man dwelling among another people in a place that was not his inherited homeland.

Genesis 20:1 — Abraham Sojourns in Gerar

Genesis 20:1 ​​ And Abraham journeyed from thence (the plain of Mamre) toward the south country, and dwelled (H3427- yashab-to dwell, remained, settled) between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned (H1481- gur-stayed) in Gerar (H1642) (land of the Philistines).

The south country was the Negev, a region that would later fall principally within Judah’s inheritance.

Dwelled is H3427, yāshab, a verb meaning to sit, dwell, remain, abide, settle, or tarry. Abraham made his dwelling in the region between Kadesh and Shur.

Sojourned is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide or dwell as a guest or temporary resident. Abraham stayed in Gerar without becoming a Philistine or receiving Gerar as his inherited possession.

Gerar is H1642, Gerar, a proper locative noun identifying a Philistine city and surrounding territory south of Gaza. Strong’s connects the name with H1641, gārar, “to drag or roll,” and gives the sense of a rolling country.

Genesis 21:23, 34 — Abraham Sojourns in the Philistines’ Land

Abraham’s servants dug a well in the region of Beersheba. Abimelech’s servants seized the well by force, and Abraham reproved Abimelech concerning it. Abimelech then sought an oath guaranteeing peaceful and honest dealings between Abraham, himself, and his descendants.

Genesis 21:22 ​​ And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you doest:

​​ 21:23 ​​ Now therefore swear unto me here by God that you wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness (good deed, righteousness) that I have done unto you, you shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein you hast sojourned (H1481- gur-dwelt as a temporary resident).

​​ 21:24 ​​ And Abraham said, I will swear.

Abimelech recognized Abraham as a man living within his territory. Abraham possessed great wealth, servants, livestock, and wells, but he did not possess the Philistine territory as his inherited land. He therefore sojourned there under an agreement with its ruler.

The word translated kindness is H2617, chesed, meaning goodness, kindness, mercy, or favor. Abimelech asked Abraham to return the same peaceful treatment that he claimed to have shown Abraham while Abraham resided in his land.

Abraham and Abimelech

Abraham had previously entered Abimelech’s territory and identified Sarah as his sister. Abimelech took Sarah, but Yahweh came to him in a dream and warned him that she was another man’s wife.

Abimelech answered that he had acted in the integrity of his heart and the innocence of his hands. God acknowledged that integrity and declared that He had withheld Abimelech from sinning against Him. Abimelech returned Sarah and gave Abraham sheep, oxen, male servants, female servants, and silver. Abraham then prayed for Abimelech, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Yahweh had closed the wombs of Abimelech’s household because Sarah had been taken.

Abimelech belonged to the Philistine people. Genesis 10 traces the Philistines through Mizraim, the son of Ham, while Abraham descended from Shem. They shared the remote ancestry of Noah’s family but belonged to separate national and genealogical lines. The Philistines were not Hebrews, Israelites, or descendants of Abraham.

The Covenant at Beersheba

Abraham and Abimelech made an oath at Beersheba concerning peaceful conduct and the ownership of the well. Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs as a witness that he had dug it.

This agreement did not make Abimelech a party to the Abrahamic covenant. It was an oath governing peaceful relations, honest treatment, and Abraham’s residence within Philistine territory.

After the oath, Abimelech and Phichol returned to the land of the Philistines.

Genesis 21:33 ​​ And Abraham planted a grove (tamarisk trees) in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the everlasting God.

​​ 21:34 ​​ And Abraham sojourned (H1481- gur) in the Philistines' land many days.

The expression many days shows that gûr does not always describe a brief visit. A sojourn could continue for an extended and indefinite period. The controlling idea is not the exact number of days but residence without native inheritance.

Abraham lived among the Philistines, conducted business with their ruler, dug wells, planted trees, maintained a large household, and remained there many days. Nevertheless, he was still a sojourner. His residence in Philistine territory did not make him a Philistine, change his ancestry, or transfer his covenant identity.

Abraham’s status was determined by the land in which he resided and his lack of inherited ownership there. He remained the covenant man of Yahweh while dwelling as a gûr under the civil authority of another people.

Genesis 23:4 — Abraham a Stranger and Resident Sojourner

Sarah died at Hebron in the land of Canaan. Abraham then spoke to the sons of Heth concerning a burial place.

Genesis 23:4 ​​ I am a stranger (H1616- ger-sojourner) and a sojourner (H8453- toshab/parepidemos- a guest) with (among) you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with (among) you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight (out of my presence).

Heth was the second son of Canaan. The sons of Heth were therefore Canaanites, while Abraham was a Hebrew descended through Shem.

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a guest, stranger, sojourner, or temporary inhabitant without inherited rights in the land.

Sojourner is H8453, tôshāb, a noun meaning a resident sojourner, resident alien, guest, or inhabitant living in a land belonging to another people.

The Septuagint renders the two words as paroikos and parepidēmos: one dwelling among another people without native land rights, and one residing in a country not his own.

Abraham had lived in Canaan for many years, but he still described himself as a gēr and tôshāb. The length of his residence did not make him a Canaanite or give him inherited ownership of Canaanite land.

​​ 23:5 ​​ And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,

​​ 23:6 ​​ Hear us, my lord: you art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury your dead; none of us shall withhold from you his sepulchre, but that you mayest bury your dead.

​​ 23:7 ​​ And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

Although the children of Heth respected Abraham as a mighty prince, he possessed no burial holding among them. He therefore negotiated for the field and cave of Machpelah and paid Ephron the full price for the property.

Abraham was a Hebrew living among Canaanites. He remained genealogically and covenantally separate from the people of the land while residing peacefully among them. His identification as a stranger and sojourner concerned residence, inheritance, and land ownership.

These 'strangers and pilgrims/sojourners' in all these verses in Genesis 23:4, Leviticus 25:23,35,47, Numbers 35:15, 1Chronicles 29:15 and Psalm 39:12, along with Ephesians, Hebrews 11:13, 1Peter 2:9, 11, are all Israelites.

In other words, the strangers and pilgrims in the OT and in the NT are none other than Israelites.

Genesis 26:3 — Isaac Commanded to Sojourn in Gerar

Chapter 26 concerns Isaac and Abimelech II, king of the Philistines in Gerar. A famine arose in the land, but Yahweh commanded Isaac not to go down into Egypt.

Genesis 26:3 ​​ (Yahweh speaking) Sojourn (H1481- gur- Dwell) in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for unto you, and unto your seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham your father;

​​ 26:4 ​​ And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto your seed all these countries; and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth (land) be blessed;

​​ 26:5 ​​ Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

Sojourn is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or stay as a temporary resident.

Isaac lived temporarily in Philistine territory under Yahweh’s protection. His sojourn continued until Yahweh fulfilled the oath sworn to Abraham and gave the promised lands to Isaac’s seed.

Genesis 28:4 — The Land of Jacob’s Sojournings

Genesis 28:1 ​​ And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, You shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

​​ 28:2 ​​ Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take you a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.

​​ 28:3 ​​ And God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you mayest be a multitude of people;

The expression translated multitude of peoples is qahal ‘ammîm:

H6951 — qāhāl means an assembly, company, congregation, convocation, or organized multitude.

H5971 — am means a people, nation, tribe, countrymen, kindred, or members of one’s people.

Together, qahal ‘ammîm means “an assembly of peoples” or “a congregation of peoples.”

This was not a promise that unrelated races would become Jacob’s seed. The context identifies the multitude as peoples proceeding from Jacob’s own body. His twelve sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes, which afterward developed into separate tribes, nations, and national companies while retaining their common descent from Jacob-Israel.

In their latter-day fulfillment, these multiplied Israelite peoples became the White Christian nations of Europe, the British Isles, Scandinavia, and their related settlements throughout the world. They were many tribes and nations descended from one covenant forefather—not a collection of unrelated races.

​​ 28:4 ​​ And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you; that you mayest inherit the land wherein you art a stranger (H4033- magur magur-pilgrim)(sojourner), which God gave unto Abraham.

The Abrahamic covenant was passed through Isaac to Jacob and Jacob’s seed. The blessing included multiplication, nationhood, the covenant relationship with Yahweh, and inheritance of the promised land.

Stranger is H4033, māgûr or māgôr, a noun meaning a sojourning place, dwelling place, pilgrimage, or temporary abode.

The Hebrew expression is “the land of your sojournings.” H4033 describes the land in which Jacob and his fathers lived without yet possessing it as their national inheritance.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in the promised land as sojourners. Yahweh had given the land to their seed by covenant promise, but the patriarchs did not receive national possession of it during their lifetimes.

Hebrews 11:9 By belief he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in belief, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Their confession did not mean that their hope was to abandon the earth for a permanent dwelling in heaven. They awaited the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promises, the promised country, and the city whose builder and maker is God. The city is heavenly in origin and authority; Revelation shows the holy city descending from God to the earth.

Jacob was therefore a stranger in the same land he was promised as an inheritance. His temporary condition did not cancel the covenant grant. It continued until Yahweh multiplied his descendants into an assembly of peoples and gave the covenant inheritance to Israel.

Genesis 31:15 — Rachel and Leah Counted as Foreigners

Chapter 31 records the dispute between Laban and Jacob. Laban had repeatedly changed Jacob’s wages and taken advantage of his labor. Yahweh then commanded Jacob to return to the land of his fathers.

Genesis 31:14 ​​ And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

​​ 31:15 ​​ Are we not counted of him strangers (H5237- nokriy- foreign ones)? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.

​​ 31:16 ​​ For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto you, do.

Strangers is H5237, nokrî, an adjective meaning strange or foreign in various degrees and applications, including a foreigner, alien, non-relative, outlandish person, or one treated as belonging elsewhere.

Rachel and Leah were Laban’s biological daughters. They had not become foreigners by race, blood, or ancestry. They said that Laban counted or regarded them as nokriyyoth because he treated them as women outside his family rather than as daughters entitled to a portion in their father’s house.

Jacob had served Laban for fourteen years to obtain Rachel and Leah as wives. Laban treated that labor as the price received for them and then consumed the proceeds for himself. Their complaint was that he had sold them and retained what should have benefited them.

​​ 31:17 ​​ Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;

​​ 31:18 ​​ And he carried away all his cattle (livestock), and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle (livestock) of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

This passage proves that nokrî does not always identify someone of another race or ancestry. Rachel and Leah were Laban’s own flesh and blood, yet they had been treated as non-relatives and excluded from their expected family portion.

Their foreignness was relational and legal, not genealogical. The context—not the English word strangers by itself—identifies who they were.

Genesis 32:4 — Jacob Sojourns With Laban

Jacob continued on his way toward his father’s house with his family and all that he possessed.

Genesis 32:3 ​​ And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

​​ 32:4 ​​ And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau; Your servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned (H1481- gur-dwelt as a temporary resident) with Laban, and stayed there until now:

​​ 32:5 ​​ And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace (favor) in your sight.

Sojourned is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside for a time as a guest or temporary resident.

Jacob had lived with Laban for twenty years—fourteen years for Rachel and Leah and six years for the livestock. Although this was an extended residence, Jacob did not possess Laban’s land as his permanent inheritance. His covenant inheritance remained in Canaan, and Yahweh commanded him to return there.

Laban was Jacob’s maternal uncle and therefore his blood relative. Jacob’s statement that he had “sojourned with Laban” demonstrates that gûr does not necessarily describe residence among an unrelated people. It identifies Jacob’s residential standing: he was living away from his inherited land and within another man’s household and territory.

Jacob feared Esau and prayed that Yahweh would deliver him from his brother’s hand. He then sent Esau a substantial present of livestock. Genesis records goats, sheep, camels, cattle, and asses. The Book of Jasher adds silver, gold, and bdellium, and states that heavenly hosts put the fear of Jacob upon Esau and his men.

Esau received Jacob peaceably and afterward returned to Seir, while Jacob and his household continued to Succoth.

The stranger in this passage is Jacob himself. He was not a racial stranger to Laban, but a covenant heir temporarily residing with his maternal kinsman outside the land of his inheritance.

Jacob Returns to Bethel

Genesis 35:1 ​​ And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto you when you fleddest from the face of Esau your brother.

​​ 35:2 ​​ Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange (H5236- nekar-foreign) gods (gods of the foreigner) that are among you, and be clean (purified), and change your garments:

​​ 35:3 ​​ And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

​​ 35:4 ​​ And they gave unto Jacob all the strange (H5236- nekar-foreign) gods (gods of the foreigner) which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

​​ 35:5 ​​ And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

In verses 2 and 4, strange is H5236, nekar, a noun meaning foreignness, that which is foreign, or an alien thing.

Here nekar does not identify a person. It describes the gods as foreign to Jacob’s household and foreign to the worship of Yahweh. The expression may therefore be understood as foreign gods, gods belonging to foreigners, or gods of the foreigner. These were the idols and foreign objects of worship that had been brought into Jacob’s household.

Jacob commanded his entire household, including everyone accompanying him, to put away these foreign gods, purify themselves, and change their garments before going to Bethel. They surrendered the foreign gods in their hands together with the earrings in their ears, which were evidently connected with their former idolatrous practices. Jacob concealed or buried them under the oak near Shechem. The household could not carry the gods of foreigners into the worship of Yahweh at Bethel.

In this passage, “strange” identifies foreign gods—not a racial stranger or a sojourning kinsman. The contrast is religious: the gods of foreigners are opposed to Yahweh, the God of Jacob.

​​ 35:27 ​​ And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned (H1481- gur-dwelt). ​​ 

Sojourned is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside temporarily.

Abraham and Isaac had lived at Mamre as sojourners because, although Yahweh had promised them the land, they had not yet received permanent possession of it. They dwelt in the land of their promised inheritance without possessing it as an established nation.

Genesis 36:7 — The Land of Their Sojournings

Genesis 36:6 ​​ And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle (livestock), and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face (presence) of his brother Jacob.

​​ 36:7 ​​ For their riches were more than that they might dwell (H3427- yashab) together; and the land wherein they were strangers (H4033- magur magur-pilgrims) could not bear them because of their cattle (livestock).

​​ 36:8 ​​ Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.

“Edom is in modern Jewry.” —The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1925 edition, Vol.5, p.41

Dwell is H3427, yashab, a verb meaning to sit down, remain, abide, inhabit, or establish a dwelling.

Strangers is translated from H4033, magur, a noun meaning a sojourning place, dwelling place, or temporary residence. The Hebrew expression is more precisely “the land of their sojournings.” It describes the land in which Jacob and Esau had been residing rather than directly calling them strangers.

Jacob and Esau had accumulated so many possessions and so much livestock that the land could not sustain both households together. As Abraham and Lot had previously separated because of their great substance, Esau now departed from Jacob and established his dwelling in Mount Seir.

H4033 identifies Canaan as the land of their sojournings—the territory in which they had resided without yet possessing it as an established national inheritance. Esau departed for Mount Seir, while the covenant inheritance in Canaan continued through Jacob.

Genesis 37:1 — The Land of Isaac’s Sojournings

Genesis 37:1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger (H4033—magur, sojournings), in the land of Canaan.

Stranger is translated from H4033, magur, a noun meaning a sojourning place, dwelling place, or temporary residence.

The Hebrew is more precisely rendered:

“And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.”

H4033 describes Canaan as the land in which Isaac had sojourned. Although Yahweh had promised the land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs lived there without possessing it as an established national inheritance.

The stranger in this verse is Isaac, but the emphasis is upon his residential standing: he lived as a sojourner in the land promised to his seed. Jacob now continued dwelling in that same covenant land.

Genesis 47:4, 9 — Israel Sojourns in Egypt

Joseph presented five of his brothers to Pharaoh.

Genesis 47:3 ​​ And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers.

​​ 47:4 ​​ They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn (H1481- gur-dwell, to continue for a little time) in the land are we come; for your servants have no pasture for their flocks; for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan: now therefore, we pray you, let your servants dwell (H3427- yashab- settle, abide) in the land of Goshen.

​​ 47:5 ​​ And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Your father and your brethren are come unto you:

​​ 47:6 ​​ The land of Egypt is before you; in the best of the land make your father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if you knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers (keepers) over my cattle (livestock).

Sojourn is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside temporarily as a guest.

Jacob’s sons did not present themselves as immigrants seeking to become Egyptians. They came to Egypt because the famine had destroyed the pasture in Canaan. Their stated purpose was to reside there temporarily while retaining their separate household, occupation, and identity.

Dwell is H3427, yashab, a verb meaning to sit down, remain, abide, inhabit, or settle. Pharaoh permitted the family to settle in Goshen, the best portion of the land for their flocks and herds. Their temporary sojourn consequently became an extended residence, but Egypt never became their covenant inheritance.

Activity is H2428, chayil, meaning strength, ability, efficiency, valor, wealth, or force. Here it describes capable and competent men whom Pharaoh could appoint as keepers over his livestock. The KJV term cattle is used generally for livestock.

​​ 47:7 ​​ And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

​​ 47:8 ​​ And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art you?

​​ 47:9 ​​ And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage (H4033- magur magur) are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage (H4033- magur magur).

Pilgrimage is H4033, magur, a noun meaning a sojourning, temporary dwelling, dwelling place, or place of residence.

Jacob described all 130 years of his life as “the days of the years of my sojournings.” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had moved through Canaan and adjoining lands without receiving permanent possession of the promised inheritance. Jacob’s pilgrimage included residence among his own kindred in Padanaram as well as among other peoples in Canaan and Egypt.

H1481 describes Israel’s act of residing temporarily in Egypt. H4033 describes the condition and duration of that unsettled residence. These words concern residential and possessory standing: Israel lived in Egypt under Pharaoh’s permission, but Egypt was neither their native identity nor their covenant inheritance.

In Genesis we encountered six different Hebrew words translated by forms of stranger, strange, sojourn, and pilgrimage. These words are not interchangeable. Each must be understood according to its Strong’s definition and the context in which it appears.

Gûr, H1481, is a verb used nine times. It means to abide, dwell, remain, or reside for a definite or indefinite time as a guest or temporary resident.

It describes the act of sojourning. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Lot, and the children of Israel could gûr among either racial kindred or other peoples.

Gēr, H1616, is a noun used twice. It means a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest.

Instead of stranger, it is generally clearer in Genesis to read sojourner. The word describes someone residing outside his own native or inherited territory.

Magûr, H4033, is a noun used six times. It means a sojourning, sojourning place, dwelling place, temporary abode, or pilgrimage.

Where the KJV speaks of a land wherein someone was a stranger, the Hebrew more precisely speaks of the land of his sojournings or the land of his pilgrimage. In Genesis 47:9, it refers to the days or years of Jacob’s pilgrimage.

Nēkar, H5236, is a noun used four times. It means foreignness, that which is foreign, or alien.

In Genesis 17:12 and 17:27, the complete expression is “son of a foreigner.” In Genesis 35:2 and 35:4, it identifies foreign gods or the gods of the foreigner. In these latter passages it describes the gods as foreign to Jacob’s household and to the worship of Yahweh.

Nokrî, H5237, is an adjective used once. It means foreign, strange, alien, or belonging to another.

Rachel and Leah were not foreigners by birth. They said that Laban counted them as foreign women or outsiders, treating his own daughters as though they were unrelated persons whom he had sold.

Tôshab, H8453, is a noun used once. It means a sojourner, guest, or temporary resident.

In Genesis 23:4, Abraham called himself both a gēr and a tôshab among the children of Heth—a sojourner and guest who lived among them without possessing the land as a native landholder.

