People of the Land

Biblical Text

The phrase occurs in many places in the Old Testament. The people it designates vary with period and context.

• Inhabitants of a land: The phrase refers broadly to the people living in a given land. Examples include the Hittites before whom Abraham bowed when he purchased a burial site in Hebron (Genesis 23:7) and the people of Egypt of whom Pharaoh spoke (Exodus 5:5).
• Ordinary Israelites: Leviticus 4:27 uses the phrase for a common person who is neither a priest nor a ruler.
• The people of the kingdom of Judah: In 2 Kings they play a role in the royal succession.
• They joined in rejoicing when the priest Jehoiada deposed Athaliah and installed Joash (2 Kings 11:14, 20).
• When King Amon was assassinated by his servants, they put the conspirators to death and made Josiah king (2 Kings 21:23-24).
• After Josiah's death they made his son Jehoahaz king (2 Kings 23:30).
• Jehoiakim exacted from them the silver and gold to be paid to Egypt (2 Kings 23:35).
• The Prophets: Jeremiah 1:18 lists them alongside the kings, princes, and priests. Ezekiel 22:29 rebukes them for oppressing the poor. Haggai 2:4, encouraging the rebuilding of the Temple, addresses them: "be strong, all ye people of the land."
• After the return from exile: In Ezra 4:4 they appear as those who hindered the building of the Temple. In Nehemiah 10:30-31 they are the people with whom the returned community pledged to avoid intermarriage and trade on the Sabbath.

Word and Background

'Am means "people" or "multitude," and ha'aretz means "the land." Korean Bible translations render the phrase variously according to context, as "the people of the land," "common people," "inhabitants," and the like.

Scholars hold two main views on its usage during the period of the kingdom of Judah:

• That it refers to a political body or local elite composed of free, landowning men
• That it refers not to a specific group but broadly to the general populace, as distinguished from the royal house, officials, and priests

Meaning in the Whole of Scripture

Before the exile, the phrase denoted full members of the community of Judah. Through the Babylonian exile and the return from exile, however, it came to refer to outsiders distinct from the returned community.

In later rabbinic literature it became a disparaging term for those who had not studied the Law or who neglected the regulations on tithing and purity. In this usage such people are contrasted with the Pharisees. The expression does not appear as a technical term in the New Testament. Many scholars, however, read John 7:49, where the Pharisees disdain "this people who knoweth not the law," and Acts 4:13, where Peter and John are called "unlearned and ignorant men," against this background. Jesus' eating with publicans and sinners (Mark 2:16) is often interpreted against the same background.

Interpretation and Issues

• Reading later meanings into the text: The disparaging sense found in rabbinic literature arose after the Old Testament period. Some scholars therefore caution against reading this meaning directly into Old Testament texts. Indeed, the "people of the land" in 2 Kings are portrayed as a group that safeguards the throne.
• "The people of the land" in Ezra and Nehemiah: Views differ on whom the phrase designates. Proposals include foreign peoples, settlers brought into the north, and Judahites who were not taken into exile but remained in the land. Some explanations identify them directly with the Samaritans of the New Testament, but the text does not explicitly say so.
• Distinction from similar expressions: "All families of the earth" in Genesis 12:3 uses a different expression in the original language and should be distinguished from this phrase.