"The Other:" The heart of Biblical ethics
The first rule of interpretation is to read a text in light of its subject matter. Some would argue this point, but we do not turn to the Bible for objective history or answers to scientific questions about the world. Knowledge and understanding of our material world advances over time -- including, for example, our knowledge and awareness of human sexuality. This type of knowledge is not the primary subject matter of the text -- although as an artifact of history we can turn to scripture to explore what ancient peoples knew and thought. We are free to evaluate that knowledge based on current understanding.
What the Bible is about is an accumulated witness to God: 1) God (as made known in Jesus Christ and in the pilgrimage of ancient Israel); 2) the fullness of life to be found in relationship with God in Christ (salvation); and 3) what God requires of us. The prophetic tradition of the text is clear, what God requires of us is justice (equal treatment for all), humility (not presuming what is human is ultimate), and most especially loving-kindness toward our neighbor. Our neighbor being any fellow human being, but most especially those vulnerable to the powerful: the stranger in the land, the resident alien, those in immediate need (hungry and thirsty), the poor, widow, the orphan, the outcast. This last point is, I believe, the central mystery of our faith: we meet God in our hospitality toward our fellow human beings who also bear God's image. The following word study is intended to demonstrate the importance of this in Scripture.
Key Wesley Quotes: (from explanatory notes on the new testament)
On Luke 10:37: ”Let us go and do likewise," regarding every man as our neighbor who needs our assistance. Let us renounce that bigotry and party zeal which would contract our hearts, into an insensibility for all the human race, but a small number whose sentiments and practices are so much our own, that our love to them is but self-love reflected. “
On John 4:21. And this commandment have we from him—Both God and Christ; that he who loveth God, love his brother—Every one, whatever his opinions or mode of worship be, purely because he is the child and bears the image of God. Bigotry is properly the want of this pure and universal love. A bigot only loves those who embrace his opinions, and receive his way of worship: and he loves them for that, and not for Christ’s sake.
Key Bible Verses:
Deut 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome …18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. 19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Matt 25:44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
A Word Study: alien, stranger, widow, orphan, poor (as a noun), hungry (person), to be hungry (verb), to be thirsty (verb): 434 occurrences in 328 verses of the NRSV.
Note: I have not edited this list to remove verses that do no support my argument. I leave that work to the reader.
Gen 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.
Gen 15:13
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years;
Gen 17:8
And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”
Gen 19:9
But they replied, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down.
Gen 20:1
From there Abraham journeyed toward the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While residing in Gerar as an alien,
Gen 21:23
now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have resided as an alien.”
Gen 21:34
And Abraham resided as an alien many days in the land of the Philistines.
Gen 23:4
“I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
Gen 26:3
Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
Gen 28:4
May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien—land that God gave to Abraham.”
Gen 32:4
instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now;
Gen 35:27
Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had resided as aliens.
Gen 37:1
Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.
Gen 38:11
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
Gen 38:14
she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.
Gen 41:55
When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.”
Gen 42:7
When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
Gen 47:4
They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to reside as aliens in the land; for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, we ask you, let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”
Exod 2:22
She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”
Exod 6:4
I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens.
Exod 12:19
For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land.
Exod 12:48
If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the passover to the Lord, all his males shall be circumcised; then he may draw near to celebrate it; he shall be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it;
Exod 12:49
there shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.
Exod 17:3
But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
Exod 18:3
along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been an alien in a foreign land”),
Exod 20:10
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
Exod 22:21
You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Exod 22:22
You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.
Exod 22:24
my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
Exod 22:25
If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.
Exod 23:6
You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.
Exod 23:9
You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Exod 23:11
but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
Exod 23:12
Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.
Lev 16:29
This shall be a statute to you forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you.
Lev 17:8
And say to them further: Anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice,
Lev 17:10
If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people.
Lev 17:12
Therefore I have said to the people of Israel: No person among you shall eat blood, nor shall any alien who resides among you eat blood.
Lev 17:13
And anyone of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside among them, who hunts down an animal or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.
Lev 17:15
All persons, citizens or aliens, who eat what dies of itself or what has been torn by wild animals, shall wash their clothes, and bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening; then they shall be clean.
Lev 18:26
But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you
Lev 19:10
You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Lev 19:33
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.
Lev 19:34
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Lev 20:2
Say further to the people of Israel: Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death.
Lev 21:14
A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, a prostitute, these he shall not marry. He shall marry a virgin of his own kin,
Lev 22:13
but if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced, without offspring, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No lay person shall eat of it.