The KJV and other English translations frequently use the same English word for several different Hebrew words. The average reader therefore sees stranger or sojourner without recognizing whether the original describes a temporary resident, a guest, a foreign person, a foreign object, a place of pilgrimage, or the act of residing outside one’s inherited territory.

This principle extends throughout Scripture. Several different Hebrew and Greek words may be translated by the same English word, while one Hebrew or Greek word may carry different applications according to its context.

For example:

Earth does not always mean the entire planet. H776, ’erets, may mean earth, land, country, territory, ground, or a particular region. Its geographical scope must be determined from the passage.

Christ is G5547, Christos, meaning Anointed. It most commonly identifies Jesus Christ personally, the Anointed King and Head. In corporate-body contexts, the passage may present Christ together with His anointed covenant body—the congregation of Christian Israel united under its Head.

World does not automatically mean the entire planet or every human being without distinction. The underlying words may describe an ordered society, a particular inhabited territory, a system of government, or an age. The original word, its scope, and its covenant setting must determine the meaning.

The English word alone cannot identify the stranger. The Strong’s number, grammatical form, immediate context, ancestry, location, and covenant relationship must be examined before the stranger or sojourner in any passage can be correctly identified.

Exodus 2:22 — A Sojourner in a Foreign Land

Jasher 78:7 In those days Moses, the son of Amram, in Midian, took Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel the Midianite, for a wife.

8 And Zipporah walked in the ways of the daughters of Jacob, she was nothing short of the righteousness of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.

Exodus 2:22 ​​ And she bare him a son, and he (Moses) called his name Gershom (H1648): for he said, I have been a stranger (H1616- ger-sojourner) in a strange (H5237- nokriy-non Israelite, foreign) land. ​​ 

Gershom is H1647. Gershom is a proper name explained within the verse through the words gēr, “sojourner,” and shām, “there”—a sojourner there. The name memorialized Moses’ condition while dwelling away from his people and native land.

The opening sound of Gershom therefore deliberately echoes gēr, the very word Moses used when he said, “I have been a sojourner.”

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest. The stranger in this verse is Moses himself—an Israelite of the tribe of Levi.

Strange is H5237, nokrî, an adjective meaning foreign, alien, strange, or belonging to another people or country. Here it modifies the word land, not Moses. Midian was a foreign land in relation to Moses and Israel.

The Midianites descended from Abraham through Keturah and were therefore Abrahamic kindred, but they were not Israelites and Midian was not Israel’s covenant inheritance. Moses was an Israelite sojourning among a related but separate nation.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

FOREIGN, adjective: “Belonging to another nation or country; alien; not of the country in which one resides; extraneous.”

This verse identifies the terms precisely: Moses is the gēr, the Israelite sojourner; Midian is the nokrî land, a foreign country outside his own Israelite people and covenant inheritance.

Exodus 3:22 — The Woman Sojourning in the House

Yahweh instructed Moses from the flaming bush to return to Egypt and bring out the children of Israel.

Exodus 3:20 ​​ (Yahweh speaking) And I will stretch out My hand, and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.

​​ 3:21 ​​ And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when you go, you shall not go empty: ​​ 

​​ 3:22 ​​ But every woman shall borrow (ask) of her neighbour (H7934- shaken- fellow citizen), and of her that sojourneth (H1481- gur-resides) in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and you shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and you shall spoil the Egyptians. ​​ 

The KJV word borrow should be understood as ask or request. The Hebrew is H7592, shā’al, meaning to ask, inquire, request, or demand. The Israelites were not borrowing property that they were expected to return. Exodus 12:35–36 records that the Egyptians gave them what they requested, and Israel thereby spoiled Egypt.

Neighbour is H7934, shākēn, meaning an inhabitant, resident, or neighbor—someone dwelling nearby. The Israelite woman’s neighbor in this context was an Egyptian woman living nearby.

H7453, rēa‘, means a companion, associate, fellow, friend, or neighbor. H5997, ‘āmîth, means an associate, fellow, or neighbor. In the laws addressed to Israel, their context frequently identifies a fellow Israelite or covenant brother, but neither word by itself necessarily means a blood relative.

Sojourneth is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside for a definite or indefinite time as a guest or temporary resident. Its form here is feminine and identifies a woman lodging or residing in the Israelite woman’s house. The verse distinguishes the nearby resident from the woman temporarily staying within the household.

Exodus 6:4 — The Land of Their Sojournings

In chapter 6, Yahweh reminds Moses that He appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and established His covenant with them. He is about to bring their children out from under the burdens and bondage of Egypt, redeem them, take them as His people, and be their God.

Exodus 6:4 ​​ And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage (H4033- magur,magur), wherein they were strangers (H1481- gur-sojourned, dwelt).

Pilgrimage is H4033, magûr, a noun meaning a sojourning, sojourning place, dwelling place, or temporary residence. The Hebrew expression is “the land of their sojournings.”

Were strangers is translated from H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside temporarily. The KJV renders the verb with the noun phrase “were strangers,” but the Hebrew reads more precisely:

“The land of their sojournings, wherein they sojourned.”

The pronoun translated wherein refers back to the land of Canaan. A more literal rendering would be “in which they sojourned” or “wherein they dwelt temporarily.”

The sojourners were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They lived in Canaan under Yahweh’s promise but did not possess it as an established nation. They moved through the land as shepherds and temporary residents while awaiting the fulfillment of the covenant.

H4033 identifies Canaan as the place of their sojournings, while H1481 describes their act of sojourning there. They were not strangers to the covenant or foreign to the promised inheritance; they were covenant heirs awaiting possession of the land promised to their seed.

Exodus 12:19 — The Sojourner and the Native-Born

Chapter 12 institutes the Passover and begins the Exodus.

Yahweh instructed Moses to reckon Abib as the beginning of Israel’s year. The biblical calendar is solar, and Abib begins at the spring equinox, ordinarily around March 20. The expression commonly translated new moon should be understood as the renewal or beginning of the month, not as establishing a lunar calendar.

Yahweh instructed the congregation of Israel to select an unblemished lamb on the tenth day of the month and keep it until the fourteenth day. They were to kill it in the evening, roast it with fire, eat it, and leave none of it until morning. This foreshadowed Jesus Christ, Israel’s Passover sacrifice, including His ascension in which nothing of His body was left behind.

The Israelites were to strike the blood upon the doorposts and upper doorpost of their houses. When Yahweh passed through Egypt to destroy the firstborn, He would see the blood and pass over the protected Israelite households.

This day was established as a memorial and a feast to be observed by Israel throughout their generations. They were also commanded to remove leaven from their houses and eat no leaven for seven days.

Exodus 12:19 ​​ Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), or born (H249- ezrach- native) in the land.

​​ 12:20 ​​ Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread.  ​​​​ (Ex 23:15, 34:18 ​​ Lev 23:6-8 ​​ Num 28:17-25 ​​ Deut 16:3-8)

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

Born is H249, ’ezrāch, a noun meaning a native one, one born in the land, or one belonging to his own country and nation.

The context of gēr and ’ezrāch identifies two residential conditions among Israel’s people. The ’ezrāch was the native-born Israelite established in the land. The gēr was the sojourning Israelite or related covenant kinsman temporarily residing there without native possession.

The contrast concerns residential standing, not the admission of unrelated peoples into Israel. One was native-born in the land; the other was dwelling there as a sojourner. Both remained accountable to the law of the congregation.

Passover was given exclusively to the children of Israel and their racial kindred within the covenant household. It was not a universal religious ceremony available to every unrelated foreigner residing nearby. Residence among Israel did not make a foreigner an Israelite, and circumcision did not change anyone’s genealogy.

Deuteronomy 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of Yahweh; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of Yahweh.

The congregation had definite family and covenant boundaries. Not everyone dwelling in the land could enter the congregation or participate in its sacred ordinances merely by being present among Israel.

The stranger in Exodus 12:19 is the gēr: an Israelite or racial kinsman living as a sojourner rather than as a native landholder. The ’ezrāch is the native-born Israelite. Both were commanded to observe Israel’s law concerning Passover and unleavened bread.

In the Old Testament there are Scriptures that certainly look as if they are saying that non-Israelite strangers could become circumcised, keep the Passover, the Laws of Moses and thus become as one born in the land. This is the matter which is being questioned.

Exodus 12:40–49 — Who May Eat the Passover?

Exodus 12:40 Now the sojourning (H4186 moshab) of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

Sojourning is H4186, môshab, a noun meaning a seat, dwelling, habitation, place of residence, or duration of dwelling. Here it concerns the entire period of the patriarchal residence preceding the Exodus.

The Septuagint preserves the fuller geographical statement:

Septuagint: “And the sojourning of the children of Israel, while they sojourned in the land of Egypt and the land of Chanaan, was four hundred and thirty years.”

The 430 years include the patriarchal sojourn in Canaan as well as Israel’s residence in Egypt. Abraham was 75 when he entered Canaan. Isaac was born 25 years later; Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born; and Jacob was 130 when he entered Egypt. These periods total 215 years. Israel then remained in Egypt approximately another 215 years.

The children of Israel were therefore not enslaved in Egypt for 430 years. The 430 years extended from Abraham’s entrance into Canaan to the Exodus. Israel departed Egypt at the end of that period, and the law followed at Sinai. Paul confirms that the law came 430 years after the covenant promise had been confirmed by God (Galatians 3:17).

​​ 12:41 ​​ And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt.

​​ 12:42 ​​ It is a night to be much observed unto Yahweh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of Yahweh to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

​​ 12:43 ​​ And Yahweh said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger (H5236- nekar-son of the foreigner)(and H1121) eat thereof:

The Hebrew expression is ben-nēkar: literally, “son of foreignness” or “son of a foreigner.” It identifies a person belonging to foreign stock and standing outside Israel’s family and covenant order. The word racial is not contained in H5236 itself; the racial and national distinction is established by the expression son of a foreigner together with the Israelite context.

Nēkar is H5236, a noun meaning foreignness, that which is foreign, or alien. It does not mean an Israelite temporarily residing away from his inherited territory. The ben-nēkar was a foreign son unattached to Israel’s circumcised covenant household, and he was forbidden to eat the Passover.

​​ 12:44 ​​ But every man's servant (bondservant) that is bought for money, when you hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof.

A bondservant belonged to an Israelite household and was under its authority. He was not permitted to eat merely because he had been purchased. He first had to receive the Abrahamic covenant sign of circumcision.

This provision does not open Passover indiscriminately to foreign nations. It concerns a kindred servant incorporated into the government of an Israelite household. Circumcision changed his covenant and household standing for the ordinance; it did not change his ancestry.

Deuteronomy 23:2 separately establishes that genealogy could affect entry into the congregation of Yahweh. Household participation, legal protection, and full genealogical standing within the congregation were related but not necessarily identical matters.

​​ 12:45 ​​ A foreigner (H8453- toshab- guest) and an hired servant (H7916) shall not eat thereof.

Foreigner is H8453, tôshab, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary resident, settler, or guest. He was not merely a passing visitor but someone residing among Israel without possessing the standing required to eat the Passover.

Residence alone did not grant covenant privileges. The tôshab could live among Israel while remaining outside the household and covenant conditions governing the Passover.

Hired servant is H7916, sākîr, meaning a hired laborer, wage-earner, or hireling. He worked for wages by the day, year, or other appointed term. He was not a purchased bondservant incorporated into the household. Employment by an Israelite did not authorize him to eat the Passover.

​​ 12:46 ​​ In one house shall it be eaten; you shalt not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone thereof.

​​ 12:47 ​​ All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

The Passover was an Israelite household and national ordinance. It was eaten within the house, and none of the flesh was to be carried outside. No bone of the lamb was to be broken, foreshadowing Jesus Christ, Israel’s Passover sacrifice, whose bones were not broken (John 19:33–36).

​​ 12:48 ​​ And when a stranger (H1616- ger- proselyte) shall sojourn (H1481- gur- dwell as a guest) with you, and will keep the passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born (H249- ezrach- native of) in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

Sojourn is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside as a guest.

Born is H249, ’ezrāch, a noun meaning a native, native-born person, or one belonging to his own country.

The gēr was not automatically authorized to eat the Passover merely because he lived among Israel. Every male under his household authority first had to be circumcised. He could then approach the Passover as the native-born. The expression does not say circumcision changed his bloodline; it gave him the required standing under the ordinance.

The Septuagint uses prosēlytos for gēr in verses 48–49. In its basic sense, prosēlytos describes one who has come over, approached, or joined himself to the resident community. The English word proselyte later acquired the technical meaning of a religious convert, but that later meaning should not be imposed upon every Old Testament use.

​​ 12:49 ​​ One law shall be to him that is homeborn (H249- ezrach- native), and unto the stranger (H1616- ger- proselyte sojourner) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- dwells as a guest) among you.  ​​​​ (Num 9:14 15:15-16)

The expression “one law” means that a qualifying sojourner living among Israel was subject to the same law governing the native-born Israelite. It did not create two standards, permit an uncircumcised outsider to participate, or erase ancestry and national identity.

The passage establishes definite distinctions:

The ben-nēkar was a foreign son outside Israel’s covenant household and could not eat, ever. The tôshab was a temporary resident or guest and could not eat merely because he lived among Israel. The sākîr was a hired laborer and could not eat merely because he worked for an Israelite. The purchased household servant could eat after circumcision, but had to be kindred, not alien. The gēr who dwelt among Israel could approach after every male of his household was circumcised. The ’ezrāch was the native-born Israelite already belonging to the land and nation.

Passover remained the memorial, household ordinance, and national feast of Israel. No unknown foreigner possessed an automatic right to it. Residence, employment, or physical presence among Israel was insufficient. Every person who lawfully ate stood within the government, race, circumcision, and law of Israel’s covenant household.

Exodus 18:3 — A Sojourner in a Foreign Land

Exodus 18:1 ​​ When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt;

​​ 18:2 ​​ Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back,

​​ 18:3 ​​ And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien (H1616- ger, sojourner) in a strange (H5237- nokriy- non Israelite, foreign) land: (sojourner in a foreign land)

​​ 18:4 ​​ And the name of the other was Eliezer (God is my help); for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:

Gershom is H1647. The name commemorated Moses’ condition in Midian and is explained by his declaration:

“I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”

The opening Ger in Gershom echoes H1616, gēr. The name served as a continuing memorial to Moses and his son that Moses had lived outside his native land and away from his Israelite brethren.

Moses remained in Midian for forty years, but the length of his residence did not transform Midian into his native or covenant land. A sojourn can continue for many years while remaining temporary in relation to a man’s proper inheritance and national identity.

The statement also agrees with the broader Scriptural confession that Yahweh’s people are sojourners during their mortal lives:

1Chronicles 29:15 For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

Alien is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest. The alien or sojourner in Exodus 18:3 is Moses, an Israelite of the tribe of Levi.

Strange is H5237, nokrî, an adjective meaning foreign, alien, non-relative, different, or belonging to another people or country. Here it modifies land. Midian was foreign to Moses because it was outside Israel and was not his native or covenant inheritance. The Hebrew reads plainly:

“I was a sojourner in a foreign land.”

Jethro was the priest of Midian. Jethro is H3503, Yithrô, meaning “his excellence” or “his abundance.” Scripture also calls Moses’ father-in-law Reuel, H7467, meaning “friend of God.” Jethro may therefore have functioned as an honorific name or title, while Reuel was his personal or family name.

Midian was a son of Abraham through Keturah:

Genesis 25:1–2 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

Jethro and Zipporah were therefore Midianites of Abrahamic stock. They were related to the Israelites through Abraham, but they were not Israelites, because Israel descended through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The sojourner is Moses, an Israelite. The foreign land is Midian, the territory of a related Abrahamic people who were not Israelites. H1616 identifies Moses’ residential condition, while H5237 identifies Midian’s national and geographical relationship to him.

Was Moses’ Wife Black?

The common church claim that Moses married a black Ethiopian woman is not established by Scripture. Exodus identifies Zipporah as the daughter of the priest of Midian (Exodus 2:15–21). Midian was a son of Abraham through Keturah (Genesis 25:1–2). Zipporah was therefore an Abrahamic Midianite—related to Israel through Abraham, although she was not an Israelite.

Numbers 12:1 calls Moses’ wife a Cushite. The KJV renders this as “Ethiopian,” but Cushite does not itself describe skin color or establish a modern racial classification. Nor should biblical Cush automatically be equated with the boundaries and population of the modern nation called Ethiopia.

The wife positively identified and genealogically traced by Scripture is Zipporah the Midianite, a descendant of Abraham, who was not black. The modern racial claim is an assumption imposed upon the word Cushite, not a fact stated in the biblical text.

Exodus 20:10 — The Sojourner Within the Gates

Chapter 20 contains the Ten Commandments.

Exodus 20:8 ​​ (Commandment 4) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (set apart).  ​​​​ 

​​ 20:9 ​​ Six days shalt you labour, and do all your work:

​​ 20:10 ​​ But the seventh day is the sabbath of Yahweh your God: in it you shalt not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle (livestock), nor your stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that is within your gates:  ​​​​ (Lev 23:3)

​​ 20:11 ​​ For in six days (ages) Yahweh made heaven (sky) and earth (land), the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Yahweh blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it (set it apart).  ​​​​ (Gen 2:1-3)

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

The expression “within thy gates” identifies a sojourner residing within an Israelite household, town, or jurisdiction. He was not exempt from Yahweh’s law because he lacked native possession in the land. The householder and community were responsible for ensuring that everyone under their authority rested on the seventh day.

The gēr here is the sojourning Israelite or covenant kinsman residing among native-born Israelites. The distinction concerns residential standing: one was established in his native inheritance, while the other sojourned within another Israelite jurisdiction.

The Sabbath law governed the native-born Israelite and the Israelite sojourner alike. One law and one appointed day of rest applied throughout Israel’s habitations.

Exodus 20:14 — Adultery and Covenant Unfaithfulness

Exodus 20:14 ​​ (7) You shalt not commit adultery.

Commit adultery is H5003, nā’aph, a verb meaning to commit adultery or violate the marriage covenant. Figuratively, Scripture uses it for apostasy and idolatry because Israel’s departure from Yahweh resembled a wife violating her marriage covenant.

In the Latin Vulgate, Exodus 20:14 was translated as non moechaberis and Romans 13:9 as non adulterabis. The Latin word moechaberis is an inflected form of moechari, a transliteration of the Greek moicheuo, and is of little etymological importance since what it means is merely dependent upon what the Greek word means, which we will explore. However, what is important is adulterabis, an inflected form of the word adultero, since this is the Latin word most often used in the Vulgate and elsewhere to translate the Greek word moicheuo.

The Greek word ou and the Latin word non are simply negative particles, translated not. Thus, the words that we need to define in order to determine the correct translation of Exodus 20:14 and Romans 13:9 are the Greek word moicheuo and the Latin word adultero.

First, in order to define the word moicheuo, let us turn to a commonly used and commonly available dictionary, The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Kittel and translated into English by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Now let us note that Kittel was a well-renowned German Greek scholar and is held in high-esteem by the scholarly community.

Under the entry word moicheuo, the following definition is given: “of the intermingling of animals and men or of different races.” [In the German original, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament, we find the original words of Kittel: “auch von Vermischung von Tier und Mensch oder von Mischung verschiedener Rassen”].

This, of course, is the classical definition of mongrelization. So the Greek of the New Testament and the Greek Septuagint confirm that the translation “You will not mongrelize” is correct.

Adultery is unlawful intercourse that violates an existing marriage covenant. Its figurative application is covenant apostasy—Israel forsaking Yahweh for other gods.

