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to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which
God gave unto Abraham" (Gen. 28: 3, 4).
Not only is `the land' a definite feature of this promise, but a peculiar character
attaches to it, it is called `the land wherein thou art a stranger'. This is repeated in
Gen. 37: 1, and in 47: 9 Jacob uses the same word which is there translated
`pilgrimage'. The margin of Gen. 28: 4, reads `the land of thy sojournings'. This
term is used seven times in the law, and is repeated in Heb. 11: 9, 13. After the
formation of Israel and the giving of the law, the nation is not again reminded that they
were strangers and sojourners except in one passage, namely in Lev. 25: 23, where the
laws governing the sale of land showed that the Lord Himself was the true Owner, Israel
only holding the land as it were on lease. One further note is necessary before we attempt
a conclusion, and that concerns that a certain popular theory might be supported, to show
that Ephraim was to become "Gentilized". The Hebrew word translated `nations' is
goyim, the plural of goi. This word is translated in the A.V. as follows: "Gentile" thirty
times, `heathen' one hundred and forty two times, `nation' 373 times, `people' 11 times.
It is easy, when we are reading the passages where `Gentile' and `heathen' occur, to jump
to the conclusion that the word means `all nations of the world, excepting the Jews', but
this is an error. The first six occurrences of goyim occurs in Gen. 10: and as Israel was
not in existence at the time, it is evident that the word can only means `nations', the
inclusion of the word `Gentiles' in Gen. 10: 5 being an anticipation and having no
immediate meaning until placed over against the word "Jew". The R.V. has recognized
this, and inserted `nations' instead.
In Gen. 12: 2 we read the words of the great prophetic promise to Abraham
concerning his seed, Israel, `I will make of thee a great nation', while in Gen. 17: 4, 5, 6
this promise is expanded to include `many nations' returning in verse 20 once more to the
`great nation'. So in Gen. 35: 11 we read `a nation and a company of nations', the
only distinction between Jew and Gentile being, not in the use of a different word, but in
the use of the singular for the Jew, and the plural for the Gentile. Again in Deut. 4:, we
have interchangeably `this great nation', `what nation is so great', `the heathen', `a nation
from the midst of another nation' and `the nations' that were to be driven out of Canaan,
all being translations of the one Hebrew word. Even in the Greek N.T. when the
distinction between Jew and Gentile is acute, we still find ethnos used both of the
Gentiles and of Israel (Acts 22: 21; 26: 4, 17; 28: 19, 28). While therefore
goyim means at times Gentile or heathen, it always means `nation' whether the nations
outside the covenant, or the great nation of promise. The promise that Israel should be
`great' must not be misunderstood. With us, `greatness' is associated with nobility of
mind, but originally the word gadol translated `great' means `growth' or `augmentation'.
So we read of `great lights', `great whales', a `great city' in Genesis. The word moreover
is used to indicate `the elder' son (Gen. 10: 21; 27: 1; 29: 16) who may not
necessarily have been `greater'. Israel are indeed at the present day `minished and
brought low through oppression' (Psa. 107: 39), but it is an integral part of the promise to
Abraham, that Israel should not only be great in spiritual qualities, but great in numbers.
The promise reads, `I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can
number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered' (Gen. 13: 16). The
figure is changed in Gen. 15: 5 to the innumerable stars of heaven, with the added