Lev 22:18
Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them: When anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing in Israel presents an offering, whether in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering that is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering,
Lev 23:22
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Lev 24:16
One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer. Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death.
Lev 24:22
You shall have one law for the alien and for the citizen: for I am the Lord your God.
Lev 25:23
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.
Lev 25:35
If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.
Lev 25:45
You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.
Lev 25:47
If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family,
Lev 25:50
They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer.
Lev 25:53
As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight.
Num 9:14
Any alien residing among you who wishes to keep the passover to the Lord shall do so according to the statute of the passover and according to its regulation; you shall have one statute for both the resident alien and the native.
Num 15:14
An alien who lives with you, or who takes up permanent residence among you, and wishes to offer an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, shall do as you do.
Num 15:15
As for the assembly, there shall be for both you and the resident alien a single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and the alien shall be alike before the Lord.
Num 15:16
You and the alien who resides with you shall have the same law and the same ordinance.
Num 15:26
All the congregation of the Israelites shall be forgiven, as well as the aliens residing among them, because the whole people was involved in the error.
Num 15:29
For both the native among the Israelites and the alien residing among them—you shall have the same law for anyone who acts in error.
Num 15:30
But whoever acts high-handedly, whether a native or an alien, affronts the Lord, and shall be cut off from among the people.
Num 19:10
The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them.
Num 30:9
(But every vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall be binding upon her.)
Num 35:15
These six cities shall serve as refuge for the Israelites, for the resident or transient alien among them, so that anyone who kills a person without intent may flee there.
Deut 1:16
I charged your judges at that time: “Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien.
Deut 5:14
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.
Deut 10:18
who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.
Deut 10:19
You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deut 14:21
You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Deut 14:29
the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.
Deut 15:4
There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy,
Deut 15:11
Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”
Deut 16:11
Rejoice before the Lord your God—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.
Deut 16:14
Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns.
Deut 23:7
You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land.
Deut 24:14
You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns.
Deut 24:17
You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge.
Deut 24:19
When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Deut 24:20
When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
Deut 24:21
When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
Deut 25:5
When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her,
Deut 25:7
But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.”
Deut 26:5
you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.
Deut 26:11
Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
Deut 26:12
When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns,
Deut 26:13
then you shall say before the Lord your God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments:
Deut 27:19
“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”
Deut 28:43
Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.
Deut 29:11
your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water--
Deut 31:12
Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law,
Josh 8:33
All Israel, alien as well as citizen, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark in front of the levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
Josh 8:35
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.
Josh 20:9
These were the cities designated for all the Israelites, and for the aliens residing among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so as not to die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until there was a trial before the congregation.
Judg 4:19
Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.
Judg 15:18
By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, “You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
Ruth 2:9
Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”
Ruth 4:5
Then Boaz said, “The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.”
1 Sam 2:5
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.
1 Sam 27:3
David stayed with Achish at Gath, he and his troops, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow.
1 Sam 30:5
David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
2 Sam 1:13
David said to the young man who had reported to him, “Where do you come from?” He answered, “I am the son of a resident alien, an Amalekite.”
2 Sam 2:2
So David went up there, along with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
2 Sam 3:3
his second, Chileab, of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third, Absalom son of Maacah, daughter of King Talmai of Geshur;
2 Sam 4:3
(Now the people of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and are there as resident aliens to this day).
2 Sam 14:5
The king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.
1 Kings 7:14
He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, whose father, a man of Tyre, had been an artisan in bronze; he was full of skill, intelligence, and knowledge in working bronze. He came to King Solomon, and did all his work.
1 Kings 11:26
Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, rebelled against the king.
1 Kings 17:19
“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
1 Kings 17:10
So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”
1 Kings 17:20
He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”
2 Kings 24:14
He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land.
2 Kings 25:12
But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.
1 Chron 16:19
When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in the land,
1 Chron 22:2
David gave orders to gather together the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God.
1 Chron 29:15
For we are aliens and transients before you, as were all our ancestors; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.
2 Chron 2:17
Then Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had taken; and there were found to be one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.
2 Chron 15:9
He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing as aliens with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
2 Chron 30:25
The whole assembly of Judah, the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the resident aliens who came out of the land of Israel, and the resident aliens who lived in Judah, rejoiced.
Esther 9:22
as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
Job 5:5
The hungry eat their harvest, and they take it even out of the thorns; and the thirsty pant after their wealth.
Job 5:15
But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, from the hand of the mighty.