Forbidden Marriages and the Holy Seed

Scripture does separately forbid Israel from forming certain marriages that would corrupt the covenant people. Those prohibitions should be taught from their own passages:

• Exodus 34:12–16 warns Israel against marriages with the inhabitants of Canaan.

• Deuteronomy 7:1–4 forbids marriage with the seven Canaanite nations because they would turn Israel’s children away from Yahweh.

• Ezra 9:1–2 condemns the mingling of the holy seed with the peoples practicing the abominations of the surrounding lands.

• Nehemiah 13:23–27 condemns marriages that corrupted Israel’s language, worship, and covenant fidelity.

These passages establish the requirement to preserve Israel’s covenant identity and holy seed.

Who Is the Neighbor In Scripture?

Neighbor is H7453, rēa‘, meaning an associate, companion, fellow, friend, neighbor, or another person. It can describe a brother or fellow Israelite in an Israelite-law context.

H5997, ‘āmîth, means an associate, fellow, companion, neighbor, or relation. Within Leviticus it ordinarily describes another member of the covenant community.

G4139, plēsion, means one who is near—a neighbor, fellow, countryman, friend, or other person identified by the context. It is not lexically restricted to “a member of the Hebrew nation.”

G80, adelphos, literally means a brother from the same womb. By extension it may identify a blood relative, national kinsman, countryman, or brother in the faith. The context determines which relationship is intended.

Exodus 20:14 protects the marriage covenant. Scripture’s laws concerning forbidden intermarriage and preservation of the holy seed remain important commands.

Neighbor in scripture is H7453 rea/reya, and means brother. H5997 amiyth, means relation, kindred.

'Neighbour' was to be a 'brother', and we see this in Deuteronomy 15:2-3 where we are commanded to grant our 'neighbour-brothers' release from debts every seventh year. This doesn't apply to other races. In Leviticus 19:18 we are taught how to treat our 'neighbour-brothers'. In Zechariah 3:10 we see a vision of 'the refreshing of neighborliness under the vine and under the fig tree'. Vine is symbolic of Israelites, and fig tree is also symbolic of Israelites, namely the house of Judah, which were not neighbourly to their brothers of the 'lost' uncircumcised Israelites of the house of Israel that were scattered and thought of as common and profane, but through the Gospel, they learned that they were brothers of the same national ancestry and thus the wall of partition was broken down because the blood of Christ had reconciled both Israelites near and far into one tree again under the Renewed Covenant.

There are many more examples of what a neighbor is, and it's always referring to an Israelite kinsmen when in context of living and the laws.

Exodus 21:8 — Sale to a Foreign People Forbidden

Exodus 21:7 ​​ And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

​​ 21:8 ​​ If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed (ransomed): to sell her unto a strange (H5237- nokriy- foreign) nation (H5971- am) he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

​​ 21:9 ​​ And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

​​ 21:10 ​​ If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

​​ 21:11 ​​ And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

Strange is H5237, nokrî, an adjective meaning foreign, alien, non-relative, strange, or belonging to another people.

Nation is H5971, ‘am, a noun meaning a people, nation, tribe, or body of persons belonging together. The complete expression ‘am nokrî means “a foreign people” or “a non-Israelite people.”

The arrangement contemplated marriage to the master or his son. If the master refused to complete the betrothal, he was required to permit her redemption. He could not recover his money by selling the Israelite woman to a foreign people. Having dealt unfaithfully with her, he had no authority to remove her from her family, nation, and the protection of Israel’s law.

The verse does not specify who supplied the redemption payment, but her father or other Israelite kinsmen could ransom her from the arrangement. She remained protected as an Israelite daughter and could not be transferred as merchandise into an unrelated foreign household.

If she was given to the master’s son, she had to be treated “after the manner of daughters,” not as disposable property. If the husband afterward took another wife, he could not diminish the first woman’s food, clothing, or marital rights. Her “duty of marriage” included conjugal cohabitation. If he withheld these three provisions, she went free without paying redemption money.

The stated reason for prohibiting her sale to foreigners is that the master had dealt deceitfully or faithlessly with her. Selling her outside Israel would also remove her from the national laws governing redemption, release, marriage, and family protection. The text does not expressly say that every foreigner would keep her perpetually, but Israel’s master was forbidden to expose her to that danger.

The “strange nation” is an H5971 ‘am described by H5237 nokrî: a foreign, non-Israelite people. An Israelite daughter could be redeemed within her own people, but she could not be sold out of Israel into a foreign household.

Exodus 22:21 — Do Not Oppress the Sojourner

Exodus 22:21 ​​ You shalt neither vex (treat violently) a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), nor oppress him: for you were strangers (H1616- ger, sojourners) in the land of Egypt.  ​​​​ (Lev 19:33-34 ​​ Deut 24:17-18 27:19)

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

Vex means to mistreat, wrong, exploit, or act violently toward another. Oppress means to press, afflict, or exercise power against him unjustly.

The protected stranger is the sojourner residing among Israel without native possession in the land. Israel was forbidden to exploit his temporary and dependent condition.

The children of Israel had themselves lived as gērîm—sojourners—in Egypt. The remembrance of their own vulnerable condition was to move them toward compassion for the sojourning kinsman and restrain pride, cruelty, and abuse of authority.

The command does not erase the distinction between the native-born and the sojourner. It requires the Israelite to deal justly with the gēr because Israel knew from experience what it meant to dwell under another nation’s authority.

Exodus 23:9, 12 — The Sojourner’s Life and Refreshment

Exodus 23:9 ​​ Also you shalt not oppress a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner): for you know the heart of a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), seeing you were strangers (H1616- ger- sojourners) in the land of Egypt.

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

The expression “the heart of a stranger” contains H5315, nephesh, meaning soul, life, person, appetite, or living being. Israel knew personally the life and condition of a sojourner because the Israelites had lived under the authority of Egypt. They were therefore forbidden to use their power to oppress the sojourner living among them.

​​ 23:10 ​​ And six years you shalt sow your land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

​​ 23:11 ​​ But the seventh year you shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of your people (H5971- am-kindred) may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner you shalt deal with your vineyard, and with your oliveyard.

People is H5971, ‘am, meaning a people, nation, tribe, or kindred. The expression “the poor of thy people” identifies the poor belonging to Israel’s national family. The land’s seventh-year rest provided food for Israel’s poor, while the beasts ate what remained.

​​ 23:12 ​​ Six days you shalt do your work, and on the seventh day you shalt rest: that your ox and your ass may rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), may be refreshed.

Refreshed is H5314, nāphash, meaning to breathe, take breath, rest, or be refreshed. It is related to nephesh in verse 9. Israel knew the nephesh—the life and condition—of the sojourner; therefore Israel’s Sabbath was to allow the sojourner to nāphash—to take breath and be refreshed.

The Sabbath command protected everyone laboring within the Israelite household and jurisdiction: family members, servants, livestock, and the sojourning kinsman. His temporary residential standing did not permit an Israelite master to deny him Yahweh’s appointed rest.

The governing context is Israel and “thy people.” These laws were given to the Israelite nation and required justice, provision, rest, and compassion toward the sojourning kinsmen and women dwelling among them.

Exodus 29:33 — The Unauthorized Non-Priest

Chapter 29 concerns the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the Levitical priesthood. The consecration meal was holy and restricted to the Aaronic priests.

Exodus 29:32 ​​ And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting).

​​ 29:33 ​​ And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement (propitiation) was made, to consecrate (be full of strength) and to sanctify (be set apart by) them: but a stranger (H2114- zur- an uncustomary one) shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.

Stranger is H2114, zûr, a verb meaning to turn aside, become estranged, be alienated, foreign, strange, or profane. In certain forms it describes a stranger or outsider.

The stranger here is not merely a person of another race or nation. It includes every person outside the authorized Aaronic priesthood. An Israelite from another tribe—and even a Levite who was not of Aaron’s priestly line—was a zûr in relation to this consecrated meal.

The priestly ordinances were entrusted specifically to Aaron and his sons. Numbers 16:40 confirms that no stranger “which is not of the seed of Aaron” could approach to offer incense before Yahweh. Thus the context identifies the zûr as someone outside Aaron’s priestly seed and authority.

Uncustomary one follows part of Strong’s wording but is unclear in English. A more precise contextual rendering is:

“But an unauthorized person shall not eat of them, because they are set apart.”

Or, more specifically:

“But one who is not of the sons of Aaron shall not eat of them, because they are set apart.”

The zûr in Exodus 29:33 is anyone outside the Aaronic priesthood. The distinction is priestly lineage and authorization: only Aaron and his consecrated sons could eat this particular holy meal.

Exodus 30:9, 33 — Unauthorized Incense and Unauthorized Persons

Chapter 30 gives ordinances concerning the altar of incense, the atonement money, the laver, the holy anointing oil, and the sacred incense. These things were set apart for the service of Yahweh and could not be used according to ordinary custom.

Exodus 30:7 ​​ And Aaron shall burn thereon (the altar of Acacia wood) sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.

​​ 30:8 ​​ And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.

​​ 30:9 ​​ Ye shall offer no strange (H2114- zur- alien, unusual, uncustomary) incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat (grain) offering; neither shall you pour drink offering thereon.

Strange is H2114, zûr, meaning to turn aside, become estranged, be foreign, alien, strange, profane, or unauthorized.

Here zûr describes the incense rather than a person. Strange incense was incense foreign to Yahweh’s command—an unauthorized substance, mixture, or offering not appointed by His law. The altar could not be used for whatever form of worship a priest might devise. Only the prescribed incense could be offered upon it.

A clear contextual rendering is:

“Ye shall offer no unauthorized incense thereon.”

3Maccabees 1:11 records a later illustration of restricted sanctuary access. King Ptolemy IV Philopator desired to enter the sanctuary but was told that entrance was not permitted to the nation generally, nor even to all priests, but only to the high priest once each year. This incident concerns entrance into the inner sanctuary rather than the composition of the incense, but it illustrates the same principle: holy offices and places were governed by Yahweh’s appointed boundaries.

​​ 30:29 ​​ And you shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.

​​ 30:30 ​​ And you shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office.

​​ 30:31 ​​ And you shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall be an holy anointing oil unto Me throughout your generations.

​​ 30:32 ​​ Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall you make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.

The sacred oil could not be used as an ordinary bodily ointment. Its precise formula was reserved for Yahweh’s appointed service.

​​ 30:33 ​​ Whosoever compoundeth (blends) any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger (H2114- zur- an unaccustomed one), shall even be cut off from his people.

In verse 33, zûr identifies a person outside those authorized to receive the sacred oil. Verse 30 names Aaron and his sons as the appointed priesthood. The stranger is therefore someone outside the Aaronic priestly line and office.

The holy oil was not common perfume, medicine, or personal grooming oil. Its formula could not be copied for private use, and it could not be placed upon a person whom Yahweh had not appointed.

In verse 9, zûr describes incense unauthorized by Yahweh’s instructions. In verse 33, it identifies a person unauthorized to receive the holy anointing oil. The controlling distinction is not merely familiarity or custom, but divine appointment: what Yahweh had set apart for Aaron’s priesthood could not be offered, copied, or used outside that ordained service.

In Exodus we saw 8 different Hebrew words for stranger.

H1616 Ger, a noun, used 12x, and means a sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, a guest.

Instead of 'strangers' it should read 'sojourners' or 'proselytes'.

H1481 Gur, a verb, used 4x, and means to abide, dwell, remain, or reside temporarily as a guest.

H4033 Magur, a noun, used 1x, ​​ and means a sojourning place, dwelling-place, pilgrims.

The KJV translators put the correct word 'pilgrimage'.

H4186 Moshab, a noun, used 1x, and means a seat, dwelling, habitation, place of residence, or duration of dwelling.

H5236 Nekar, a noun, used 1x, and means foreign, alien. Different.

Instead of 'stranger' it should read 'sons of a foreigner''.

H5237 Nokriy, an adjective, used 3x, which means strange, in a variety of degrees and applications (foreign, non-relative, adulterous, different):- alien, foreigner, outlandish.

Instead of 'strange' it should read 'foreign'.

H8453 Toshab, a noun, used 1x, and means a sojourner, a guest, a temporary resident.

Instead of 'sojourner' it should read 'guest'.

H2114 Zur, a verb, used 3x, and means to be strange, become estranged, alienated, another, a foreigner, a harlot, profane. Uncustomary. Instead of 'stranger(s)' it should read 'uncustomary' or 'unaccustomed one' or 'one not of the sons of Aaron'.

Instead of 'stranger' it should read 'uncustomary' or 'unaccustomed one'. Or ‘unauthorized one’.

Exodus therefore uses eight distinct Strong’s entries in connection with strangers, foreigners, sojourning, and unauthorized persons or things. The English word alone cannot identify the person or condition. The Strong’s number, grammatical form, location, ancestry, covenant standing, and immediate context must determine the meaning.

Leviticus — Priestly Instruction and National Holiness

Leviticus is a manual of priestly service and covenant holiness for Israel. Aaron was the high priest; his sons served as priests, with the high-priestly office continuing through Aaron’s appointed line. The remaining Levites performed other duties connected with the tabernacle and Israel’s worship.

The Aaronic priests presented sacrifices and offerings to Yahweh on behalf of the children of Israel.

Nadab and Abihu

Leviticus 10:1 ​​ And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange (H2114- zur- alien, unusual, uncustomary) fire before Yahweh, which He commanded them not.

Strange is H2114, zûr, meaning foreign, strange, estranged, profane, or unauthorized. Here it describes fire that was foreign to Yahweh’s command.

The clearest rendering is:

“They offered unauthorized fire before Yahweh, which He had not commanded them.”

​​ 10:2 ​​ And there went out fire from Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.

Nadab and Abihu were Aaronic priests. The fire was zûr because it was introduced contrary to His command.

​​ 10:9 ​​ Do not drink wine nor strong drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting), lest you die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:

​​ 10:10 ​​ And that you may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

Verse 9 may indicate that wine or strong drink impaired Nadab and Abihu’s judgment. The stated offense was offering fire Yahweh had not commanded.

The strange fire was unauthorized and profane fire introduced into the holy service contrary to Yahweh’s instructions.

Leviticus 16:29 — The Native-Born and the Sojourner

Leviticus 16:29 ​​ And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls (by fasting), and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country (H249- ezrach- native), or a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- abides, dwells as a guest) among you:

​​ 16:30 ​​ For on that day shall the priest make an atonement (propitiation) for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before Yahweh.

One of your own country is H249, ’ezrāch, meaning a native or native-born person.

Stranger is H1616, gēr, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

Sojourneth is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside as a guest.

The Day of Atonement was an Israelite statute and holy day. Its requirements governed both the native-born Israelite and the sojourning kinsman residing among Israel. Both were to afflict themselves and cease from work while the high priest made atonement for the covenant people.

The yearly blood of bulls and goats provided a temporary covering and cleansing under the Levitical order. It could not permanently take away sin. Jesus Christ fulfilled the priestly and sacrificial types, becoming the everlasting High Priest and Mediator whose blood provides the true propitiatory covering (Hebrews 7:11–28; 9:11–15; 10:1–14).

The Day of Atonement was not instituted as a universal ceremony for every nation and race. It belonged to Israel—the people given Yahweh’s law, covenant, priesthood, sacrifices, and appointed holy days. The New Covenant likewise promises forgiveness and restored relationship to the houses of Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 8:8–12).

The native-born is the ’ezrāch; the Israelite sojourner is the gēr; and his act of dwelling among the covenant people is gûr. Both stood under Israel’s law and were required to observe Israel’s Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 17 — Sacrifices and the Eating of Blood

Chapter 17 identifies who was accountable to Israel’s laws governing sacrifices and blood. Yahweh commanded Moses to speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the children of Israel.

Leviticus 17:7 ​​ And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils (idols), after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.

​​ 17:8 ​​ And you shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers (H1616- ger- sojourning Israelite kinsman, sons of proselytes) which sojourn (H1481- gur- abides) among you, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,

​​ 17:9 ​​ And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting), to offer it unto Yahweh; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.

The Septuagint renders verse 8 “the sons of the proselytes abiding among you.” This identifies sojourners attached to Israel’s resident community. Their offerings had to be presented according to Israel’s law and at Yahweh’s appointed sanctuary.

​​ 17:10 ​​ And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers (H1616- ger- Israelite sojourning kinsman) that sojourn (H1481- gur- abides, dwells) among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set My face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people (H5971- am).  ​​​​ (Gen 9:4, Deut 12:16,23)

Brenton translates the group in verse 10 as “the strangers abiding among you,” but the underlying Septuagint again uses prosēlytos. Verse 8 has “sons of the proselytes,” while verse 10 has “the proselytes.” It shows that some kinsman sojourners who did not know the law ate blood, and Yahweh does not want any kinsman sojourner dwelling with you to eat blood.

People is H5971, ‘am, meaning a people, nation, tribe, or kindred. The offender was to be cut off from the people to whom he belonged within Israel’s covenant jurisdiction.

​​ 17:11 ​​ For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement (propitiation) for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement (propitiation) for the soul.

The blood represented the life and was reserved for atonement upon the altar. This anticipated the greater sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose blood established the renewed covenant and provided remission of sins (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:22).

​​ 17:12 ​​ Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- abides, dwells as a guest) among you eat blood.

​​ 17:13 ​​ And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers (H1616- ger-sojourners) that sojourn (H1481- gur, abide, dwell) among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.

​​ 17:14 ​​ For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, you shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

​​ 17:15 ​​ And every soul that eateth that which died of itself, or that which was torn with beasts, whether it be one of your own country (H249- ezrach- native), or a stranger (H1616- ger-sojourning kinsman), he shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.

Gēr identifies the sojourner residing among Israel; gûr describes his act of residing there; and ’ezrāch identifies the native-born Israelite. The native-born and the sojourning member of the covenant community were governed by the same prohibitions concerning sacrifices and blood.

These were Israelite statutes. Anyone dwelling within Israel’s covenant community—native-born or sojourning—was required to bring sacrifices to Yahweh’s appointed sanctuary, abstain from eating blood, and observe the laws of cleansing. The context here is about Israelites because non-Israelites were not allowed into the congregation (Deut 23:2). And that the law given at Sinai was to Israelites and these laws were for those Israelites born as a native, or sojourning from a foreign land (Exo 12:49; Lev 7:7; Num 15:16, 29).

Leviticus 18:26 — The Native and the Sojourner

Chapter 18 prohibits incestuous unions, intercourse during menstruation, adultery with a neighbor’s wife, giving seed to Molech, homosexuality, and bestiality. These are the abominations by which the former inhabitants defiled the land.

Leviticus 18:26 ​​ You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation (H249- ezrach- native), nor any stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- as a guest, dwells, abides) among you:

​​ 18:27 ​​ (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

​​ 18:28 ​​ That the land spue (vomit) not you out also, when you defile it, as it spued (vomited) out the nations that were before you. ​​ 

One of your own nation is H249, ’ezrāch, meaning a native or native-born person.

Stranger is H1616, gēr, meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

Sojourneth is H1481, gûr, meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside as a guest.

The Westminster Leningrad Codex reads:

“The native, and the sojourner sojourning in the midst of you.”

The Septuagint renders the final expression:

“The stranger that joins himself with you.”

H1481 is the Hebrew Strong’s number for gûr. The Greek translation uses prosēlytos with a participle meaning one who has come near or joined himself to the resident community.

The native-born Israelite and the sojourner dwelling within Israel’s covenant community were both accountable to Yahweh’s laws governing sexual conduct. Neither could practice the abominations that caused the former nations to be expelled from the land.

