A Daily Genesis

Genesis 25:23a

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 25:23a . . and the Lord answered her: Two nations are in your womb, two separate peoples shall issue from your body;[/B]

The Hebrew word for "nations" is from [I]gowy[/I] (go'-ee); or the short version [I]goy[/I] (go'-ee) which means: (in the sense of massing) a foreign nation; hence, Gentiles; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts.

The words gowy and goy, are commonly used by modern Jews in referring to people who aren't Jewish. But the words goyim and goy do not especially mean non-Jews. Those words apply to all manner of people masses; both Jew and Gentile. There are other Bible examples where those words unmistakably apply not just to non Jews, but to genetic Hebrews too.

For example: "I will make of you a great nation" (Gen 12:2). That promise was made to Abraham regarding his genetic progeny. The word for "nation" in that verse (which in this case clearly refers to the people of Israel) is gowy, the same word describing both Jacob and Esau.

Another example is Gen 18:17-18 where both Hebrews and Gentiles are referred to as goyyim: "Now the Lord had said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him?"

In another instance; God gave His word that, while the universe exists, the people of Israel would never cease to be goy.

"Thus said the Lord, Who established the sun for light by day, the laws of moon and stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea into roaring waves, Whose name is Lord of Hosts: If these laws should ever be annulled by Me-- declares the Lord-- only then would the offspring of Israel cease to be a nation before Me for all time." (Jer 31:35-36)

So the people of Israel are still goy even to this very day.

Gen 25:23a is an interesting development. God chose Sarah to be the one through whom Abraham's covenant would perpetuate-- likewise He chose Rebecca for the same purpose. It was through her that the covenant would perpetuate too. But Rebecca is somehow different. For reasons of His own, God waited for her to come along before getting serious about multiplying Yhvh's people.

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