Job 6:27
You would even cast lots over the orphan, and bargain over your friend.
Job 15:19
to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
Job 19:15
the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
Job 22:7
You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
Job 22:9
You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you have crushed.
Job 24:3
They drive away the donkey of the orphan; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
Job 24:4
They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Job 24:9
“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast, and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.
Job 24:10
They go about naked, without clothing; though hungry, they carry the sheaves;
Job 24:11
between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
Job 24:14
The murderer rises at dusk to kill the poor and needy, and in the night is like a thief.
Job 24:21
“They harm the childless woman, and do no good to the widow.
Job 27:15
Those who survive them the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation.
Job 29:12
because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper.
Job 29:13
The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Job 29:16
I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.
Job 30:25
Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Job 31:16
“If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
Job 31:17
or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not eaten from it--
Job 31:18
for from my youth I reared the orphan like a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow--
Job 31:19
if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or a poor person without covering,
Job 31:21
if I have raised my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had supporters at the gate;
Job 31:32
the stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler--
Job 34:28
so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted--
Ps 10:14
But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan.
Ps 10:18
to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more.
Ps 34:10
The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Ps 39:12
“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not hold your peace at my tears. For I am your passing guest, an alien, like all my forebears.
Ps 50:12
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Ps 68:5
Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
Ps 69:8
I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children.
Ps 78:64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Ps 82:3
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Ps 94:6
They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan,
Ps 102:17
He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.
Ps 105:12
When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in it,
Ps 105:23
Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
Ps 107:36
And there he lets the hungry live, and they establish a town to live in;
Ps 109:9
May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
Ps 109:11
May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
Ps 109:12
May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
Ps 112:9
They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor.
Ps 119:19
I live as an alien in the land; do not hide your commandments from me.
Ps 120:5
Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
Ps 144:7
Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens,
Ps 144:11
Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false.
Ps 146:7
who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
Ps 146:9
The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Prov 5:10
and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labors will go to the house of an alien;
Prov 5:17
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.
Prov 6:30
Thieves are not despised who steal only to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.
Prov 11:15
To guarantee loans for a stranger brings trouble, but there is safety in refusing to do so.
Prov 14:10
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
Prov 14:21
Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor.
Prov 15:25
The Lord tears down the house of the proud, but maintains the widow’s boundaries.
Prov 17:9
One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.
Prov 19:15
Laziness brings on deep sleep; an idle person will suffer hunger.
Prov 20:16
Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger; seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.
Prov 23:1
Do not remove an ancient landmark or encroach on the fields of orphans,
Prov 27:2
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth— a stranger, and not your own lips.
Prov 27:13
Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger; seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.
Eccles 6:2
those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill.
Isa 1:7
Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
Isa 1:17
learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Isa 1:23
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them.
Isa 8:21
They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward,
Isa 9:17
That is why the Lord did not have pity on their young people, or compassion on their orphans and widows; for everyone was godless and an evildoer, and every mouth spoke folly. For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:20
They gorged on the right, but still were hungry, and they devoured on the left, but were not satisfied; they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;
Isa 10:2
to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!
Isa 14:1
But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
Isa 17:10
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,
Isa 25:2
For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt.
Isa 25:5
the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled.
Isa 28:11
Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people,
Isa 28:21
For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon to do his deed—strange is his deed!— and to work his work--alien is his work!
Isa 29:8
Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating and wakes up still hungry, or a thirsty person dreams of drinking and wakes up faint, still thirsty, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
Isa 32:6
For fools speak folly, and their minds plot iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
Isa 44:12
The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals, shaping it with hammers, and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint.
Isa 47:8
Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”--
Isa 48:21
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split open the rock and the water gushed out.
Isa 49:10
they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.
Isa 52:4
For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.
Isa 58:7
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Isa 58:10
if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
Isa 61:5
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
Isa 65:13
Therefore thus says the Lord God: My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;
Jer 2:25
Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, “It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.”
Jer 3:13
Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God, and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.
Jer 5:19
And when your people say, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” you shall say to them, “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
Jer 5:28
they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Jer 7:6
if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,
Jer 14:8
O hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night?
Jer 15:8
Their widows became more numerous than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of youths a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon her suddenly.
Jer 18:21
Therefore give their children over to famine; hurl them out to the power of the sword, let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 22:3
Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.
Jer 30:8
On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will break the yoke from off his neck, and I will burst his bonds, and strangers shall no more make a servant of him.
Jer 40:7
When all the leaders of the forces in the open country and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile to Babylon,
Jer 42:14
and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,’
Jer 49:11
Leave your orphans, I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in me.
