In the great extremity of Israel, after Nebuchadnezzar had taken them

away captive and the captivity had lasted very nearly the foretold period of

seventy years, Daniel prayed, and in that prayer, the prophet speaks of the

'people' five times:

'We have sinned ... neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the

prophets, which spake in Thy name ... to all the people of the land'.

'And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought Thy people forth out of the

land of Egypt ... for our sins ... Thy people are become a reproach to

all that are about us ... Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy

name ... Whiles I was ... confessing my sin and the sin of my people

Israel ... the man Gabriel ... touched me' (Dan. 9:5 -21).

There were revealed to Daniel some further and fuller parts of the

Divine plan concerning 'thy people' (Dan. 9:24), and that after a period of

unprecedented tribulation all Israel should be saved,

'And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which

standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of

trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same

time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that

shall be found written in the book' (Dan. 12:1).

Before this blessed restoration

takes place, Israel pass into oblivion,

to lose temporarily their standing as

a people before God, and to make

possible by their temporary blindness

the revelation of the Mystery.  This

feature is dealt with in the first of

the Minor Prophets, Hosea.  See the

article Hosea8.

We now supplement our studies in the dispensational teaching associated

with the Hebrew word am, translated 'the people' in the Old Testament with

the teaching associated with the equivalent Greek word laos in the

New Testament.  This word occurs 143 times in the New Testament and is

translated by no other word than 'people'.  In nine of these occurrences the

word is plural, and should be rendered 'peoples'.  Five of these plurals

occur in the Revelation, one only in Paul's epistles, two in the Acts and one

in the Gospels.

Let us notice these plural references to 'peoples' first, and so clear

the way for the remaining references to 'the people'.  The first occurs in

Simeon's song where it is associated with a 'light to lighten the Gentiles'

the word being plural in Luke 2:31.  It is fitting that this Gospel which

takes us back to Adam and emphasizes salvation from sin (Luke 2:11), (where

Matthew stresses King and kingdom, Matt. 2:2 -6) should give a place to the

'peoples'.  The two references in the Acts are found in Acts 4.  The one, in

verse 25, is a quotation from Psalm 2 and refers to peoples at the time of

the end.  The second reference (verse 27) presents on the surface, a

difficulty, for the word is plural, 'the peoples of Israel'.  The bulk of

commentators pass this difficulty by, one only, of all that we have been able

to consult, faces the problem and indicates the solution, and that is The

Critical English Testament adapted from Bengel's Gnomon by Blackley and

Hawes.  The comment is: