Goyim is the Hebrew plural of goy, a nation.
In the Old Testament it often means the nations other than Israel, the Gentiles.
The word itself is not an insult. Israel is called a goy, a holy nation.
The promise to Abraham was that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him.
In Christ that word opens, and Jew and Gentile become one new man.
Goy means a people with a name and a land. God said to Abraham, I will make you a great nation. At Sinai He said Israel would be a holy nation, a goy kadosh. The same root, when it turns toward the many, names the peoples around Israel: Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, the coastlands. The nations rage. The nations stream to the mountain of the Lord. A light is given for the nations. Jonah is sent to Nineveh against his will. Isaiah sees servants who will be a light to the Gentiles. The New Testament takes the Greek ethnē for the same reality. Jesus said the gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all the nations as a testimony. Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles. The mystery hidden for ages is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body. Goyim in later speech has sometimes been spat as a slur. Scripture will not let the church use it that way. The nations were far off, strangers to the covenants, without hope and without God. They have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The wall is broken. Boasting over the root is forbidden. The blessing runs out to the goyim because God promised it would.
- Goy is nation. Goyim are nations. Context decides whether Israel or the Gentiles are in view.
- Israel’s calling was never a license to despise the peoples. It was a charge to bless them.
- The nations are both judged and invited. Psalms and prophets hold both notes.
- In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek as a barrier to inheritance.
- The church from the nations must not become arrogant toward Israel.
- A slur made from a Bible word is still a slur. The text means peoples God made and loves.
- All nations, all families of the earth: that is the width of the promise.
- Nation – A people, not first a slur.
- The Nations – Peoples outside the covenant line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Holy Nation – Israel herself called goy when set apart at Sinai.
- Promise – All families of the earth blessed in Abraham’s seed.
- Light to the Nations – Servant and gospel aimed beyond one border.
- One New Man – Jew and Gentile reconciled in one body.
- Fullness of the Gentiles – A gathering still underway until the end God named.
- Genesis 12:2-3 – “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
- Exodus 19:6 – “And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
- Genesis 10:5, 32 – From these the coastland peoples spread; these are the clans of the sons of Noah, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.
- Psalm 2:1, 8 – “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?… Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
- Psalm 67:2-4 – “That your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy…”
- Isaiah 2:2 – “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains… and all the nations shall flow to it.”
- Isaiah 42:6 – “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations.”
- Isaiah 49:6 – “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
- Isaiah 56:7 – “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
- Jonah 4:11 – “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left…?”
- Matthew 28:19 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
- Matthew 24:14 – “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
- Acts 13:46-47 – “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside… behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
- Acts 15:14-17 – God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for His name; the rest of mankind and all the Gentiles who are called by His name.
- Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
- Romans 11:11, 25 – “Through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous… a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
- Ephesians 2:11-16 – “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh… were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel… But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ… that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.”
- Ephesians 3:6 – “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
- Galatians 3:8, 28-29 – “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’… There is neither Jew nor Greek… And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
- Revelation 7:9 – “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
- Revelation 21:24, 26 – “By its light will the nations walk… They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”
In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Goyim are nations. Israel herself was called a holy nation.
Do not turn a Bible word into contempt. The peoples were far off. They have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
A light for the nations. Salvation to the end of the earth.
Fellow heirs. One new man. Every nation before the throne.
To the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Go and make disciples of all nations. The blessing was never meant to stop at one border.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.