Jer 51:51
We are put to shame, for we have heard insults; dishonor has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the Lord’s house.
Jer 52:15
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans.
Jer 52:16
But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.
Lam 1:1
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.
Lam 5:2
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.
Lam 5:3
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
Ezek 7:21
I will hand it over to strangers as booty, to the wicked of the earth as plunder; they shall profane it.
Ezek 14:7
For any of those of the house of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who separate themselves from me, taking their idols into their hearts and placing their iniquity as a stumbling block before them, and yet come to a prophet to inquire of me by him, I the Lord will answer them myself.
Ezek 16:32
Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!
Ezek 18:7
does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment,
Ezek 18:16
does not wrong anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment,
Ezek 20:38
I will purge out the rebels among you, and those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land where they reside as aliens, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezek 22:7
Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.
Ezek 22:25
Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.
Ezek 22:29
The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress.
Ezek 28:7
therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor.
Ezek 44:22
They shall not marry a widow, or a divorced woman, but only a virgin of the stock of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
Ezek 47:22
You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as citizens of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
Ezek 47:23
In whatever tribe aliens reside, there you shall assign them their inheritance, says the Lord God.
Hos 14:3
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”
Joel 3:17
So you shall know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.
Amos 2:6
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals--
Amos 2:7
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;
Amos 4:1
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”
Amos 5:11
Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
Amos 5:12
For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate.
Amos 8:4
Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
Amos 8:6
buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
Obad 11
On the day that you stood aside, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you too were like one of them.
Zech 7:10
do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
Mal 3:5
Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Matt 4:2
He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
Matt 12:1
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Matt 12:3
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
Matt 21:18
In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry.
Matt 22:24
“Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’
Matt 22:25
Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother.
Matt 25:35
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
Matt 25:37
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
Matt 25:38
And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
Matt 25:42
for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
Matt 25:43
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Matt 25:44
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
Mark 2:25
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
Mark 11:12
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.
Mark 12:19
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.
Mark 12:21
and the second married the widow and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise;
Mark 12:40
They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Mark 12:42
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.
Mark 12:43
Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.
Luke 1:53
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
Luke 2:37
then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.
Luke 4:2
where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
Luke 4:25
But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land;
Luke 4:26
yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
Luke 6:3
Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
Luke 6:21
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Luke 6:25
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
Luke 7:12
As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town.
Luke 18:3
In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’
Luke 18:5
yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ”
Luke 20:28
and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.
Luke 20:47
They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Luke 21:2
he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
Luke 21:3
He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;
Luke 24:18
Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
John 4:13
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
John 4:15
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 7:37
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
John 10:5
They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
John 14:18
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
John 19:28
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”
Acts 6:1
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.
Acts 7:6
And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years.
Acts 7:29
When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.
Acts 9:39
So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Acts 9:41
He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.
Rom 12:13
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Rom 12:20
No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
1 Cor 4:11
To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless,
1 Cor 7:8
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am.
1 Cor 11:21
For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.
1 Cor 11:34
If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.
Eph 2:12
remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:19
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
Eph 4:18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
Phil 4:12
I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.
1 Thess 2:17
As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face.
1 Tim 5:3
Honor widows who are really widows.
1 Tim 5:4
If a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some repayment to their parents; for this is pleasing in God’s sight.
1 Tim 5:5
The real widow, left alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day;
1 Tim 5:6
but the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
1 Tim 5:9
Let a widow be put on the list if she is not less than sixty years old and has been married only once;
1 Tim 5:11
But refuse to put younger widows on the list; for when their sensual desires alienate them from Christ, they want to marry,
1 Tim 5:14
So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, and manage their households, so as to give the adversary no occasion to revile us.
1 Tim 5:16
If any believing woman has relatives who are really widows, let her assist them; let the church not be burdened, so that it can assist those who are real widows.
Heb 11:13
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,
Heb 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
1 Pet 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.
3 John 5
Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers to you;
Rev 7:16
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
Rev 18:7
As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give her a like measure of torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, ‘I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’
Rev 21:6
Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Rev 22:17
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
What the Bible is about is an accumulated witness to God: 1) God (as made known in Jesus Christ and in the pilgrimage of ancient Israel); 2) the fullness of life to be found in relationship with God in Christ (salvation); and 3) what God requires of us. The prophetic tradition of the text is clear, what God requires of us is justice (equal treatment for all), humility (not presuming what is human is ultimate), and most especially loving-kindness toward our neighbor. Our neighbor being any fellow human being, but most especially those vulnerable to the powerful: the stranger in the land, the resident alien, those in immediate need (hungry and thirsty), the poor, widow, the orphan, the outcast. This last point is, I believe, the central mystery of our faith: we meet God in our hospitality toward our fellow human beings who also bear God's image. The following word study is intended to demonstrate the importance of this in Scripture.