Leviticus 19 — The Sojourner and Brotherly Love

Chapter 19 concerns personal conduct and the holiness required of Israel.

Leviticus 19:1 ​​ And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying,

​​ 19:2 ​​ Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, you shall be holy: for I Yahweh your God am holy.

Holy means sacred, consecrated, and set apart to Yahweh. Israel’s holiness was demonstrated through obedience, just dealings, moral conduct, pure worship, and separation from the practices of the surrounding nations.

1Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

​​ 19:10 ​​ And you shalt not glean your vineyard, neither shalt you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shalt leave them for the poor and stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner): I am Yahweh your God.

The poor and the resident sojourner were permitted to glean what remained after harvest. The Israelite landholder was forbidden to harvest everything for himself.

​​ 19:33 ​​ And if a stranger (H1616- ger-proselyte sojourner) sojourn (H1481- gur-as a guest, dwells, abides) with thee in your land, you shall not vex (oppress) him.

​​ 19:34 ​​ But the stranger (H1616- ger-proselyte sojourner) that dwelleth (H1481- gur-as a guest, dwells, abides) with you shall be unto you as one born among (H249- ezrach-native among) you, and you shalt love him as thyself; for you were strangers (H1616- ger-sojourners) in the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.

Gēr identifies the resident sojourner; gûr describes his act of dwelling among Israel; and ’ezrāch identifies the native-born Israelite.

The sojourner remained distinguishable from the native-born, but he was not to be abused because of his residential condition. The sojourning kinsman living within Israel’s covenant community was to receive justice, protection, provision, and brotherly love. Israel was to remember its own former sojourn in Egypt.

Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am Yahweh.

The immediate context identifies the neighbor as one of “the children of thy people”—the fellow Israelite. Verse 34 applies the same love to the gēr dwelling among them.

Neighbour is H7453, rēa‘ or rēya‘, meaning an associate, companion, fellow, friend, neighbor, and in context brother. Its related root carries the idea of tending or pasturing a flock. H5997, ‘āmîth, similarly means an associate, fellow, relation, or kindred person.

Within Israel’s covenant laws, the context identifies the neighbor as the Israelite brother. Deuteronomy 15:2–3 confirms this by placing “neighbor” beside “brother” and contrasting both with the foreigner. Zechariah 3:10 likewise portrays restored brotherhood and peace, with every man inviting his neighbor beneath the vine and fig tree.

Jesus Christ cited Leviticus 19:18 as the second great commandment:

Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
(See also Matthew 19:19; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8.)

The native-born Israelite, the Israelite neighbor-brother, and the sojourning kinsman living among them were all to be treated according to Yahweh’s law. Israel’s set-apart condition was to be demonstrated through holiness, justice, provision, and brotherly love.

Leviticus 20:2 — Giving Seed to Molech

Chapter 20 prescribes punishments for serious violations of Yahweh’s law.

Leviticus 20:1 ​​ And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying,

​​ 20:2 ​​ Again, you shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman proselytes) that sojourn (H1481- gur- as a guest, dwells, abides) in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

Strangers is H1616, gēr, meaning sojourners, temporary inhabitants, newcomers, or guests.

Sojourn is H1481, gûr, meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside as a guest.

The Septuagint reads:

“Or of those who have become proselytes in Israel.”

The Greek prosēlytos identifies someone who has come near, joined himself, or resides among the community. The person’s ancestry must be established from context rather than from the English word proselyte. Only Israelites can join an Israelite community.

Molech was the national god of the Ammonites, associated with the sacrifice of children. Yahweh imposed the death penalty upon any Israelite or resident sojourner who gave his offspring to Molech. No one dwelling within Israel’s covenant jurisdiction was exempt.

Modern abortion may properly be compared morally with Molech worship because both deliberately surrender offspring to death for the perceived benefit, convenience, or prosperity of adults. Planned Parenthood’s abortion facilities are today’s ancient temples of Molech, and they perform the same fundamental evil: the destruction of children whom Yahweh commanded His people to preserve.

The law governed both the children of Israel and the gēr dwelling among them. Yahweh would not permit anyone within Israel to sacrifice the children of the covenant household to Molech.

Leviticus 22 — Holy Food and Acceptable Offerings

Chapter 22 regulates priestly holy food and the animals acceptable for sacrifice.

Leviticus 22:10 ​​ There shall no stranger (H2114- zur- foreigner, unaccustomed one) eat of the holy thing: a sojourner (H8453- toshab- guest) of the priest, or an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.

Here zûr means someone outside the authorized priestly household. Tôshab identifies a resident guest. Residence or employment in a priest’s house did not authorize someone to eat the holy food.

​​ 22:11 ​​ But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall eat of his meat.

A purchased servant and one born within the priest’s house were incorporated into that household and could eat. Therefore, zûr here is an outsider without authorized priestly-household standing.

​​ 22:12 ​​ If the priest's daughter also be married unto a stranger (H2114- zur)(and H376-iysh), she may not eat of an offering of the holy things.

If she married a man outside the priestly order, including an Israelite from another tribe, she entered his non-priestly household and could no longer eat the priestly portions.

​​ 22:13 ​​ But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's meat: but there shall no stranger (H2114- zur- unaccustomed one, not of Aaronic line) eat thereof.  ​​​​ (Gen 38:11 Tamar was a Levite)

Leviticus 22:18 permits the house of Israel and the gēr—the sojourner in Israel—to present vows and freewill offerings, but the animal had to be without blemish.

​​ 22:25 ​​ Neither from a stranger's (H5236- nekar)(and H1121) hand shall you offer the bread of your God of any of these; because their corruption is in them, and blemishes be in them: they shall not be accepted for you.

The Hebrew reads “from the hand of a son of a foreigner.” The immediate prohibition concerns the defective or mutilated animals described in the preceding verses. Obtaining such an animal from a foreigner did not make it acceptable to Yahweh.

H2114, zûr, identifies an outsider to the priestly household; H8453, tôshab, a resident guest; H1616, gēr, a sojourner in Israel; and H1121 with H5236, ben-nēkar, a son of a foreigner.

Leviticus 23 — The Feasts and the Sojourner

Chapter 23 establishes the seven annual feasts of Yahweh:

• Passover — Leviticus 23:5

• Feast of Unleavened Bread — Leviticus 23:6–8

• Wave Sheaf or Feast of Firstfruits — Leviticus 23:10–14

• Feast of Weeks or Pentecost — Leviticus 23:15–22

• Feast of Trumpets — Leviticus 23:24–25

• Day of Atonement — Leviticus 23:27–32

• Feast of Tabernacles, followed by the eighth or Last Great Day — Leviticus 23:34–43

Each feast contributes to the Gospel pattern: sacrifice, deliverance from bondage, removal of sin, resurrection and firstfruits, harvest, proclamation, atonement, regathering, and Yahweh dwelling with His people.

The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin, but it also proclaims the Kingdom, instruction in righteousness, and the regathering and reconciliation of Yahweh’s covenant people.

Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Leviticus 23:22 ​​ And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reapest, neither shalt you gather any gleaning of your harvest: you shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsmen): I am Yahweh your God.

Stranger is H1616, gēr, meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, newcomer, or guest.

Verse 22 appears at the conclusion of the instructions for the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. Yahweh joined the celebration of the harvest with responsibility toward the poor and the sojourning kinsman. Israel was not to consume every blessing upon itself but was to leave part of the harvest available for those without land or sufficient provision.

The placement of this command teaches that worship, harvest thanksgiving, and brotherly provision belong together. Observing Yahweh’s feasts required remembering the poor and permitting the sojourner to glean from Israel’s abundance.

Leviticus 24:16, 22 — One Law for Native and Sojourner

The immediate case involved the son of an Israelite woman whose father was an Egyptian. He blasphemed the name of Yahweh, and Moses sought Yahweh’s judgment concerning him (Leviticus 24:10–12).

Leviticus 24:15 ​​ And you shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.

​​ 24:16 ​​ And he that blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), as he that is born in the land (H249- ezrach- native), when he blasphemeth the name of Yahweh, shall be put to death.

​​ 24:22 ​​ You shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger (H1616- ger- proselyte sojourner), as for one of your own country (H249- ezrach- native): for I am Yahweh your God.

Gēr identifies the resident sojourner; ’ezrāch identifies the native-born Israelite. The same law and system of justice governed both while they lived within Israel’s covenant jurisdiction.
(Exodus 12:49; Numbers 15:15–16, 29)

The stranger, fatherless, and widow are grouped because each could be vulnerable to injustice and lacked ordinary household protection. Yahweh forbade Israel’s judges from exploiting or denying justice to them.

Leviticus 25:6 — The Resident Guest

Chapter 25 establishes the land Sabbath and Jubilee years. Every seventh year Israel was forbidden to sow its fields or prune its vineyards. The land was to rest as a Sabbath unto Yahweh.

Whatever grew naturally the seventh year was available as food, while Yahweh promised that the sixth-year harvest would provide sufficient food for the following years (Leviticus 25:20–22).

Leviticus 25:6 ​​ And the sabbath of the land shall be food for you; for you, and for your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger (H8453- toshab- guest) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- abides) with you,

Stranger is H8453, tôshab, a noun meaning a sojourner, guest, settler, or temporary resident.

Sojourneth is H1481, gûr, a verb meaning to abide, dwell, remain, or reside as a guest.

The tôshab was a resident guest living within an Israelite household or under Israelite protection. Like the servant and hired laborer, he possessed no native inheritance in the land but was permitted to eat from its natural seventh-year produce.

The verse identifies the stranger by residential and household standing, not by a stated genealogy. Everyone dependent upon the Israelite household—servant, hired worker, and resident guest—shared in the provision of the land Sabbath.

Leviticus 25 — Israel, the Sojourner, and Jubilee

The Jubilee was proclaimed by trumpet on the Day of Atonement and encompassed the entire fiftieth year. Hereditary land returned to its Israelite family, and Israelite servants returned to their families. The seventh-year release specifically addressed debts; Jubilee restored property and liberty lost through poverty.

Leviticus 25:23  ​​​​ The land shall not be sold for ever (in finality): for the land is Mine; for you are strangers (H1616- ger- kinsman visitors) and sojourners (H8453- toshab- resident alien guests) with Me.

Here the gērîm and tôshabîm are the Israelites themselves. Even in their inherited land, they remained Yahweh’s tenants and resident guests because the land belonged permanently to Him. Israel was not the landlord; Yahweh was the Landowner, and Israel served as His tenant and steward.

The Impoverished Israelite Brother

​​ 25:35 ​​ And if your brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay (strength) with you; then you shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), or a sojourner (H8453- toshab-guest); that he may live with thee.

The poor Israelite brother was to be sustained as a resident sojourner, allowing him to live freely rather than casting him out. No usury or increase could be taken from him.

​​ 25:40 ​​ But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner (H8453- toshab- temporary inmate), he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee (Yobel year):

Here tôshab describes the brother’s temporary working status. He was to be treated as a hired worker or temporary resident, not as a perpetual bondslave. At Jubilee he and his children returned to their family and ancestral possession because the Israelites were Yahweh’s servants whom He brought out of Egypt.

Resident Aliens Held as Bondservants

Leviticus 25:44–46 permits Israel to buy bondmen and bondmaids from the surrounding nations and from the families of resident aliens born in the land. These could become an inheritable possession and were not released under the Israelite Jubilee provision.

​​ 25:45 ​​ Moreover of the children of the strangers (H8453- toshab- uncircumcised resident aliens) that do sojourn (H1481- gur- dwell, remain) among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

In this context, the tôshabîm are expressly distinguished from “your brethren the children of Israel” in verse 46. They are resident alien families from whom permanent servants could be purchased.

The Wealthy Resident Who Purchases an Israelite

​​ 25:47 ​​ And if a sojourner (H1616- ger- uncircumcised sojourner) or stranger (H8453- toshab- uncircumcised guest) wax rich by you, and your brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger (H1616- ger- uncircumcised sojourner) or sojourner (H8453- toshab-uncircumcised guest) by you, or to the stock of the stranger's (H1616- ger- proselyte's) family:

Here the gēr/tôshab is clearly distinguished from “thy brother.” The resident alien becomes wealthy, while the Israelite brother becomes poor and sells his labor to him.

The Israelite retained his right of redemption. A brother, uncle, cousin, or near kinsman could redeem him, or he could redeem himself. His price was calculated according to the years remaining until Jubilee. If he was not redeemed earlier, verse 54 required that he and his children be released in the Jubilee year.

Leviticus 25 demonstrates why every occurrence must be judged by context. In verse 23, Israel collectively is Yahweh’s gēr and tôshab. In verses 35–40, the impoverished Israelite brother is treated like a temporary resident and hired worker. In verses 44–47, the same terms identify resident aliens expressly distinguished from the children of Israel.

These 'strangers and pilgrims/sojourners' in all the verses in Ephesians, along with Hebrews 11:13, 1Peter 2:9, 11, are all descendants of the BC Israelites who were the 'strangers and pilgrims/sojourners' in Genesis 23:4, Leviticus 25:23,35,47, Numbers 35:15, 1Chronicles 29:15 and Psalm 39:12.

In other words, the strangers and pilgrims in the OT and in the NT are none other than Israelites.

In Leviticus we saw 4 different Hebrew words for stranger.

H1616 Ger, a noun, used 21x, and means a sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, a guest.

Instead of 'strangers' it should read 'sojourners' or 'proselytes'.

H5236 Nekar, a noun, used 1x, and means foreign, alien. Different.

Instead of 'stranger's hand' it should read 'sons of a foreigner's hand'.

H8453 Toshab, a noun, used 8x, and means a sojourner, a guest, a temporary resident.

Instead of ​​ 'stranger' and 'sojourner' it should read 'guest', 'temporary inmate' and 'uncircumcised resident alien'.

H2114 Zur, a verb, used 4x, and means to be strange, become estranged, alienated, another, a foreigner, a harlot, profane. Uncustomary.

Instead of 'stranger(s)' it should read 'uncustomary' or 'unaccustomed one' or 'one not of the sons of Aaron'.

Numbers — The Levites and the Tabernacle

Numbers 1:50 ​​ But you shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.

​​ 1:51 ​​ And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger (H2114- zur- an unaccustomed one, not of the sons of Levi) that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

Stranger is H2114, zur, a verb used here as a participle with the force of a noun. It means to be strange, estranged, foreign, profane, or unauthorized.

The identity of the zur is determined by the assigned duty. In Leviticus, a zur could be one outside the sons of Aaron and therefore unauthorized to perform priestly duties. Here the responsibility of taking down, carrying, guarding, and setting up the tabernacle is assigned to the tribe of Levi. The zur is therefore one outside that appointed Levitical service—one not authorized to approach and perform this work.

Aaron was the high priest, and his sons served as priests. The remaining clans of Levi were assigned their respective duties concerning the tabernacle, its coverings, furnishings, framework, and transportation. A zur in this passage could therefore be another Israelite who was not a Levite. It identifies an unauthorized person approaching a duty set apart to Levi.

It could read: “The unauthorized one who cometh nigh shall be put to death.”

Numbers 3 — The Aaronic Priesthood and the Levitical Charge

Numbers 3:4 ​​ And Nadab and Abihu died before Yahweh, when they offered strange (H2114- zur- alien, unusual, uncustomary) fire before Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the sight of Aaron their father. ​​ (Lev 10:1)

Strange is H2114, zur. The fire was unauthorized, unacceptable, and foreign to the ordinance Yahweh had commanded.

Yahweh commanded Moses to present the tribe of Levi before Aaron. The Levites were responsible for the service, instruments, transportation, and care of the tabernacle, but the priesthood itself was committed to Aaron and his sons.

Numbers 3:9 ​​ And you shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel.

​​ 3:10 ​​ And you shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest's office: and the stranger (H2114- zur- the unaccustomed one, one not of the sons of Aaron or the Levites) that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

Stranger is H2114, zur, a verb used as a participle with the force of a noun. It means one who is strange, foreign, profane, or unauthorized. Here the zur is anyone outside the sons of Aaron who attempts to approach or perform the priest’s office. This includes an Israelite or a Levite who was not of the Aaronic priesthood.

Yahweh then assigned the Levitical clans their particular duties and appointed their positions around the tabernacle.

​​ 3:38 ​​ But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting) eastward (toward the sunrise), shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger (H2114- zur- the unaccustomed one, one not of the sons of Aaron ) that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

Stranger is again zur. Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons kept the charge of the sanctuary. The other Levites served in their assigned offices, but they could not intrude into the sanctuary or assume the duties reserved for Aaron and his sons. The zur is therefore not necessarily a racial foreigner, but anyone unauthorized to approach the sanctuary or perform the Aaronic priestly service.

It could read: “The unauthorized one who cometh nigh shall be put to death.”

Numbers 9 - The Second Passover

In chapter 9, Yahweh commanded the children of Israel to keep the Passover at its appointed time, the fourteenth day of the first month. If an Israelite was unclean by reason of a dead body or was traveling afar off, he was to keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month.

Numbers 9:14 ​​ And if a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) shall sojourn (H1481- gur- dwell) among you, and will keep the passover unto Yahweh; according to the ordinance of the passover, and according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: you shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), and for him that was born (H249- ezrach- native) in the land.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest.
Sojourn is H1481, gur, a verb meaning to abide or dwell temporarily.
Born in the land is H249, ezrach, meaning a native of the land.

Brenton translates the Septuagint word prosēlytos as “stranger,” although the Greek text uses prosēlytos twice in verse 14. The Passover remained a covenant ordinance governed by one law. The kinsman sojourner had to keep the same ordinance required of the native-born Israelite, including the circumcision requirement already established in Exodus 12:48–49.

The ger is therefore a covenant kinsman sojourner dwelling among Israel and submitting to Israel’s ordinance—not an unrestricted invitation for anyone outside the covenant to partake of the Passover.

Chapter 15 concerns Israel’s offerings and the law governing sins committed through ignorance.

Numbers 15:1 ​​ And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying,

​​ 15:2 ​​ Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you,

​​ 15:13 ​​ All that are born (H249- ezrach- native) of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour (odor) unto Yahweh.

​​ 15:14 ​​ And if a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) sojourn (H1481- gur, dwells, abides) with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations (posterity), and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour (odor) unto Yahweh; as you do, so he shall do.

​​ 15:15 ​​ One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- dwells, abides) with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as you are, so shall the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) be before Yahweh.

​​ 15:16 ​​ One law (torah) and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- abides, dwells) with you. (Lev 24:22)

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest.
Sojourn is H1481, gur, a verb meaning to abide or dwell temporarily.
Born is H249, ezrach, meaning a native of the land.

The native-born Israelite and the sojourning ger kinsman were not given separate forms of worship. When the ger offered a sacrifice unto Yahweh, he was required to follow the same ordinance and manner commanded to Israel.

​​ 15:17 ​​ And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying,

​​ 15:18 ​​ Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land whither I bring you,

​​ 15:22 ​​ And if you have erred, and not observed all these commandments, which Yahweh hath spoken unto Moses,

​​ 15:23 ​​ Even all that Yahweh hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that Yahweh commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations (posterity);

​​ 15:24 ​​ Then it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorance without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bullock for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour (odor) unto Yahweh, with his meat (grain) offering, and his drink offering, according to the manner, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering.

