Grow With Me
Grow With Me

גּוֹי

goy · nation

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H1471 · appears 561 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

goy (גּוֹי) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “nation”.

A people with its land. In the plural, "the nations": all the peoples of the world, and especially those who are not Israel.

How to say it

goy

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. A people with their land; also Israel.
  2. The peoples other than Israel.
  3. A swarm, like of locusts.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Nation: a people with its territory and its government. In the plural, “the nations”, all the peoples of the earth and, above all, those that are not Israel. BDB defines it as a nation or people; in Joel 1:6 a plague of locusts is called a “nation”.

How we translate it

“Nations” 428 times, “nation” 127, “Goiim” 3 (as a proper name, “Tidal king of Goiim”, Genesis 14:1). This edition keeps the pair גּוֹי / עַם as “nation” / “people”, so that the reader can tell the two words apart. By the same rule, the Greek ἔθνη is “nations” in the New Testament and “Gentiles” is not used.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

  • nations ×428
  • nation ×127
  • Goiim ×3
  • Harosheth-hagoyim ×3

Where it appears

  • Genesis 10:5

    From these the coastlands of the nations separated into their lands, each according to his language, according to their families, in their nations.

  • Genesis 10:20

    These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, in their nations.

  • Genesis 10:31

    These are the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.

  • Genesis 10:32

    These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations separated on the earth after the flood.

  • Genesis 12:2

    I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make great your name; and be a blessing.

  • Genesis 14:1

    It came about in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,

  • Genesis 14:9

    against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar: four kings against the five.

  • Genesis 15:14

    But also the nation that they serve I will judge, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

  • Genesis 17:4

    “As for me, look, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

  • Genesis 17:5

    No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

  • Genesis 17:6

    I will make you fruitful exceedingly, and I will make you into nations, and kings will come from you.

  • Genesis 17:16

    I will bless her, and also I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she will become nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

  • Genesis 17:20

    As for Ishmael, I have heard you; look, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly. He will father twelve chiefs, and I will make him into a great nation.

  • Genesis 18:18

    since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?

  • Genesis 20:4

    Now Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, “Adonai, will you kill a nation, even one that is righteous?

  • Genesis 21:13

    And also the son of the slave woman I will make him a nation, for he is your offspring.”

  • Genesis 21:18

    Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”

  • Genesis 22:18

    And through your offspring all the nations of the earth will bless themselves, because you listened to my voice.”

  • Genesis 25:23

    YHWH said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from your inner parts will be divided; one people will be stronger than the other people, and the older will serve the younger.”

  • Genesis 26:4

    I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and will give to your offspring all these lands; and through your offspring all the nations of the earth will bless themselves,

  • Genesis 35:11

    And Elohim said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and an assembly of nations will come from you, and kings will come out from your loins.

  • Genesis 46:3

    He said, “I am El, the Elohim of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.

  • Genesis 48:19

    But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he too will become a people, and he too will be great; but his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become the fullness of the nations.”

  • Exodus 9:24

    There was hail, and fire flashing in the midst of the hail, very heavy, such as had never been like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

  • Exodus 19:6

    and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

  • Exodus 32:10

    Now let me alone, so that my anger may burn against them and I may consume them; and I will make you into a great nation.”

  • Exodus 33:13

    Now if, please, I have found favor in your eyes, let me know, please, your ways, so that I may know you, in order that I may find favor in your eyes. And see that this nation is your people.”

  • Exodus 34:10

    And he said, “Look, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonders that have not been created in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of YHWH, for it is fearsome, what I am doing with you.

  • Exodus 34:24

    For I will dispossess nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no man shall covet your land when you go up to appear before YHWH your Elohim three times in the year.

  • Leviticus 18:24

    Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these things the nations that I am driving out before you have become unclean.

  • Leviticus 18:28

    so that the land does not vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

  • Leviticus 20:23

    And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and I loathed them.

  • Leviticus 25:44

    As for your male slave and your female slave whom you may have, from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy a male slave and a female slave.

  • Leviticus 26:33

    And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land will be a desolation, and your cities will be a ruin.

  • Leviticus 26:38

    And you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up.

  • Leviticus 26:45

    But I will remember for them the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their Elohim. I am YHWH.

  • Numbers 14:12

    I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

  • Numbers 14:15

    If you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say,

  • Numbers 23:9

    For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I gaze on him. Look, a people that dwells alone, and does not count itself among the nations!

  • Numbers 24:8

    El brings him out of Egypt; he has as it were the horns of the wild ox. He shall devour the nations, his adversaries, and break their bones, and with his arrows shatter them.

And 521 more times.