Key Wesley Quotes: (from explanatory notes on the new testament)
On Luke 10:37: ”Let us go and do likewise," regarding every man as our neighbor who needs our assistance. Let us renounce that bigotry and party zeal which would contract our hearts, into an insensibility for all the human race, but a small number whose sentiments and practices are so much our own, that our love to them is but self-love reflected. “
On John 4:21. And this commandment have we from him—Both God and Christ; that he who loveth God, love his brother—Every one, whatever his opinions or mode of worship be, purely because he is the child and bears the image of God. Bigotry is properly the want of this pure and universal love. A bigot only loves those who embrace his opinions, and receive his way of worship: and he loves them for that, and not for Christ’s sake.
Key Bible Verses:
Deut 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome …18 who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. 19 You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Matt 25:44 Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
A Word Study: alien, stranger, widow, orphan, poor (as a noun), hungry (person), to be hungry (verb), to be thirsty (verb): 434 occurrences in 328 verses of the NRSV.
Note: I have not edited this list to remove verses that do no support my argument. I leave that work to the reader.
Gen 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.
Gen 15:13
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years;
Gen 17:8
And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”
Gen 19:9
But they replied, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and came near the door to break it down.
Gen 20:1
From there Abraham journeyed toward the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While residing in Gerar as an alien,
Gen 21:23
now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have resided as an alien.”
Gen 21:34
And Abraham resided as an alien many days in the land of the Philistines.
Gen 23:4
“I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
Gen 26:3
Reside in this land as an alien, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.
Gen 28:4
May he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien—land that God gave to Abraham.”
Gen 32:4
instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now;
Gen 35:27
Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had resided as aliens.
Gen 37:1
Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.
Gen 38:11
Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up”—for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
Gen 38:14
she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.
Gen 41:55
When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.”
Gen 42:7
When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”
Gen 47:4
They said to Pharaoh, “We have come to reside as aliens in the land; for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks because the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now, we ask you, let your servants settle in the land of Goshen.”
Exod 2:22
She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”
Exod 6:4
I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens.
Exod 12:19
For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land.
Exod 12:48
If an alien who resides with you wants to celebrate the passover to the Lord, all his males shall be circumcised; then he may draw near to celebrate it; he shall be regarded as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it;
Exod 12:49
there shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.
Exod 17:3
But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
Exod 18:3
along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been an alien in a foreign land”),
Exod 20:10
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
Exod 22:21
You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Exod 22:22
You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.
Exod 22:24
my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
Exod 22:25
If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.
Exod 23:6
You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.
Exod 23:9
You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
Exod 23:11
but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
Exod 23:12
Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.
Lev 16:29
This shall be a statute to you forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you.
Lev 17:8
And say to them further: Anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice,
Lev 17:10
If anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people.
Lev 17:12
Therefore I have said to the people of Israel: No person among you shall eat blood, nor shall any alien who resides among you eat blood.
Lev 17:13
And anyone of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside among them, who hunts down an animal or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.
Lev 17:15
All persons, citizens or aliens, who eat what dies of itself or what has been torn by wild animals, shall wash their clothes, and bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening; then they shall be clean.
Lev 18:26
But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you
Lev 19:10
You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Lev 19:33
When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.
Lev 19:34
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Lev 20:2
Say further to the people of Israel: Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death.
Lev 21:14
A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, a prostitute, these he shall not marry. He shall marry a virgin of his own kin,
Lev 22:13
but if a priest’s daughter is widowed or divorced, without offspring, and returns to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No lay person shall eat of it.
Lev 22:18
Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them: When anyone of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing in Israel presents an offering, whether in payment of a vow or as a freewill offering that is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering,
Lev 23:22
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Lev 24:16
One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer. Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death.
Lev 24:22
You shall have one law for the alien and for the citizen: for I am the Lord your God.
Lev 25:23
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.
Lev 25:35
If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.
Lev 25:45
You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.
Lev 25:47
If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family,
Lev 25:50
They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer.
Lev 25:53
As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight.