​​ 15:25 ​​ And the priest shall make an atonement (propitiation) for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and it shall be forgiven (pardoned) them; for it is ignorance: and they shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire unto Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their ignorance:

​​ 15:26 ​​ And it shall be forgiven (pardoned) all the congregation of the children of Israel, and the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- dwells) among them; seeing all the people (H5971- am-kinsmen, members of one's people) were in ignorance.

​​ 15:29 ​​ Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born (H249- ezrach- native) among the children of Israel, and for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- abides, dwells) among them.

​​ 15:30 ​​ But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land (H249- ezrach-native), or a stranger (H1616- ger- kinsman sojourner), the same reproacheth Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

The ger in this chapter is the sojourning kinsman living among Israel and participating in Israel’s covenant order. He could offer sacrifices and receive atonement for sins committed through ignorance, but he was also subject to the same judgment for presumptuous sin. “One law” means that the native and the sojourner within the congregation were accountable to the same covenant standard.

Numbers 16 concerns the rebellion of Korah.

Korah was a great-grandson of Levi through Kohath and Izhar. Although he was a Levite with appointed tabernacle duties, he sought the priesthood also and rebelled against the authority Yahweh had given to Moses and Aaron. Korah’s company included Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; On, the son of Peleth; and 250 princes of the congregation. Yahweh destroyed the rebels, although the sons of Korah did not die with their father (Num. 26:11).

Jasher 84:2 And Yahweh was angry with them, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, with their houses and all belonging to them, and all the men belonging to Korah.

Numbers 16:39 ​​ And Eleazar the priest took the brasen censers, wherewith they that were burnt had offered; and they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar:

​​ 16:40 ​​ To be a memorial (reminder) unto the children of Israel, that no stranger (H2114- zur- no unaccustomed one, one not of the sons of Aaron), which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before Yahweh; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: as Yahweh said to him by the hand of Moses.

Stranger is H2114, zur, a verb used here as a participle with the force of a noun. It means one who is strange, foreign, profane, or unauthorized.

Verse 40 expressly identifies the zur: one who is not of the seed of Aaron. Korah was not a racial foreigner; he was a Levite who was outside Aaron’s priestly line. Neither another Levite nor an Israelite layman was authorized to offer incense before Yahweh. In this context, the zur is anyone outside the Aaronic priesthood who intrudes into a priestly office.

It could read: “That no unauthorized one, who is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before Yahweh.”

Chapter 18 establishes the separate responsibilities of the Aaronic priests and the other Levites, together with the tithes and offerings provided for their service.

Numbers 18:1 ​​ And Yahweh said unto Aaron, Thou and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity (responsibility) of the sanctuary: and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

​​ 18:2 ​​ And your brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring you with you, that they may be joined unto you, and minister unto you: but you and your sons with you shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

​​ 18:3 ​​ And they shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor you also, die.

​​ 18:4 ​​ And they shall be joined unto you, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting), for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger (H2114- zur- the unaccustomed one, one not of the sons of Levi) shall not come nigh unto you.

Stranger is H2114, zur. In verse 4, the assigned service belongs to the tribe of Levi; therefore, the zur is one outside the appointed Levitical service—an unauthorized Israelite layman or other outsider.

​​ 18:6 ​​ And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for Yahweh, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting).

​​ 18:7 ​​ Therefore you and your sons with you shall keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and you shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger (H2114- zur- the unaccustomed one, one not of the sons of Levi) that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

In verse 7, the context narrows from Levitical service to the Aaronic priesthood. Here the zur is anyone outside the sons of Aaron, including a Levite who was not of Aaron’s line. The Levites assisted with the tabernacle, but they could not approach the holy vessels or altar to perform the priestly service. Aaron and his sons ministered at the altar and within the sanctuary, while entry beyond the inner veil into the Most Holy Place belonged to the high priest alone at the appointed time.

The identity of the zur changes with the appointed office: in verse 4, one outside the Levitical service; in verse 7, one outside the Aaronic priesthood.

Numbers Chapter 19 concerns the ashes of the red heifer and purification from uncleanness caused by contact with the dead.

Numbers 19:10 ​​ And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- abides, dwells, joined to them) among them, for a statute for ever.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest.
Sojourneth is H1481, gur, a verb meaning to abide or dwell temporarily.

The statute applied both to the children of Israel and to the sojourning kinsman dwelling among them. The chapter specifically concerns uncleanness caused by touching a dead body, human bone, grave, or anything within a tent where someone had died. The same water of separation and purification requirements applied to the native Israelite and the ger. These laws also governed later purification after warfare when men had contacted the slain (Num. 31:19–24).

Numbers 22:1 ​​ And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho.

​​ 22:2 ​​ And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.

​​ 22:3 ​​ And Moab was sore afraid (H1481- gur- shrinking in the face) of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

Afraid is H1481, gur, a verb. It commonly means to sojourn, abide, or dwell temporarily, but it can also mean to shrink back in fear, stand in awe, or gather together through fear or hostility.

From Genesis through Numbers, gur has usually appeared in the sense of sojourning. Here it carries its less-common sense of being afraid or shrinking back. Moab had heard what Israel had done to Sihon and Og and saw that the children of Israel were many. The Moabites therefore shrank in fear and were distressed before them. This occurrence of gur does not describe a sojourner; it describes Moab’s fearful reaction to Israel.

Numbers Chapter 35 establishes the Levitical cities and the six cities of refuge for cases of unintentional manslaughter.

Numbers 35:10 ​​ Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

​​ 35:11 ​​ Then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares.

​​ 35:12 ​​ And they shall be unto you cities for refuge from the avenger (kinsman revenger); that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.

​​ 35:15 ​​ These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger (H1616- ger- kinsman sojourner), and for the sojourner (H8453- toshab- temporary resident guest) among them: that every one that killeth any person unawares may flee thither.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest.
Sojourner is H8453, toshab, a noun meaning a resident guest, temporary resident, or sojourner.

The ger and the toshab were distinct classes of residents dwelling among Israel, but both were protected by the same judicial process in a case of unintentional killing. The city of refuge prevented the avenger of blood from killing the manslayer before the congregation heard the case and rendered judgment. This protection applied only to accidental killing without prior hatred or intent; it did not shelter a murderer.

These 'strangers and pilgrims/sojourners' in all the verses in Ephesians, along with Hebrews 11:13, 1Peter 2:9, 11, are all descendants of these BC Israelites who were the 'strangers and pilgrims/sojourners' in Genesis 23:4, Leviticus 25:23,35,47, Numbers 35:15, 1Chronicles 29:15 and Psalm 39:12.

In other words, the strangers and pilgrims in the OT and in the NT are none other than Israelites.

In Numbers we saw 3 different Hebrew words for stranger.

H1616 Ger, a noun, used 11x, ​​ and means a sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, a guest.

Instead of 'stranger(s)' it should read 'kinsman sojourners'.

H8453 Toshab, a noun, used 1x, and means a sojourner, a guest, a temporary resident.

Instead of 'sojourner' it should read 'temporary resident guest'.

H2114 Zur, a verb, used 8x, and means to be strange, become estranged, alienated, another, a foreigner, a harlot, profane. Uncustomary.

Instead of 'stranger(s)' it should read 'uncustomary' or 'unaccustomed one' or 'one not of the sons of Aaron, or of Levi'.

DEUTERONOMY

Deuteronomy is the repetition and restatement of the law to the new generation of Israel.

The law was given at Sinai during the first year after the children of Israel came out of Egypt. Deuteronomy records Moses’ addresses near the end of the wilderness wandering, as Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land. The rebellious generation had died, and the law was rehearsed to their children.

Because Moses could not bear the burden and disputes of the people alone, qualified men were appointed as rulers and judges over Israel.

Deuteronomy 1:14 ​​ And you answered me, and said, The thing which you hast spoken is good for us to do.

​​ 1:15 ​​ So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.

​​ 1:16 ​​ And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that is with him.

​​ 1:17 ​​ Ye shall show no partiality in judgment; but you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid (H1481- gur- shrink away from) of the face of man (H376- iysh); for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. Here it identifies the sojourning kinsman dwelling within the Israelite community and appearing before its judges. He was to receive righteous judgment without partiality.

Afraid is H1481, gur. Although this verb commonly means to sojourn or dwell temporarily, it can also mean to dread, fear, stand in awe, or shrink back. In verse 17 it means that the judges must not shrink back through fear of any man. They were to judge the small and the great alike because the judgment belonged to God.

Deuteronomy 5:12 ​​ Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as Yahweh your God hath commanded you.

​​ 5:13 ​​ Six days you shalt labour, and do all your work:

​​ 5:14 ​​ But the seventh day is the sabbath of Yahweh your God: in it you shalt not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your ass, nor any of your cattle (livestock), nor your stranger ​​ (H1616- ger- sojourner) that is within your gates; that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.

​​ 5:15 ​​ And remember that you wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that Yahweh your God brought you out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The ger within Israel’s gates was under Israel’s jurisdiction and was included in the commanded Sabbath rest.

The command governed the entire Israelite household and community: sons, daughters, servants, livestock, and the sojourning kinsman dwelling among them, anyone among them. Israel was to remember its own servitude in Egypt and was not to deny rest to those living and laboring within its gates.

Deuteronomy Chapter 10 — Yahweh’s Great Requirement

Yahweh commanded Moses to hew two tables of stone to replace the first tables which he had broken. Yahweh also commanded him to make an ark of shittim wood in which the tablets would be kept.

Moses then reminded the children of Israel what Yahweh their God required of them: to revere Him, walk in all His ways, love and serve Him with all their heart and soul, and keep His commandments. Yahweh had loved their fathers, chosen their seed after them, and set them above all other peoples.

Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth Yahweh your God require of thee, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

​​ 10:13 To keep the commandments of Yahweh, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

​​ 10:15 Only Yahweh had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.

​​ 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

The commandments were given to Israel, the physical seed of the fathers whom Yahweh loved and chose. Israel’s obligation to show righteous judgment and brotherly care did not abolish its set-apart condition, dissolve its ancestry, or extend its covenants and inheritance indiscriminately to every people.

Deuteronomy 10:17 ​​ For Yahweh your God is God of gods, and Sovereign of sovereigns, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible (awesome), who shows no partiality, nor taketh bribes: ​​ 

​​ 10:18 ​​ He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), in giving him food and raiment.

​​ 10:19 ​​ Love you therefore the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner): for you were strangers (H1616- ger- sojourners) in the land of Egypt.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The word describes his residential condition; the covenant context identifies him as a sojourning kinsman dwelling among Israel. He is not a hostile enemy, an invading foreign nation, or merely any unknown person from the world at large.

The fatherless, widow, and ger were vulnerable members living within Israel’s covenant society. Yahweh defended their judgment and provided the sojourner with food and clothing. Israel was therefore commanded to demonstrate the same care and brotherly love.

This command cannot be detached from the chapter’s opening declaration that Yahweh loved Israel’s fathers and chose their seed above all peoples. Loving the ger does not make every race Israel, admit every nation into the covenant, or transfer Israel’s heritage, laws, promises, and inheritance to the world. It commands Israel to care for the sojourning kinsman justly and without oppression.

Neither should all of Scripture’s different stranger words be flattened into ger. The ger is not automatically the nokri, the ben-nekar, the zur, the enemy, or the profane intruder. Each word and each person must be identified according to its own definition and context. That distinction is essential to understanding Israel as a set-apart people.

Israel’s separation did not give them permission to behave cruelly or unjustly. Yahweh demanded righteous judgment, food for the hungry, clothing for the needy, and protection for the vulnerable within their society. Israel could remain separate and still act with justice. Set-apartness and righteous conduct were both commanded; neither cancels the other.

The Bible records Israel’s family history, heritage, covenants, commandments, judgments, marriage, correction, dispersion, and promised restoration. The command to love the ger belongs within that Israelite covenant order and must not be used to erase the distinctions that Yahweh Himself established.

Chapter 14 — A Holy and Set-Apart People

Chapter 14 concerns clean and unclean food. The commandments are addressed specifically to the children of Israel.

Deuteronomy 14:1 ​​ Ye are the children of Yahweh your God...

​​ 14:2 ​​ For you are an holy people unto Yahweh your God, and Yahweh hath chosen you to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

Leviticus 20:26 ​​ And you shall be holy unto Me: for I Yahweh am holy, and have severed you from other people, that you should be Mine.

Holy means set apart, separated, and dedicated to Yahweh. Israel’s food laws formed part of the distinction Yahweh established between His people and the other nations.

14:3 ​​ You shalt not eat any abominable thing.

The remainder of the chapter identifies the land animals, water creatures, birds, and creeping things that Israel could and could not eat. The nature of those creatures has not changed. Animals that consume carrion, refuse, and waste still perform the same function in the created order. Human preference for pork, shellfish, or catfish does not alter the distinctions Yahweh established.

​​ 14:21 ​​ Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: you shalt give it unto the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that is in your gates, that he may eat it; or you mayest sell it unto an alien (H5237- nokriy- non Israelite foreigner)(the other races): for you are an holy people unto Yahweh your God. You shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. In this particular context, the ger is not being treated as a native Israelite or as a circumcised covenant proselyte. He is an uncircumcised resident sojourner living within Israel’s gates. The carcass forbidden to the holy people could be given to him for food.

The Targums describe this ger as an uncircumcised stranger or resident. This demonstrates again that the identity of a ger must be determined from the context. In many passages the ger is a sojourning Israelite or racial kinsman; here the different food requirement identifies him as an uncircumcised resident who was not living under Israel’s full covenant obligations. If he ate such a carcass, Leviticus 17:15 required him to wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening.

Alien is H5237, nokri, an adjective used substantivally for one who is foreign, alien, non-relative, or outlandish. Here it identifies a non-Israelite foreigner outside Israel’s covenant community. Unlike the resident ger within the gates, the nokri appears as an external foreigner to whom the carcass could be sold.

Verse 21 therefore distinguishes three classes:

• Israel, the holy and chosen people, who were forbidden to eat the carcass;

• the resident ger within Israel’s gates, to whom it could be given;

• the foreign nokri, to whom it could be sold.

The command does not treat all three classes as interchangeable. Israel’s obligation to act justly toward a resident sojourner did not erase Israel’s set-apart condition or give every resident the same covenantal standing as the native-born Israelite.

The final command is specific: “You shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.” It prohibits boiling a young goat in the milk of its own mother. The verse does not state that meat and dairy products may never be eaten during the same meal. The broader rabbinic separation of all meat and milk goes beyond the wording of the commandment. The Jews always followed their own traditions because they are not the Israelites of the Bible.

The prohibition may concern the unnatural use of that which nourished the young animal to cook its flesh, or it may prohibit slaughtering and cooking a kid while it was still nursing. Some have proposed that it opposed a pagan ritual (Exo 23:19; 34:26).

Deuteronomy 14 Verses 22–27 concern the yearly tithe that Israel was to eat before Yahweh in the place He chose. The Levite was to share in it because he had no tribal inheritance in the land.

If the chosen place was too distant to carry the tithe, the Israelite could exchange the produce for money, carry the money to the appointed place, and purchase food and drink there. This command originally referred to the place Yahweh would choose; the Temple had not yet been built.

Deuteronomy 14:26 ​​ And you shalt bestow that money for whatsoever your soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever your soul desireth: and you shalt eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shalt rejoice, you, and your household,

​​ 14:27 ​​ And the Levite that is within your gates; you shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part (portion) nor inheritance with you. ​​ 

​​ 14:28 ​​ At the end of three years you shalt bring forth all the tithe of your increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within your gates:

​​ 14:29 ​​ And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with you,) and the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you doest.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The word describes his residential condition; the context places him within Israel’s gates and among those dependent upon the covenant community for provision. Here the ger is the sojourning kinsman who possessed no secure tribal inheritance where he was dwelling.

The third-year tithe provided food for the Levite, the sojourning kinsman, the fatherless, and the widow. These were not casual travelers passing through the land, but recognized members residing within Israel’s communities. Yahweh commanded that they be allowed to eat and be satisfied, and He connected Israel’s obedience with His blessing upon the work of their hands.

The Seventh-Year Release

Deuteronomy 15:1 ​​ At the end of every seven years you shalt make a release.

Exodus 21:2 ​​ If you buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

Exodus 23:10 ​​ And six years you shalt sow your land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

23:11 ​​ But the seventh year you shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of your people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner you shalt deal with your vineyard, and with your oliveyard.

Leviticus 25:2 ​​ Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Yahweh.

25:4 ​​ But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for Yahweh: you shalt neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.

These seventh-year laws concerned related but distinct matters: the release of debts, the release of a Hebrew servant after six years of service, and the Sabbath rest of the land. Together they prevented permanent poverty and bondage among Israelite brethren.

​​ 15:2 ​​ And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour (H7453) shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour (H7453), or of his brother; because it is called Yahweh's release.

4Maccabees 2:8 ​​ A man, therefore, who regulates his course by the law, even if he be a lover of money, straightway puts force upon his own disposition; lending to the needy without interest, and canceling the debt of the incoming sabbath.

In verse 2, “neighbour” and “brother” identify the same covenant relationship. The creditor was forbidden to continue exacting the debt from his Israelite brother when Yahweh’s release was proclaimed.

​​ 15:3 ​​ Of a foreigner (H5237- nokriy- racial alien) you mayest exact it again: but that which is your with your brother (H251- ach- kinship) your hand shall release;

Foreigner is H5237, nokri, an adjective meaning foreign, alien, non-relative, different, or outlandish. In this context, the nokri is expressly contrasted with the Israelite brother and is therefore a foreign non-kinsman.

The nokri’s debt was not included in Yahweh’s release and could continue to be collected. The debt of the brother or kinsman was to be released. This was not a universal cancellation of every debt owed by every people; it was a covenant provision protecting Israelite brethren from permanent indebtedness to one another.

​​ 15:4 ​​ Save when there shall be no poor among you; for Yahweh shall greatly bless you in the land which Yahweh your God giveth you for an inheritance to possess it:

​​ 15:5 ​​ Only if you carefully hearken unto the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command you this day.

​​ 15:6 ​​ For Yahweh your God blesseth you, as He promised you: and you shalt lend unto many nations, but you shalt not borrow; and you shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

The promised national prosperity was conditional upon Israel’s obedience. Israel would lend to other nations rather than become their debtor, and rule rather than be ruled. Deuteronomy 23:20 likewise permitted interest to be charged to the nokri, while forbidding it upon loans made to an Israelite brother. The law maintained a deliberate economic distinction between the covenant brother and the foreign non-kinsman.

Deuteronomy 16 — The Three Appointed Feasts

Chapter 16 opens with a reminder of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, then continues with the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. These were appointed observances of Israel to be kept before Yahweh in the place He chose to place His name.

Deuteronomy 16:1 ​​ Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto Yahweh your God: for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.

​​ 16:3 ​​ You shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you mayest remember the day when you camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

​​ 16:10 ​​ And you shalt keep the feast of weeks unto Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shalt give unto Yahweh your God, according as Yahweh your God hath blessed you:

​​ 16:11 ​​ And you shalt rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God hath chosen to place His name there.

​​ 16:12 ​​ And you shalt remember that you wast a bondman in Egypt: and you shalt observe and do these statutes.

​​ 16:13 ​​ You shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you hast gathered in your corn (grain) and your wine:

​​ 16:14 ​​ And you shalt rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The word describes his residential condition; the feast context identifies him as a sojourning kinsman dwelling within Israel’s gates and participating in Israel’s appointed observances.

The ger was included with the Israelite household, the Levite, the fatherless, and the widow in the rejoicing of the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. These were not unrestricted festivals of the surrounding nations, but holy convocations belonging to Israel’s covenant order. The sojourning kinsman among Israel was not to be neglected when the people assembled and rejoiced before Yahweh.