Num 9:14
Any alien residing among you who wishes to keep the passover to the Lord shall do so according to the statute of the passover and according to its regulation; you shall have one statute for both the resident alien and the native.
Num 15:14
An alien who lives with you, or who takes up permanent residence among you, and wishes to offer an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord, shall do as you do.
Num 15:15
As for the assembly, there shall be for both you and the resident alien a single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and the alien shall be alike before the Lord.
Num 15:16
You and the alien who resides with you shall have the same law and the same ordinance.
Num 15:26
All the congregation of the Israelites shall be forgiven, as well as the aliens residing among them, because the whole people was involved in the error.
Num 15:29
For both the native among the Israelites and the alien residing among them—you shall have the same law for anyone who acts in error.
Num 15:30
But whoever acts high-handedly, whether a native or an alien, affronts the Lord, and shall be cut off from among the people.
Num 19:10
The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them.
Num 30:9
(But every vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall be binding upon her.)
Num 35:15
These six cities shall serve as refuge for the Israelites, for the resident or transient alien among them, so that anyone who kills a person without intent may flee there.
Deut 1:16
I charged your judges at that time: “Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien.
Deut 5:14
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.
Deut 10:18
who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.
Deut 10:19
You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deut 14:21
You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Deut 14:29
the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.
Deut 15:4
There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy,
Deut 15:11
Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”
Deut 16:11
Rejoice before the Lord your God—you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, the Levites resident in your towns, as well as the strangers, the orphans, and the widows who are among you—at the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.
Deut 16:14
Rejoice during your festival, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, as well as the Levites, the strangers, the orphans, and the widows resident in your towns.
Deut 23:7
You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land.
Deut 24:14
You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns.
Deut 24:17
You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge.
Deut 24:19
When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Deut 24:20
When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
Deut 24:21
When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
Deut 25:5
When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her,
Deut 25:7
But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.”
Deut 26:5
you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.
Deut 26:11
Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
Deut 26:12
When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns,
Deut 26:13
then you shall say before the Lord your God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments:
Deut 27:19
“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”
Deut 28:43
Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.
Deut 29:11
your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water--
Deut 31:12
Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law,
Josh 8:33
All Israel, alien as well as citizen, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark in front of the levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
Josh 8:35
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the aliens who resided among them.
Josh 20:9
These were the cities designated for all the Israelites, and for the aliens residing among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so as not to die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until there was a trial before the congregation.
Judg 4:19
Then he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.
Judg 15:18
By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, “You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
Ruth 2:9
Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”
Ruth 4:5
Then Boaz said, “The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.”
1 Sam 2:5
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.
1 Sam 27:3
David stayed with Achish at Gath, he and his troops, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow.
1 Sam 30:5
David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
2 Sam 1:13
David said to the young man who had reported to him, “Where do you come from?” He answered, “I am the son of a resident alien, an Amalekite.”
2 Sam 2:2
So David went up there, along with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
2 Sam 3:3
his second, Chileab, of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third, Absalom son of Maacah, daughter of King Talmai of Geshur;
2 Sam 4:3
(Now the people of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and are there as resident aliens to this day).
2 Sam 14:5
The king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead.
1 Kings 7:14
He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, whose father, a man of Tyre, had been an artisan in bronze; he was full of skill, intelligence, and knowledge in working bronze. He came to King Solomon, and did all his work.
1 Kings 11:26
Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, rebelled against the king.
1 Kings 17:19
“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
1 Kings 17:10
So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”
1 Kings 17:20
He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”
2 Kings 24:14
He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land.
2 Kings 25:12
But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.
1 Chron 16:19
When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in the land,
1 Chron 22:2
David gave orders to gather together the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God.
1 Chron 29:15
For we are aliens and transients before you, as were all our ancestors; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.
2 Chron 2:17
Then Solomon took a census of all the aliens who were residing in the land of Israel, after the census that his father David had taken; and there were found to be one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.
2 Chron 15:9
He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing as aliens with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
2 Chron 30:25
The whole assembly of Judah, the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the resident aliens who came out of the land of Israel, and the resident aliens who lived in Judah, rejoiced.
Esther 9:22
as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
Job 5:5
The hungry eat their harvest, and they take it even out of the thorns; and the thirsty pant after their wealth.
Job 5:15
But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth, from the hand of the mighty.
Job 6:27
You would even cast lots over the orphan, and bargain over your friend.
Job 15:19
to whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them.
Job 19:15
the guests in my house have forgotten me; my serving girls count me as a stranger; I have become an alien in their eyes.
Job 22:7
You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
Job 22:9
You have sent widows away empty-handed, and the arms of the orphans you have crushed.
Job 24:3
They drive away the donkey of the orphan; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
Job 24:4
They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Job 24:9
“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast, and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.
Job 24:10
They go about naked, without clothing; though hungry, they carry the sheaves;
Job 24:11
between their terraces they press out oil; they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
Job 24:14
The murderer rises at dusk to kill the poor and needy, and in the night is like a thief.
Job 24:21
“They harm the childless woman, and do no good to the widow.
Job 27:15
Those who survive them the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation.
Job 29:12
because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper.
Job 29:13
The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
Job 29:16
I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger.
Job 30:25
Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Job 31:16
“If I have withheld anything that the poor desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
Job 31:17
or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not eaten from it--
Job 31:18
for from my youth I reared the orphan like a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow--
Job 31:19
if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or a poor person without covering,
Job 31:21
if I have raised my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had supporters at the gate;
Job 31:32
the stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler--
Job 34:28
so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, and he heard the cry of the afflicted--
Ps 10:14
But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan.
Ps 10:18
to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more.
Ps 34:10
The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Ps 39:12
“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not hold your peace at my tears. For I am your passing guest, an alien, like all my forebears.
Ps 50:12
“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.
Ps 68:5
Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
Ps 69:8
I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children.
Ps 78:64
Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Ps 82:3
Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Ps 94:6
They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan,
Ps 102:17
He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.
Ps 105:12
When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in it,
Ps 105:23
Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
Ps 107:36
And there he lets the hungry live, and they establish a town to live in;
Ps 109:9
May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
Ps 109:11
May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
Ps 109:12
May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
Ps 112:9
They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor.
Ps 119:19
I live as an alien in the land; do not hide your commandments from me.
Ps 120:5
Woe is me, that I am an alien in Meshech, that I must live among the tents of Kedar.
Ps 144:7
Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens,
Ps 144:11
Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false.
Ps 146:7
who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free;
Ps 146:9
The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Prov 5:10
and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labors will go to the house of an alien;
Prov 5:17
Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.
Prov 6:30
Thieves are not despised who steal only to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.
Prov 11:15
To guarantee loans for a stranger brings trouble, but there is safety in refusing to do so.
Prov 14:10
The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.
Prov 14:21
Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor.
Prov 15:25
The Lord tears down the house of the proud, but maintains the widow’s boundaries.
Prov 17:9
One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.
Prov 19:15
Laziness brings on deep sleep; an idle person will suffer hunger.
Prov 20:16
Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger; seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.
Prov 23:1
Do not remove an ancient landmark or encroach on the fields of orphans,
Prov 27:2
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth— a stranger, and not your own lips.
Prov 27:13
Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger; seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.
Eccles 6:2
those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill.
Isa 1:7
Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
Isa 1:17
learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Isa 1:23
Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them.
Isa 8:21
They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward,
Isa 9:17
That is why the Lord did not have pity on their young people, or compassion on their orphans and widows; for everyone was godless and an evildoer, and every mouth spoke folly. For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:20
They gorged on the right, but still were hungry, and they devoured on the left, but were not satisfied; they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;
Isa 10:2
to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!
Isa 14:1
But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
Isa 17:10
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and set out slips of an alien god,
Isa 25:2
For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt.
Isa 25:5
the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled.
Isa 28:11
Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people,
Isa 28:21
For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon to do his deed—strange is his deed!— and to work his work--alien is his work!
Isa 29:8
Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating and wakes up still hungry, or a thirsty person dreams of drinking and wakes up faint, still thirsty, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
Isa 32:6
For fools speak folly, and their minds plot iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
Isa 44:12
The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals, shaping it with hammers, and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint.
Isa 47:8
Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”--
Isa 48:21
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split open the rock and the water gushed out.
Isa 49:10
they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.
Isa 52:4
For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.
Isa 58:7
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Isa 58:10
if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
Isa 61:5
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines;
Isa 65:13
Therefore thus says the Lord God: My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;
Jer 2:25
Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, “It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.”
Jer 3:13
Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God, and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.
Jer 5:19
And when your people say, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” you shall say to them, “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
Jer 5:28
they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
Jer 7:6
if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt,
Jer 14:8
O hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night?
Jer 15:8
Their widows became more numerous than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of youths a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon her suddenly.
Jer 18:21
Therefore give their children over to famine; hurl them out to the power of the sword, let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
Jer 22:3
Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.