This use of “stranger” plainly demonstrates that “brother” does not include every people indiscriminately.

Deuteronomy 17:14 ​​ When you are come unto the land which Yahweh your God giveth you, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me;

​​ 17:15 ​​ You shalt certainly set a king over you, whom Yahweh your God shall choose: one from among your brethren (H251- ach-kinship) shalt you set king over you: you mayest not set a stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreign one) over you, which is not your brother (H251- ach- kinship).

Brethren and brother are H251, ach, meaning a brother, relative, kinsman, or member of the same tribe or people.

Stranger is H5237, nokri, an adjective meaning foreign, alien, non-relative, different, or outlandish. Verse 15 defines the contrast directly: the nokri is “not thy brother.”

The king of Israel had to be an Israelite chosen from among his own brethren. A foreign non-kinsman could not lawfully be placed over the covenant nation. The passage does not call every man of every nation a brother. It distinguishes the Israelite kinsman from the foreign nokri and makes national kinship a qualification for civil rulership.

This law also shows that righteous government cannot be separated from the identity and covenant responsibilities of the people being governed. Israel’s ruler was required to be one of Israel’s brethren, read Yahweh’s law, fear Yahweh, and keep His commandments (vv. 18–20). He was not to lift his heart above his brethren or turn aside from the commandment.

When Israel disobeyed Yahweh, foreign dominion could come upon them as covenant judgment. Deuteronomy 28:43–44 warned that the stranger would rise above disobedient Israel, while Israel would descend beneath him; verses 47–48 warned that Israel would serve its enemies because it refused to serve Yahweh. Foreign rule was therefore not the lawful ideal established in Deuteronomy 17, but one of the judgments produced by covenant rebellion. If you took off your universalist goggles you would notice that most of those who sit in seats of authority are not our own people. Many of our politicians, senators, congressmen, are nokriy/allotrios alien outlandish foreigners to our people Anglo-Saxon Israel.

But God, in the retributions of His providence, does allow foreign princes to usurp our dominion when we sin against Him. (Jer 38:17; Mt 22:17).

The distinction is explicit: the brother is the Israelite kinsman; the nokri is the foreign non-kinsman. They are not the same class of people, and Scripture does not flatten them into one universal brotherhood.

Deuteronomy 18

The Levites had no tribal land inheritance because Yahweh was their inheritance. They were supported by the portions, offerings, and tithes of the children of Israel. Although the Levites received cities in which to live, they received no separate tribal territory like the other tribes.

Deuteronomy 18:6 ​​ And if a Levite come from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned (H1481- gur- dwells), and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which Yahweh shall choose;

​​ 18:7 ​​ Then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before Yahweh.

​​ 18:8 ​​ They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.

Sojourned is H1481, gur, a verb meaning to abide, dwell temporarily, or reside as a guest. Here it describes a Levite dwelling somewhere within Israel who voluntarily came to minister at the place Yahweh chose. He was entitled to serve with his Levitical brethren and receive an equal portion, apart from anything he possessed through his family.

2Chronicles 31:4 ​​ Moreover he (Hezekiah) commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of Yahweh.

The chapter then records Yahweh’s promise to raise up the Prophet like Moses.

​​ 18:18 ​​ I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto you, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

​​ 18:19 ​​ And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it of him.

Acts 3:23 ​​ And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet (Christ), shall be destroyed from among the people.

The promised Prophet is Jesus Christ. Those who refused to hear Him would be held accountable and destroyed from among the people.

Require in verse 19 is H1875, darash, meaning to seek, inquire, demand, require, or exact. Yahweh would demand an account from the man who refused to hear His Prophet. Brenton’s Septuagint states plainly: “I will take vengeance on him.”

​​ 18:20 ​​ But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

​​ 18:21 ​​ And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which Yahweh hath not spoken?

​​ 18:22 ​​ When a prophet speaketh in the name of Yahweh, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Yahweh hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously (arrogantly, wickedly): you shalt not be afraid (H1481- gur- shrink away) of him.

Afraid is H1481, gur. Here it carries its less-common meaning: to fear, dread, stand in awe, or shrink back. Israel was not to fear a presumptuous prophet whose words failed to come to pass. Brenton’s Septuagint expresses the force of the judgment as: “ye shall not spare him.”

Chapter 18 therefore contains two different uses of H1481, gur:

• Verse 6: a Levite who sojourned or dwelt temporarily within Israel.

• Verse 22: Israel was not to fear or shrink back from a false prophet.

The same Hebrew verb carries different meanings according to its immediate context.

Chapter 23 — Exclusion From the Congregation

Chapter 23 identifies those who could not enter the congregation of Yahweh. It plainly shows that Israel was a set-apart covenant people and that admission into the congregation was not open indiscriminately to every person or nation.

Deuteronomy Septuagint: 23:1 ​​ He that is fractured or mutilated in his private parts shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh.

​​ 23:2(KJV) ​​ A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of Yahweh; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of Yahweh.

Bastard is H4464, mamzer, meaning a bastard, mongrel, child of incest, or person of mixed and unlawful parentage.

Euripides, Hippolytus, lines 962–963: “...the bastard is always regarded as an enemy to the true-born.”

​​ 23:3 ​​ An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of Yahweh; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of Yahweh for ever:

The Ammonites and Moabites descended from the incestuous unions of Lot with his daughters. They were also condemned because they refused Israel bread and water and hired Balaam to curse Israel.

23:4 Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

23:5 Nevertheless Yahweh your God would not hearken unto Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing unto you, because Yahweh your God loved you.

23:6 You shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days for ever.

The words “for ever” show that “even to their tenth generation” expresses permanent exclusion. It is not describing a temporary ten-generation waiting period.

Ruth and the Country of Moab

Ruth was called a Moabitess because she lived in the country of Moab. In her case, “Moabitess” is a territorial designation rather than a statement that she descended from the incestuous nation of Moab.

Before Israel entered the land, Sihon king of the Amorites had conquered the former Moabite territory and taken it from the previous king of Moab:

Numbers 21:26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.

Israel then destroyed Sihon, his sons, and his people, leaving none remaining in the conquered cities (Deut. 2:32–34). The territory was afterward assigned to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh (Deut. 3:12–16). The older territorial name “Moab” continued to be used after the land had passed into Israelite possession.

Judges 11:12–26 confirms that Israel had occupied Heshbon, Aroer, and the surrounding cities for approximately 300 years. This reaches into the period of the Judges, the same general period in which the events of Ruth occurred. Ruth could therefore be called a Moabitess because she came from the territory historically called Moab while still being an Israelite by ancestry.

The law of kinsman-redemption also governs the entire book. Boaz was of the family of Elimelech, redeemed the family inheritance, and raised up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. Ruth became the great-grandmother of David within this lawful covenant and kinship structure. The account does not present her as a forbidden racial Moabite admitted in violation of Deuteronomy 23:3. Ruth was King David’s great grandmother.

Aramite and Egyptian Admission

Deuteronomy 23:7 ​​ You shalt not abhor an *Edomite; for he is your brother: you shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because you wast a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) in his land.

The KJV has “Edomite,” H130, but the reading followed here is Aramite or Aramean, connected with H726. The similar Hebrew letters daleth and resh were susceptible to scribal confusion. Aram was a son of Shem, and the Aramaeans or Syrians were racial kindred of Israel. The statement “for he is thy brother” therefore agrees with the Aramite reading.

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest.

​​ 23:8 ​​ The children that are begotten of them (meaning begotten of the Aramite, or Syrian, or Egyptian) shall enter into the congregation of Yahweh in their third generation.

The children begotten of the Aramite or Egyptian could enter the congregation in the third generation. Aram descended from Shem, while Egypt descended from Ham. Both belonged to the larger kindred family descending from Noah. Several generations of conformity to Yahweh’s law separated the household from the pagan customs under which its fathers had lived.

Exodus 20:3 ​​ Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

20:4 ​​ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

20:5 ​​ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Yahweh thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;

20:6 ​​ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.

We see this repeated in Exo 34:7; Num 14:18; and Deut 5:9.

Purity During War

Verses 9–14 command Israel to keep its military camp clean and holy. A soldier made unclean by a nocturnal emission had to remain outside the camp, wash himself, and return after sunset. Israel was also commanded to establish a place outside the camp for bodily waste and to cover it with earth.

Yahweh walked in the midst of Israel’s camp to deliver them and give their enemies before them. The camp therefore had to remain holy, with no unclean or indecent thing exposed within it.

Verses 17–18 prohibit prostitution among the sons and daughters of Israel. Neither the wages of a female prostitute nor the price of a male prostitute could be brought into the house of Yahweh for a vow. Both were abominations unto Him.

Usury: The Brother and the Foreign Non-Kinsman

​​ 23:19 ​​ You shalt not lend upon usury to your brother (H251- ach- kinship)(racial kinsmen); usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury:  ​​​​ (Ex 22:25)

​​ 23:20 ​​ Unto a stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreigner) you mayest lend upon usury; but unto your brother (kinsmen) you shalt not lend upon usury: that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you settest your hand to in the land whither you goest to possess it.

Brother is H251, ach, meaning a brother, relative, kinsman, or member of the same people.

Stranger is H5237, nokri, an adjective meaning foreign, non-relative, alien, different, or outlandish. The verse defines the distinction: the nokri is not the Israelite brother or racial kinsman.

An Israelite was forbidden to charge interest to his brother, but he could charge interest to the foreign nokri. This repeats the distinction in Deuteronomy 15:3: the brother’s debt was released during Yahweh’s release, while the foreigner’s debt could continue to be exacted.

Deuteronomy 23 does not teach a universal brotherhood or an open congregation. It distinguishes the Israelite brother, the kinsman-sojourner, the foreign nokri, and the peoples specifically excluded from or admitted into the congregation. Israel’s worship, law, inheritance, marriage, government, and economic duties were ordered according to the covenant and kinship distinctions Yahweh established.

The renewed covenant did not abolish those distinctions or create a new covenant with every nation and denomination. It fulfilled the promises made to the fathers by reconciling and restoring the dispersed children of Israel through Jesus Christ.

Protection and Provision for the Sojourning Kinsman

Deuteronomy 24:14 ​​ You shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of your brethren (H251-ach- kindred), or of your strangers (H1616- ger- kinsman sojourners) that are in your land within your gates:

Malachi 3:5 ​​ And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger (kinsman sojourner) from his right, and fear not Me, saith Yahweh of hosts.

​​ 24:15 ​​ At his day you shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against you unto Yahweh, and it be sin unto you.

Leviticus 19:13 ​​ Thou shalt not defraud your neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with you all night until the morning.

Jeremiah 22:13 ​​ Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

Brethren is H251, ach, meaning brother, relative, kinsman, or member of the same people.

Strangers is H1616, ger, a noun meaning sojourners, temporary inhabitants, or guests. The word describes their residential condition; the context identifies them as sojourning kinsmen living within Israel’s gates and protected by Israel’s law.

The poor hired servant was to receive his wages on the day he earned them. This applied both to the settled Israelite brother and to the ger sojourning among Israel. Withholding the wages upon which a poor laborer depended was oppression and sin before Yahweh.

​​ 24:16 ​​ The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.  ​​​​ (2Ki 14:6)

​​ 24:17 ​​ You shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow's raiment to pledge:

The Hebrew carries the sense: “You shall not wrest or pervert the legal judgment due to the sojourner or the fatherless.” The ger had recognized protection under Israel’s law and could not lawfully be denied justice.

Pledge is H2254, chabal, a verb meaning to bind, take as security, or hold something as a pledge against a debt. A widow’s garment could not be taken as security because it was necessary for her protection and daily life.

​​ 24:18 ​​ But you shalt remember that you wast a bondman in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed (ransomed) you thence: therefore I command you to do this thing.

Israel was commanded to remember its own bondage and redemption. The children of Israel had lived as gerim in Egypt. That experience was to prevent them from oppressing the kinsman who was now sojourning among them.

​​ 24:19 ​​ When you cuttest down your harvest in your field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, you shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner), for the fatherless, and for the widow: that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

​​ 24:20 ​​ When you beatest your olive tree, you shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), for the fatherless, and for the widow.

To “beat” the olive tree means to strike or shake its branches so that the ripe olives fall. The owner was not to go over the branches a second time and strip the tree bare. What remained was left for those in need.

​​ 24:21 ​​ When you gatherest the grapes of your vineyard, you shalt not glean it afterward: it shall be for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), for the fatherless, and for the widow.

​​ 24:22 ​​ And you shalt remember that you wast a bondman in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

The same protected group appears throughout the passage: the ger, the fatherless, and the widow. They possessed the right to receive their earned wages, obtain righteous judgment, and gather what remained after the principal harvest.

The context identifies the ger as more than an unknown traveler or racial alien. He lived within Israel’s gates, labored among Israel, appeared before Israel’s judges, and received provision under Israel’s covenant law. The language of brethren, neighbours, legal rights, redemption, and shared historical experience identifies him as a sojourning kinsman within the Israelite community.

Yahweh provided for His people, including the kinsman temporarily dwelling away from his own inheritance. Israel’s set-apart condition did not permit exploitation within the covenant family; it required justice, timely wages, and provision for its vulnerable members.

Deuteronomy 25 - The Law of Levirate Marriage

Deuteronomy 25:5 ​​ If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger (H2114- zur- family member of the husband's side)(and H376-iysh- husband): her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.

Stranger is H2114, zur, meaning one who is strange, outside, foreign, unauthorized, or not belonging to the appointed group. H376, ish, means a man or husband. Together, le’ish zar means “to a strange man” or “to a man outside the family.”

The zur is not a member of the husband’s family; he is the man outside it whom the widow was forbidden to marry while the duty of the husband’s brother remained. The Targum of Jonathan describes the brethren as sons of the same father who shared the family inheritance.

​​ 25:6 ​​ And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.  ​​​​ (Ruth 4:10)

The immediate purpose of the law was to preserve the dead man’s name, seed, and inheritance within his own family and tribe. The firstborn son produced through the levirate marriage was legally reckoned to the deceased brother so that his name would not disappear from Israel and his inheritance would not pass outside the family.

The command therefore preserved the distinctions between Israel’s families and tribal inheritances. The widow could not carry the dead man’s inheritance and family obligation to an unrelated outside man. Marriage, offspring, family name, and land inheritance were connected parts of Israel’s covenant order.

Ruth 4:10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

The same purpose appears in Ruth. Boaz acted as kinsman-redeemer, redeemed the inheritance belonging to Elimelech’s family, and raised up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. The redemption operated through lawful kinship so that the family name and possession remained within Israel.

This use of zur follows the contextual pattern already seen in the priesthood laws. In Leviticus and Numbers, the zur was one outside the particular priestly or Levitical line authorized to perform a sacred duty. Here the zur is one outside the husband’s family and inheritance line. In each case, the word identifies someone foreign to the particular office, family, or lawful relationship under discussion.

It could read: “The wife of the dead shall not marry outside the family unto an unrelated man.”

Deuteronomy 26 — Firstfruits, Tithes, and the Peculiar People

Moses commanded the children of Israel that when they entered the land Yahweh was giving them, they were to place the firstfruits of their harvest in a basket and bring it to the place Yahweh chose. The Temple had not yet been built, but the offering would later be brought there when Jerusalem became the appointed place.

Deuteronomy 26:3 ​​ And you shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto Yahweh your God, that I am come unto the country which Yahweh sware unto our (fore) fathers for to give us.

​​ 26:4 ​​ And the priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God.

​​ 26:5 ​​ And you shalt speak and say before Yahweh your God, A Syrian (Aramean) ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned (H1481- gur- dwelt, abode) there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:

Sojourned is H1481, gur, a verb meaning to abide, dwell temporarily, or live as a guest in another land.

The Aramean father is Jacob Israel. Jacob fled into the country of Aram, dwelt there with Laban, married from his Aramean kindred, and afterward went down into Egypt with his household. He remained an Israelite by ancestry while sojourning in another land.

Hosea 12:12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

This Aramean relationship also supports the contextual coherence of the Aramite reading followed in Deuteronomy 23:7: “You shalt not abhor an Aramite, for he is your brother.” Aram descended from Shem, and Jacob’s household had close ancestral and marital ties with the Arameans.

​​ 26:6 ​​ And the Egyptians (then, the Hyksos) evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:

​​ 26:7 ​​ And when we cried unto Yahweh God of our (fore) fathers, Yahweh heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:  ​​​​ (Ex 2:23-25, 3:9, 4:31)

​​ 26:8 ​​ And Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:

​​ 26:9 ​​ And He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.

​​ 26:10 ​​ And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land (ground), which You, O Yahweh, hast given me. And you shalt set it before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God:

The confession joined the firstfruits to Israel’s family history: the fathers, Jacob’s sojourning, Israel’s affliction, Yahweh’s redemption, and the land He had sworn to give them. The offering was a memorial that Israel’s harvest and inheritance came from Yahweh.

​​ 26:11 ​​ And you shalt rejoice in every good thing which Yahweh your God hath given unto you, and unto your house, you, and the Levite, and the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that is among you.

​​ 26:12 ​​ When you hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of your increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled;

​​ 26:13 ​​ Then you shalt say before Yahweh your God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandments which You hast commanded me: I have not transgressed Your commandments, neither have I forgotten them:

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The word describes his residential condition; the covenant context identifies him as a sojourning kinsman dwelling among Israel.

The ger shared in the rejoicing over Yahweh’s provision and received from the third-year tithe with the Levite, fatherless, and widow. These were the vulnerable members within Israel’s covenant community for whom Yahweh commanded provision.

Hallowed things are the portions of the increase set apart from the household as the third-year tithe. They belonged to Yahweh’s commanded distribution and were therefore holy rather than ordinary household property.

​​ 26:14 ​​ I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of Yahweh my God, and have done according to all that You hast commanded me.

​​ 26:15 ​​ Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the land which You hast given us, as You swarest unto our (fore) fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

The Israelite declared that the holy portion had not been consumed during mourning, removed while unclean, given in connection with the dead, withheld, or misused. It had been distributed according to Yahweh’s commandment.

​​ 26:16 ​​ This day Yahweh your God hath commanded you to do these statutes and judgments: you shalt therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul.

​​ 26:17 ​​ You hast avouched Yahweh this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice:

​​ 26:18 ​​ And Yahweh hath avouched you this day to be His peculiar people, as He hath promised you, and that you shouldest keep all His commandments;  ​​​​ (Ex 6:7, 19:5)

​​ 26:19 ​​ And to make you high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour (glory); and that you mayest be an holy people unto Yahweh your God, as He hath spoken.

Holy means set apart. Yahweh declared Israel to be His peculiar people, chosen above the other nations in praise, name, and honour. These statutes, tithes, holy things, inheritance promises, and covenant declarations were given to the children of Israel.

The ger in this chapter is not an undefined stranger from any people whatsoever. He participates in Israel’s holy provision within the covenant community and is identified contextually as the sojourning kinsman. The English word “stranger” must not be universalized in a way that erases the distinctions established by the Hebrew words and the covenant setting.

Yahweh’s choice of Israel as His peculiar and holy people cannot simultaneously mean that every nation holds the same covenant standing. Israel was set apart precisely because the nations were not all the same people. The firstfruits, tithes, statutes, land, promises, and holy calling belonged to the people Yahweh chose according to the oath sworn to their fathers.