Jer 30:8
On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will break the yoke from off his neck, and I will burst his bonds, and strangers shall no more make a servant of him.
Jer 40:7
When all the leaders of the forces in the open country and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile to Babylon,
Jer 42:14
and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for bread, and there we will stay,’
Jer 49:11
Leave your orphans, I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in me.
Jer 51:51
We are put to shame, for we have heard insults; dishonor has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the Lord’s house.
Jer 52:15
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans.
Jer 52:16
But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.
Lam 1:1
How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.
Lam 5:2
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to aliens.
Lam 5:3
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
Ezek 7:21
I will hand it over to strangers as booty, to the wicked of the earth as plunder; they shall profane it.
Ezek 14:7
For any of those of the house of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who separate themselves from me, taking their idols into their hearts and placing their iniquity as a stumbling block before them, and yet come to a prophet to inquire of me by him, I the Lord will answer them myself.
Ezek 16:32
Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!
Ezek 18:7
does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment,
Ezek 18:16
does not wrong anyone, exacts no pledge, commits no robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment,
Ezek 20:38
I will purge out the rebels among you, and those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land where they reside as aliens, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
Ezek 22:7
Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.
Ezek 22:25
Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.
Ezek 22:29
The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress.
Ezek 28:7
therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor.
Ezek 44:22
They shall not marry a widow, or a divorced woman, but only a virgin of the stock of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.
Ezek 47:22
You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. They shall be to you as citizens of Israel; with you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
Ezek 47:23
In whatever tribe aliens reside, there you shall assign them their inheritance, says the Lord God.
Hos 14:3
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”
Joel 3:17
So you shall know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.
Amos 2:6
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals--
Amos 2:7
they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned;
Amos 4:1
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, “Bring something to drink!”
Amos 5:11
Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
Amos 5:12
For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate.
Amos 8:4
Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
Amos 8:6
buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”
Obad 11
On the day that you stood aside, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you too were like one of them.
Zech 7:10
do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
Mal 3:5
Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Matt 4:2
He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.
Matt 12:1
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
Matt 12:3
He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
Matt 21:18
In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry.
Matt 22:24
“Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’
Matt 22:25
Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother.
Matt 25:35
for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
Matt 25:37
Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
Matt 25:38
And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?
Matt 25:42
for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
Matt 25:43
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
Matt 25:44
Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’
Mark 2:25
And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?
Mark 11:12
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.
Mark 12:19
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.
Mark 12:21
and the second married the widow and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise;
Mark 12:40
They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Mark 12:42
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.
Mark 12:43
Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.
Luke 1:53
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
Luke 2:37
then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.
Luke 4:2
where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
Luke 4:25
But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land;
Luke 4:26
yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
Luke 6:3
Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
Luke 6:21
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Luke 6:25
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
Luke 7:12
As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town.
Luke 18:3
In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’
Luke 18:5
yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ”
Luke 20:28
and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.
Luke 20:47
They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
Luke 21:2
he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
Luke 21:3
He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them;
Luke 24:18
Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
John 4:13
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
John 4:15
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 7:37
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
John 10:5
They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
John 14:18
“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
John 19:28
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”
Acts 6:1
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.
Acts 7:6
And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years.
Acts 7:29
When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.
Acts 9:39
So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Acts 9:41
He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.
Rom 12:13
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Rom 12:20
No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”
1 Cor 4:11
To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless,
1 Cor 7:8
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am.
1 Cor 11:21
For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.
1 Cor 11:34
If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.
Eph 2:12
remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:19
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
Eph 4:18
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.
Phil 4:12
I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.
1 Thess 2:17
As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face.
1 Tim 5:3
Honor widows who are really widows.
1 Tim 5:4
If a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some repayment to their parents; for this is pleasing in God’s sight.
1 Tim 5:5
The real widow, left alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day;
1 Tim 5:6
but the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
1 Tim 5:9
Let a widow be put on the list if she is not less than sixty years old and has been married only once;
1 Tim 5:11
But refuse to put younger widows on the list; for when their sensual desires alienate them from Christ, they want to marry,
1 Tim 5:14
So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, and manage their households, so as to give the adversary no occasion to revile us.
1 Tim 5:16
If any believing woman has relatives who are really widows, let her assist them; let the church not be burdened, so that it can assist those who are real widows.
Heb 11:13
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth,
Heb 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
1 Pet 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.
3 John 5
Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers to you;
Rev 7:16
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
Rev 18:7
As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give her a like measure of torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, ‘I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’
Rev 21:6
Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Rev 22:17
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.