Chapter 27 — The Curses of the Law

Moses commanded the children of Israel to keep all the commandments of Yahweh. The Levites then declared the curses that would come upon those who violated His law, and all the people were required to answer, “Amen.”

Cursed is the man who makes a graven or molten image.

Cursed is he who dishonours his father or his mother.

Cursed is he who removes his neighbour’s boundary marker.

Cursed is he who causes the blind to wander out of the way. This includes taking advantage of one who cannot see, understand, or discern the way before him.

Deuteronomy 27:19 ​​ Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment (justice) of the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman), fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.  ​​​​ (Lev 22:21-22)

Stranger is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The word describes his residential condition; the covenant context identifies him as a sojourning kinsman living within Israel’s gates and protected by Israel’s law.

To pervert his judgment means to bend, wrest, or deny the justice legally due to him. The ger, the fatherless, and the widow were vulnerable members of the community whom the powerful might exploit. Yahweh placed a curse upon anyone who used the courts or his position to deprive them of justice.

Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, his sister, his mother-in-law, or a beast.

Cursed is he who secretly slays his neighbour.

Cursed is he who accepts a reward to slay an innocent person.

Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

The people’s “Amen” confirmed their agreement with Yahweh’s judgments. They acknowledged that these acts were sins and that the curses were just. Israel could not claim to keep Yahweh’s covenant while making idols, corrupting families, moving inheritances, misleading the helpless, murdering neighbours, or denying justice to the sojourning kinsman, fatherless, and widow.

Chapter 28 contains the blessings that come with obedience and the curses that come with disobedience.

Deuteronomy 28:1 ​​ And it shall come to pass, if you shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you this day, that Yahweh your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth:  ​​​​ (Ex 15:26)

​​ 28:2 ​​ And all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shalt hearken unto the voice of Yahweh your God.

Verses 3-14 list how you will be blessed.

​​ 28:15 ​​ But it shall come to pass, if you wilt not hearken unto the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day; that all these curses shall come upon you, and overtake you:

Verses 16-68 list how you will be cursed.

​​ 28:43 ​​ The stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner) that is within (among) you shall get up above you very high; and you shalt come down very low.

Ger is usually a sojourning kinsman.

But none of these words for strangers can be used as a universal application to identify race. We have to understand the context in which is it used and the laws that apply to certain strangers.

This ger stranger is evidently a foreigner, non-kindred alien, that is among us.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Deuteronomy 28:43. The stranger that is within thee — Within thy gates; who formerly honoured and served thee, and were, some of them, glad of the crumbs which fell from thy table. Shall get above thee very high — Shall rise to great wealth and prosperity upon thy ruin.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.

These references are all about the non-kindred strangers that receive our blessings when we are disobedient.

Judges 2:3,11-15; 4:2,3; 10:7-10; 14:4; 15:11,12; 1Samuel 13:3-7,19-23; 2Kings 17:20,23; 24:14-16; 1Chronicles 10:7; 2Chronicles 28:19; Psalm 37:21, 79:8, 89:42; Ecclesiastes 6:2; Isaiah 1:7; Lamentations 1:5, 2:17, 5:8; Ezekiel 17:14; John 18:31, 19:15.

Deuteronomh 29 — The Covenant With Israel and Their Posterity

Chapter 29 concerns the continuation of Yahweh’s covenant with Israel. The people standing before Moses, together with their children and later generations, were commanded to keep the covenant so that they might prosper.

Deuteronomy 29:9 ​​ Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

​​ 29:10 ​​ Ye stand this day all of you before Yahweh your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

​​ 29:11 ​​ Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that is in your camp, from the hewer of your wood unto the drawer of your water:

​​ 29:12 ​​ That you shouldest enter into covenant with Yahweh your God, and into His oath, which Yahweh your God maketh with you this day:

​​ 29:13 ​​ That He may establish you to day for a people (H5971-am- kindred nation) unto Himself, and that He may be unto you a God, as He hath said unto you, and as He hath sworn unto your (fore) fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Stranger in verse 11 is H1616, ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The word describes his residential condition; the covenant context identifies him as a sojourning kinsman living within Israel’s camp.

People is H5971, am, meaning a people or nation. Here the people are specifically identified as Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, assembled by tribes, families, households, and appointed officers.

The covenant assembly included every level of Israelite society: tribal captains, elders, officers, men, women, children, servants, and the kinsman sojourning within the camp. The covenant was not being offered indiscriminately to all the surrounding nations. Yahweh was confirming Israel as His people according to the oath sworn to their fathers.

Scripture repeatedly identifies the same family line, the same fathers, and the same covenant people. The Bible records Israel’s ancestry, laws, inheritance, marriage, correction, dispersion, redemption, and restoration. Its message cannot be universalized without erasing the people whom Yahweh expressly names.

​​ 29:14 ​​ Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

​​ 29:15 ​​ But with him that standeth here with us this day before Yahweh our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

Those “not here with us this day” are not unidentified races or nations being added to the covenant. They are the future generations of the same covenant people—the children and descendants of Israel who were not yet born. The covenant oath reached forward to Israel’s posterity.

Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Acts 2:39 follows the same covenant pattern: “you,” “your children,” and those of the same people who were “afar off.” Peter was speaking to Israelites concerning the promise made to Israel’s fathers and extended to their dispersed posterity. “Afar off” describes covenant distance and dispersion; it does not create a new promise to every unrelated people.

​​ 29:16 ​​ (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which you passed by;

​​ 29:17 ​​ And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

​​ 29:18 ​​ Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from Yahweh our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

Greek: Hebrews 12:15 Watching closely that not any are lacking from the favor of Yahweh, “lest any root of bitterness springing up” would trouble you and by it many would be defiled,

The “root of bitterness” in Hebrews comes from Deuteronomy 29. It is not merely personal resentment. It is a poisonous root of covenant apostasy arising from within the people and turning others away from Yahweh toward idolatry and disobedience.

Hebrews continues the same wilderness warning:

Psalm 95:8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

Hebrews 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.

The provocation was Israel’s rebellion during the Exodus. Hebrews applies that ancestral warning to Israelites in the renewed-covenant era who were in danger of repeating the unbelief and disobedience of their fathers.

​​ 29:19 ​​ And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

The Hebrew idiom at the end of verse 19 is difficult and may be expressed: “to sweep away the moist with the dry.” The Septuagint conveys the warning that the sinner may destroy the innocent with him. The controlling point is clear: the man hears the covenant curse but assures himself that he will have peace while continuing in the stubbornness of his own heart.

This is the presumption taught by much of modern churchianity: that God’s law has been abolished, that a verbal declaration of being “saved” guarantees peace, and that obedience is unnecessary because the believer expects to escape judgment. Deuteronomy teaches the opposite. A man cannot bless himself, claim peace, and continue walking stubbornly against Yahweh’s commandments.

​​ 29:20 ​​ Yahweh will not spare him, but then the anger of Yahweh and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and Yahweh shall blot out his name from under heaven.

A self-declared state of salvation does not overrule Yahweh’s judgment. The man who knowingly hears the covenant and continues in rebellion is not promised immunity. Yahweh says that the covenant curses will rest upon him and that his name will be blotted out.

​​ 29:21 ​​ And Yahweh shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

The offender is separated from “all the tribes of Israel.” The judgment remains within the same national and covenant context established from the beginning of the chapter.

​​ 29:22 ​​ So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreigner) that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues (smitings) of that land, and the sicknesses (ailments) which Yahweh hath laid upon it;

​​ 29:24 ​​ Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath Yahweh done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?  ​​​​ (1Ki 9:8-9, Jer 22:8-9)

Stranger in verse 22 is H5237, nokri, an adjective meaning foreign, non-relative, alien, different, or outlandish. He is expressly identified as coming from a far land and is distinguished from Israel’s future children.

The chapter therefore contains two different people translated with the English word “stranger”:

• Verse 11: H1616, ger—the sojourning kinsman living within Israel’s camp and standing in the covenant assembly.

• Verse 22: H5237, nokri—the foreign non-kinsman who comes from a distant land and observes Israel’s judgment.

The ger stands among Israel under the covenant; the nokri comes from outside and witnesses what happened to Israel. The English word “stranger” conceals this distinction unless the Hebrew words and their contexts are examined.

Israel’s children, foreign nations, and the distant nokri would all witness the consequences when Israel abandoned Yahweh’s covenant. They would see that the land had been smitten because Israel forsook Yahweh, served other gods, and rejected the covenant made with their fathers.

Deuteronomy 29 is not a universal covenant with every race. It names the parties: Israel, their tribes and families, their sojourning kinsmen, their children, their future generations, and the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The foreign nokri appears not as a covenant heir, but as an outside witness to the judgment that fell upon Yahweh’s covenant people.

Chapter 31 records the appointment of Joshua and commands the public reading of the law.

Deuteronomy 31:10 ​​ And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,

​​ 31:11 ​​ When all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which He shall choose, you shalt read this law (the Torah) before all Israel in their hearing.

​​ 31:12 ​​ Gather the people together (H6950/H5971), men, and women, and children, and your stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law:

​​ 31:13 ​​ And that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land whither you go over Jordan to possess it.

The ger within their gates was assembled with the men, women, and children of Israel to hear, learn, and obey the Torah. The law was to be taught publicly so that it would continue from one Israelite generation to the next.

Psalm 78:1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

78:2 ​​ I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter riddles of old:

78:3 ​​ Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

78:4 ​​ We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.

78:5 ​​ For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

​​ 78:6 ​​ That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

78:7 ​​ That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments:

​​ 31:14 ​​ And Yahweh said unto Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting), that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting).

​​ 31:15 ​​ And Yahweh appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.

​​ 31:16 ​​ And Yahweh said unto Moses, Behold, you shalt sleep with your (fore) fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers (H5236- nekar) of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them.

Nekar is H5236, a noun meaning foreign, alien, or that which belongs to another. The expression identifies the foreign gods of the land.

It should read: “...and go a whoring after the foreign gods of the land.”

The language is covenantal and matrimonial. Israel’s pursuit of foreign gods constituted spiritual whoredom, because it meant forsaking Yahweh and breaking the covenant He had made with them.

The remainder of chapter 31 foretells Israel’s apostasy. Yahweh declares that the people will forsake Him, break His covenant, and provoke His anger. He will hide His face from them, and many evils and troubles will befall them. Moses is therefore commanded to write a song and teach it to the children of Israel so that it will remain a witness against them.

Chapter 32 is the Song of Moses.

The song begins by recounting Yahweh’s care for Jacob, whom He identifies as His own allotted inheritance.

Deuteronomy 32:9 For Yahweh’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.

​​ 32:12 So Yahweh alone did lead him, and there was no strange (H5236—nekar) god with him.

Strange is H5236 nekar, meaning foreign, alien, or belonging to another. Yahweh alone led the children of Jacob; no foreign god accompanied Him or shared in His work.

The Hebrew sense is: “Yahweh alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.”

Nekar corresponds in meaning to Greek G245 allotrios, which means belonging to another, foreign, another’s, or not one’s own. Allotrios occurs 14 times in 13 New Testament verses: Matthew 17:25–26; Luke 16:12; John 10:5 twice; Acts 7:6; Romans 14:4 and 15:20; 2Corinthians 10:15–16; 1Timothy 5:22; and Hebrews 9:25, 11:9, and 11:34. The Greek stranger words will be examined in the Renewed Covenant portion of this study.

​​ 32:15 ​​ But Jeshurun waxed fat (prospered), and kicked (rebelled): you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

Jeshurun is a poetic name for Jacob-Israel, meaning “upright one.” Israel prospered, became complacent, rebelled, and forgot the God Who had made and sustained him.

​​ 32:16 ​​ They provoked Him to jealousy with strange (H2114- zur- alien, unusual, uncustomary, profane, others) gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger.

The italicized word gods was supplied by the translators. The Hebrew uses a plural form derived from H2114 zur, identifying foreign or strange ones. In this context, these were foreign objects of worship—those which were alien to Yahweh and His covenant.

The matrimonial language continues from Deuteronomy 31:16. Israel was married unto Yahweh under the covenant, and the worship of foreign gods was covenantal adultery. Israel’s continued rebellion brought judgment, divorce, scattering, and captivity. Beginning with the Assyrian invasions of the eighth century BC, the Israelites were removed from their land, scattered among the nations, and eventually lost the knowledge of who they were and Whose they were. Judah was later carried away by Babylon.

The Gospel answers this judgment by fulfilling the promises made to the fathers concerning the regathering, reconciliation, and redemption of the scattered children of Israel. Jesus Christ came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, whose descendants had been scattered, estranged from the covenants, and walking in darkness. The Gospel calls them back to their God, their covenant, their brethren, and their inheritance.

The Song of Moses is therefore not merely a record of ancient events. It is a continuing witness against Israel whenever our people forsake Yahweh, adopt foreign worship, forget His law, and permit foreign doctrines to obscure our heritage, identity, covenants, and obligations.

A separate study interprets the song “American Pie” through the warnings contained in the Song of Moses: https://www.thinkoutsidethebeast.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/American_Pie.pdf

In Deuteronomy we saw 4 different Hebrew words for stranger.

H1616 Ger, a noun, used 22x, and means a sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, a guest.

Instead of 'stranger(s)' it should read 'sojourners' or 'sojourning kinsmen'.

H5236 Nekar, a noun, used 2x, and means foreign, alien. Different.

Instead of 'strange(r)' it should read 'one not of her husband's brother's side' and 'alien ones'.

H5237 Nokriy, an adjective, used 5x, which means strange, in a variety of degrees and applications (foreign, non-relative, adulterous, different):- alien, foreigner, outlandish.

Instead of 'stranger' it should read ​​ 'racial alien' or 'foreign one'.

H2114 Zur, a verb, used 2x, and means to be strange, become estranged, alienated, another, a foreigner, a harlot, profane. Uncustomary.

Instead of 'strange(r)' it should read 'uncustomary' or 'unaccustomed one' or 'one not of the sons of Aaron'. Instead of 'stranger' it should read 'uncustomary' or 'unaccustomed one'.

Joshua Chapter 8 records the destruction of Ai.

Ai was a Canaanite city east of Bethel and near Jericho. It was the second city taken by the Israelites after they entered Canaan. Joshua then built an altar unto Yahweh upon Mount Ebal, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses.

Joshua 8:33 ​​ And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, as well the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsmen), as he that was born (H249- ezrach- native) among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.

​​ 8:34 ​​ And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

​​ 8:35 ​​ There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsmen) that were conversant among them.

Stranger in verses 33 and 35 is H1616 ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. In this context, the gerim were sojourning kinsmen living among Israel. They stood with the native-born Israelites before the ark and heard every word of the law, including its blessings and curses.

The law was publicly inscribed upon stones at Mount Ebal. Israel was also commanded to write Yahweh’s words upon the doorposts of their houses and upon their gates (Deut 6:9; 11:20; 27:2–8).

Joshua 20 is about the six cities of refuge.

Joshua 20:9 ​​ These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger (H1616- ger- sojourning kinsman) that sojourneth (H1481- gur- dwells as a guest, abides) among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares (by accident) might flee thither, and not die by the hand of the (kinsman) avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

Stranger is H1616 ger, a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. In this context, the ger was a sojourning kinsman dwelling among the children of Israel.

Sojourneth is H1481 gur, a verb meaning to dwell, abide, or remain temporarily as a guest.

The cities protected both the native-born Israelite and the sojourning kinsman who caused a death accidentally. The protection did not apply to a deliberate murderer. The matter first had to be judged before the congregation.

Joshua 24 is about the renewal of the covenant and the death of Joshua.

The Israelites are reminded of all that Yahweh had done for them. They were commanded to put away the gods which their forefathers had served beyond the River Euphrates and in Egypt, and to serve Yahweh in sincerity and truth. Joshua declared, “As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh,” and the people agreed to serve Him.

Joshua 24:19 ​​ And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot (are not able to) serve Yahweh: for He is an holy (set apart) God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.

​​ 24:20 ​​ If ye forsake Yahweh, and serve strange (H5236- nekar- foreign) gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that He hath done you good.

​​ 24:21 ​​ And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve Yahweh.

​​ 24:22 ​​ And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you Yahweh, to serve Him. And they said, We are witnesses.

​​ 24:23 ​​ Now therefore put away, said he, the strange (H5236- nekar- foreign) gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto Yahweh God of Israel.

​​ 24:24 ​​ And the people said unto Joshua, Yahweh our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey.

Strange in verses 20 and 23 is H5236 nekar, a noun meaning foreign, alien, or different. Here it identifies foreign gods—idols brought from Egypt or adopted from the peoples of Canaan.

Israel could not serve Yahweh while retaining foreign gods among them. The covenant required them to put away those idols, incline their hearts unto Yahweh God of Israel, and obey His voice.

In Joshua we saw 2 different Hebrew words for stranger.

H1616 Ger, a noun, used 3x, and means a sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, a guest.

Instead of 'stranger(s)' it should read 'sojourning kinsmen'.

H5236 Nekar, a noun, used 2x, and means foreign, alien. Different.

Instead of 'strange gods' it should read 'foreign gods', or 'gods of the foreigner'.

JUDGES – After Tola the son of Puah and Jair the Gileadite died, the children of Israel again turned from Yahweh.

Judges 10:6 ​​ And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yahweh, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook Yahweh, and served not Him.

Therefore Yahweh delivered the children of Israel into the hands of the Philistines and the children of Ammon, who oppressed them. In their affliction, they cried unto Yahweh.

​​ 10:11 ​​ And Yahweh said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

​​ 10:12 ​​ The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to Me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

​​ 10:13 ​​ Yet ye have forsaken Me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.

​​ 10:14 ​​ Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation (distress, affliction, adversity).

​​ 10:15 ​​ And the children of Israel said unto Yahweh, We have sinned: do You unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto You; deliver us only, we pray You, this day.

​​ 10:16 ​​ And they put away the strange (H5236- nekar- gods of the foreigner) gods from among them, and served Yahweh: and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

Strange is H5236 nekar, a noun meaning foreign, alien, or different. Here it identifies the foreign gods Israel had adopted from the surrounding peoples.

It may be read: “And they put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh.”

Israel’s deliverance followed acknowledgment of their sin, removal of the foreign gods, and a return to the service of Yahweh.

Judges – Story of a Levite

Judges 19:1 ​​ And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning (H1481- gur- dwelling, abiding) on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah.

The concubine committed whoring against him and returned to her father’s house, where she remained for four months. The Levite went after her to speak kindly unto her and bring her back. Her father welcomed him and repeatedly urged him to remain, eat, drink, and lodge with them. On the fifth day, the Levite departed with his concubine and servant and came near Jebus, which is Jerusalem.

The Jebusites were Canaanites who possessed Jerusalem at that time.

​​ 19:11 ​​ And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray you, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.

​​ 19:12 ​​ And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreigner), that is not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.  ​​​​ (Josh 18:28)

Stranger is H5237 nokriy, an adjective meaning strange, foreign, non-relative, alien, or outlandish. The verse itself defines the distinction: the inhabitants of Jebus were foreigners who were “not of the children of Israel.”

The Jebusites were therefore nokriym in relation to the Israelites. Jebus was a Canaanite city possessed by a foreign people, so the Levite chose to continue unto Gibeah, a city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin.

​​ 19:15 ​​ And they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.

Matthew 25:43 ​​ I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in: naked, and ye clothed Me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not.

​​ 19:16 ​​ And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned (H1481- gur- abode-dwelt) in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites.

Sojourned is H1481 gur, a verb meaning to dwell, abide, or remain temporarily. The old man was an Ephraimite sojourning among the Benjamites of Gibeah. He recognized the travelers as kinsmen and received them into his house when the inhabitants of the city had neglected them.

Certain sons of Belial then surrounded the house and demanded that the Levite be brought out so they could abuse him sexually. They instead ravaged his concubine throughout the night and killed her. The Levite divided her body into twelve pieces and sent them throughout the territories of Israel as a witness to the abomination committed in Gibeah.

The guilty men were not surrendered for judgment. The tribe of Benjamin defended Gibeah and thereby became complicit in its wickedness. The other tribes gathered as one man, inquired of Yahweh, and warred against Benjamin until the tribe was nearly destroyed.

Judges 19 presents a deliberate contrast. The Levite refused to lodge among the nokriym of Jebus because they were not Israelites. Yet when he entered the territory of his own Israelite brethren, the men of Gibeah failed to show brotherly hospitality and certain wicked men committed an abomination against him and his concubine. Only an Ephraimite ger, himself sojourning in Gibeah, received the travelers into his house.

The passage distinguishes the nokriy foreigner from the sojourning kinsman, while also showing that Israelite lineage did not excuse covenantal wickedness. The Benjaminites were brethren, but their refusal to deliver the guilty men brought judgment upon the entire tribe.

In Judges we saw 2 Hebrew words for stranger.

H5236 Nekar, a noun, used 1x, and means foreign, alien. Different.

'Strange gods' which should read 'gods of the foreigner.'

H5237 Nokriy, an adjective, used 1x, which means strange, in a variety of degrees and applications (foreign, non-relative, adulterous, different):- alien, foreigner, outlandish.

'Stranger' should read 'foreigner'. In the context, a non-Israelite. The Jebusites were Canaanites.

Ruth 1:1 ​​ Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn (H1481- gur- dwell, abide) in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. ​​ 

​​ 1:2 ​​ And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

​​ 1:3 ​​ And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

​​ 1:4 ​​ And they took them wives of the women of Moab (Israelite wives of the territory of Moab); the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.

​​ 1:5 ​​ And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.

Sojourn is H1481 gur, a verb meaning to dwell, abide, or remain temporarily. Elimelech and his family were temporarily residing in the territory called Moab because of the famine in Bethlehemjudah.

“Moab” must be understood geographically before Ruth’s identity can be determined. Sihon king of the Amorites had conquered the former northern territory of Moab before Israel arrived:

Numbers 21:26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon.

Israel subsequently destroyed Sihon and took possession of his cities:

Deuteronomy 2:33 And Yahweh our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.

2:34 And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain.

This conquered territory extended from the River Arnon northward and was assigned to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh (Num 32:1–40; Deut 3:12–16). The River Arnon separated this Israelite-held territory from racial Moab south and southeast of the Dead Sea, whose land Israel had been forbidden to seize (Deut 2:9).

The old territorial name remained after its occupants and government changed. Scripture continued to call the Israelite territory east of Jordan “the plains of Moab,” “the country of Moab,” and “the land of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.” Canaan likewise retained its ancient name after Israel conquered and occupied it. A territorial designation does not necessarily establish racial ancestry.

Judges 11:12–26 confirms that Israel had occupied Heshbon, Aroer, and the surrounding east-Jordan cities for three hundred years. The story of Ruth occurred during the period of the Judges, while Israelites were still dwelling in that territory. Ruth was therefore called a Moabitess according to the land from which she came, not because she descended from racial Moab. She was probably of Reuben, Gad, or a Levitical household dwelling within their territory.

Ruth was the great-grandmother of King David and stands within the genealogy leading to Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 23:3 prohibited a racial Ammonite or Moabite from entering the congregation of Yahweh forever. Ruth’s account does not overturn that law or present an exception to it. The narrative proceeds entirely through Israelite family, inheritance, gleaning, marriage, and redemption law.

Naomi and Ruth returned unto Bethlehemjudah, where Naomi had a kinsman of her deceased husband:

Ruth 2:1 ​​ And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

​​ 2:2 ​​ And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean (gather) ears of corn (grain) after him in whose sight I shall find grace (favor). And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.

Boaz was observing Yahweh’s law by leaving part of his harvest for the poor, the widow, and the sojourning kinsman to glean. Ruth entered his field and came under the protection of this Israelite law.

​​ 2:6 ​​ And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

​​ 2:7 ​​ And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

​​ 2:8 ​​ Then said Boaz unto Ruth, You have heard, have you not my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

​​ 2:9 ​​ Let your eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go you after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch you? and when you art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.

​​ 2:10 ​​ Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in your eyes, that you shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger (H5237- nokriy/xenos G3581 -a foreign one)?

Stranger is H5237 nokriy, here appearing in the feminine form nokriyah. Strong’s defines it as strange or foreign in a variety of applications: foreign, non-relative, alien, or outlandish. The word must be identified by its context.

Ruth was not confessing descent from racial Moab. She had come from the separated east-Jordan territory into Bethlehemjudah, where she was unknown to Boaz and the western tribes. She was strange or unfamiliar among her own Israelite blood, much as a person from one distant branch or country may be a stranger among related people whom she has never previously met.

Verse 10 also contains a word relationship between H5234 nakar, “take knowledge of” or “recognize,” and H5237 nokriyah, “strange or foreign woman”: “Why should you recognize me, seeing I am unfamiliar?”

​​ 2:11 ​​ And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that you hast done unto your mother in law since the death of your husband: and how you hast left your father and your mother, and the land of your nativity (birth), and art come unto a people (H5971-am) which you knewest not heretofore.

People is H5971 am, meaning a congregated people, tribe, nation, or kindred. Ruth had come from the separated eastern Israelite territory unto western kinsmen whom she had not previously known. The statement identifies unfamiliarity between separated portions of Israel, not conversion from a forbidden race.

Ruth had already sworn her allegiance in the name of Yahweh:

Ruth 1:16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: for whither you goest, I will go; and where you lodgest, I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God:

1:17 Where you diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part you and me.

The words “shall be” in verse 16 are supplied by the translators. Ruth’s declaration can therefore be read as an affirmation of existing identity and covenant allegiance: “Your people, my people; your God, my God.” She was choosing Naomi’s household and western Israelite kindred rather than returning to her former territorial inheritance.

Naomi then plainly identified Boaz as one of their family redeemers:

Ruth 2:20 And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of Yahweh, who hath not left off His kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

In chapter 3 Ruth appealed directly to Boaz’s responsibility as a kinsman-redeemer:

Ruth 3:9 And he said, Who art you? And she answered, I am Ruth your handmaid: spread therefore your skirt over your handmaid; for you art a near kinsman.

3:12 And now it is true that I am your near kinsman: howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.

Boaz acknowledged that he was a kinsman but explained that another relative possessed the prior right of redemption. When the nearer kinsman declined, Boaz lawfully redeemed the inheritance and acquired Ruth as his wife before witnesses at the city gate.

Ruth 4:9 And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi.

4:10 Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

These proceedings preserved the purpose of Deuteronomy 25:5–6: the dead man’s name, family, and inheritance were not to be extinguished from Israel. Kinsman redemption was an Israelite family law administered within the covenant household. Ruth’s lawful redemption, marriage, and place within the inheritance demonstrate her Israelite kinship; they do not establish the admission of a racial Moabite in defiance of Deuteronomy 23:3.

Ruth was therefore a nokriyah because she came from the distant east-Jordan Israelite territory and was personally unknown among the people of Bethlehemjudah. The word describes her unfamiliar standing in that place. It does not override the territorial history, the law excluding racial Moab, the Israelite law of kinsman redemption, or Ruth’s place in the preserved lineage of David and Jesus Christ.

1SAMUEL ​​ The Israelites were being smitten by the Philistines because they had strayed from Yahweh and served foreign gods.

1Samuel 7:3 ​​ And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto Yahweh with all your hearts, then put away the strange (H5236- nekar- foreign) gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto Yahweh, and serve Him only: and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

​​ 7:4 ​​ Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served Yahweh only.

Strange is H5236 nekar, a noun meaning foreign, alien, or different. Here it identifies foreign gods—the gods belonging to the surrounding peoples.

It may be read: “Put away the gods of the foreigner and the Ashtaroth from among you.”

The foreign gods had to be removed from among them, and their hearts had to be prepared unto Yahweh. Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines followed their repentance, removal of the foreign gods, and return to the exclusive service of Yahweh.

After the death of Saul, David returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites. A young man came out of the camp of Israel and reported that Saul and Jonathan were dead. He claimed that he had found Saul wounded, that Saul commanded him to kill him, and that he had obeyed. He then presented Saul’s crown and bracelet unto David.

2Samuel 1:12 ​​ And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yahweh, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

​​ 1:13 ​​ And David said unto the young man that told him, Where are you from? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger (H1616- ger- sojourner)(and H376- iysh), an Amalekite.

​​ 1:14 ​​ And David said unto him, How wast you not afraid to stretch forth your hand to destroy Yahweh's anointed?

​​ 1:15 ​​ And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died.

​​ 1:16 ​​ And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon your head; for your mouth hath testified against you, saying, I have slain Yahweh's anointed.

Septuagint: “I am the son of an Amalekite sojourner.”

Stranger is H1616 ger, a noun meaning a sojourner, temporary inhabitant, or guest. The complete Hebrew expression identifies him as the son of an Amalekite man who was sojourning among Israel.

This is an important contextual use of ger. The word itself describes the father’s residential status; it does not identify him as a kinsman. The verse expressly identifies this particular ger as an Amalekite.

The Amalekites descended from Amalek, the grandson of Esau through Eliphaz (Gen 36:12). They were long-standing enemies of the children of Israel:

Exodus 17:16 For he said, Because Yahweh hath sworn that Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

David did not execute the young man merely because he was an Amalekite. David stated the immediate legal ground for the sentence: “Your mouth hath testified against you, saying, I have slain Yahweh’s anointed.” His Amalekite identity supplies the historical background, but his own confession concerning Saul supplied the charge upon which David judged him.

The account of Saul’s death in 1Samuel 31:4–5 states that Saul fell upon his own sword and died. The Amalekite may therefore have fabricated his story in expectation of receiving a reward from David. Whether his report was truthful or deceitful, David judged him according to his own testimony: he claimed to have knowingly stretched forth his hand against Yahweh’s anointed king.

Saul had sinned and had been rejected from continuing as king, but David still recognized that Saul had occupied an office into which Yahweh had anointed him. David had twice refused to kill Saul when given the opportunity, declaring that he would not stretch forth his hand against Yahweh’s anointed (1Sam 24:6; 26:9–11).

1Chronicles 16:21 He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, He reproved kings for their sakes,

16:22 Saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm. (Psa 105:15)

The children of Jacob are Yahweh’s chosen and anointed people. In this passage, Saul was also individually Yahweh’s anointed king. The Amalekite sojourner claimed to have slain him and was condemned by the testimony of his own mouth.

2Samuel 15 is about Absalom’s revolt. Absalom was a son of David who stole the hearts of the men of Israel and raised a rebellion against his father. David therefore departed from Jerusalem with his household and faithful servants.

2Samuel 15:18 ​​ And all his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

​​ 15:19 ​​ Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest you also with us? return to your place, and abide with the king: for you art a stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreigner), and also an exile.

​​ 15:20 ​​ Whereas you camest but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return you, and take back your brethren: mercy and truth be with you.

​​ 15:21 ​​ And Ittai answered the king, and said, As Yahweh liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will your servant be.

Stranger is H5237 nokriy, an adjective meaning strange or foreign in a variety of applications: foreign, non-relative, alien, different, or outlandish. It can identify someone who is non-native to the particular people or territory without, by itself, settling that person’s ancestry.

Ittai was a Gittite who had recently come from Gath. David therefore described him as a nokriy and an exile—a non-native newcomer who was not obligated to become involved in David’s flight and conflict with Absalom. David urged him to return to Jerusalem with his brethren, where he could expect to be treated civilly by the new ruler.

Ittai refused to abandon David. He swore by Yahweh that whether David lived or died, he would remain with him. David accepted his allegiance, and Ittai later became commander over one-third of David’s army (2Sam 18:2). David would not have placed one who is “is not thy brother” over Israelite men in his army.

The identity of the six hundred Gittites has been understood in two ways. They may have been David’s original band of six hundred Israelites who accompanied him during his residence in Gath (1Sam 23:13; 27:2), retaining the name “Gittites” because of that association. The company may also have received later recruits from Gath. Josephus identifies the six hundred as the armed men who had followed David from the time of his first flight from Saul, while separately describing Ittai as David’s friend who came from the city of Gath.

The designation “Gittite” could sometimes be geographic. Obed-edom was called a Gittite, yet Chronicles places an Obed-edom among the Levites and Temple doorkeepers. That example proves that the title does not invariably establish foreign ancestry.

As with Ruth, the word nokriy must be interpreted according to the history and immediate context. The word “stranger” cannot by itself determine race, covenant standing, or ancestry.

Chapter 22 is David’s psalm of praise. Verses 2–51 are nearly identical to Psalm 18.

David thanks and praises Yahweh for delivering him out of the hands of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. Yahweh is his Rock, his refuge, his shield, the power of his salvation, and his high tower.

2Samuel 22:44 ​​ You also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, You hast kept me to be head of the heathen (nations): a people which I knew not shall serve me.

​​ 22:45 ​​ Strangers (H5236- nekar)(and H1121) (Sons of foreigners) shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as they hear, they shall be obedient unto me.

Geneva note: “Not willingly obeying me, but deceitfully.”

​​ 22:46 ​​ Strangers (H5236- nekar)(and H1121) (Sons of foreigners) shall fade away (from discouragement), and they shall be afraid out of their close places (strongholds).

​​ 22:47 ​​ Yahweh liveth; and blessed be my Rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.

​​ 22:48 ​​ It is God that avengeth me, and that bringeth down the people under me,

​​ 22:49 ​​ And that bringeth me forth from mine (H341-hated) enemies: You also hast lifted me up on high above them that rose up against me: You hast delivered me from the violent man.

​​ 22:50 ​​ Therefore I will give thanks unto You, O Yahweh, among the heathen (nations), and I will sing praises unto Your name.

​​ 22:51 ​​ He is the tower of salvation for His king: and sheweth mercy (loving-commitment) to His anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.

Strangers in verses 45 and 46 is the combined expression H1121/H5236, bene nekar—“sons of foreigners” or “sons of foreignness.” These are not H1616 gerim, sojourning guests living among Israel. They are foreign peoples and nations brought under David’s authority.

Submit themselves is from H3584 kachash, which can mean to lie, deceive, dissemble, cringe, or yield feigned obedience. Their submission was not necessarily willing or faithful. Having been subdued by Yahweh under David, they obeyed when they heard his command, faded away in discouragement, and came trembling out of their strongholds.

The context plainly distinguishes David’s own people from the foreign nations. Yahweh delivered David from strife among his people, preserved him as head over nations he had not known, and brought the sons of foreigners into subjection beneath him.

1Kings Chapter 3 is Solomon’s prayer for wisdom.

Yahweh appeared unto Solomon in a dream and asked what He should give him. Solomon requested wisdom and understanding to judge the people. When Solomon awoke, he returned to Jerusalem, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

Then two women came and stood before him.

1Kings 3:17 ​​ And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

​​ 3:18 ​​ And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger (H2114- zur- other, no one else) with us in the house, save we two in the house.

​​ 3:19 ​​ And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

​​ 3:20 ​​ And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

Solomon’s judgment revealed which woman was the true mother of the living child.

Septuagint: “...and there was no one with us besides our two selves in the house.”

Stranger is H2114 zur, a verb meaning to be strange, become estranged or alienated, or be another, foreign, unauthorized, or profane. The exact sense depends upon its context.

Here zur does not identify a foreign race, an unauthorized priest, or a profane person. It simply means that no other person was present in the house. The two women were alone, leaving no independent witness to verify either account.

It may be read: “There was no one else with us in the house except the two of us.”

In chapter 8, the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers, the priests, all the men of Israel, and the whole congregation of Israel.

1Kings 8:22 ​​ And Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:

Solomon’s Temple prayer

​​ 8:23 ​​ And he said, Yahweh God of Israel, there is no God like You, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with Your servants that walk before You with all their heart:

Solomon is praying unto Yahweh, the God of Israel. Yahweh keeps covenant and mercy with His servants—His covenant people Israel—when they walk before Him with all their heart.

In verses 31–32 Solomon prays concerning an Israelite who trespasses against his neighbor and is placed under an oath. He asks Yahweh to judge between them, condemn the wicked, and justify the righteous.

Trespass is H2398 chata, a verb meaning to sin, miss the mark, or fail in duty.

Neighbour is H7453 rea or reya, meaning an associate, companion, friend, fellow, or neighbor. Its related word, H7462 raah, means to tend, pasture, or shepherd a flock. In this covenant setting, the neighbor is a fellow member of Israel’s society.

The prayer continues to identify “Your people Israel.”

​​ 8:38 ​​ What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man (H120), or by all Your people Israel, which shall know every man the plague (calamity) of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

​​ 8:39 ​​ Then hear You in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart You knowest; (for You, even You only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men (H120);)

​​ 8:40 ​​ That they may fear (revere) You all the days that they live in the land which You gavest unto our (fore) fathers. ​​ 

Adam is H120, meaning a human being, man, or Adamkind. The covenant identity in verses 38–40 is established by the surrounding expressions “Your people Israel” and “the land which You gavest unto our fathers”.

Solomon then addresses a different person:

​​ 8:41 ​​ Moreover concerning a stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreigner), that is not of Your people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for Your name's sake;  ​​​​ (2Chr 6:32-nokriy)

​​ 8:42 ​​ (For they shall hear of Your great name, and of Your strong hand, and of Your stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;

​​ 8:43 ​​ Hear You in heaven (the sky) Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger (H5237- nokriy- foreigner) calleth to You for: that all people of the earth (land) may know Your name, to fear (revere) You, as do Your people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by Your name.  ​​​​ (2Chr 6:33-nokriy)

Stranger is H5237 nokriy, an adjective meaning strange or foreign in a variety of applications: foreign, non-relative, different, alien, or outlandish. The word can identify non-native Israelites in some contexts, as with Ruth, and its precise force must always be determined by the passage.

Here the context expressly defines the nokriy: he is “not of Your people Israel” and comes from a distant country after hearing of Yahweh’s great name, strong hand, and outstretched arm. Therefore this nokriy cannot be identified as a native or displaced Israelite within the immediate wording of the prayer. He is a foreigner outside the nation of Israel who has come because he recognizes the name and power of Israel’s God.

The passage does not say that the foreigner becomes an Israelite, enters the congregation, inherits the covenant, receives Israel’s land, or becomes a co-heir of Israel’s promises. It says that he calls upon Yahweh and prays toward the house bearing Yahweh’s name. Solomon asks Yahweh to answer him so that the peoples of the lands may know and revere Yahweh as Israel does.

Permission to pray unto Yahweh is not the same as admission into Israel’s congregation or covenant. The distinction remains throughout the prayer:

• Israel is “Your people.”

• Israel received the land promised to the fathers.

• Israel is Yahweh’s inheritance.

• The nokriy remains “not of Your people Israel.”

• The other peoples learn Yahweh’s name through His dealings with Israel and the house called by His name.

Solomon’s prayer is therefore not a declaration of universal covenant membership. It magnifies Yahweh’s name among the surrounding peoples while preserving the exclusive identity of Israel as His covenant people and inheritance. The foreigner may recognize Yahweh, call upon Him, and revere His name without thereby becoming part of Israel or receiving Israel’s covenant standing.