Very good article! I always thought of being kind to "strangers" as an individual basis, not large groups or setting immigration policy. Plus in a country as large as the US, a "stranger" could easily be someone from another State.
The Bible also mentions how Egyptians could be let into the assembly after three generations, but Ammonites or other Caananites could not be allowed into the assembly even to the tenth generation. It is interesting how Israel was to be on more friendly terms with the People from which they came (Egypt) and people they are closely related to (Edom), but are to be very hostile to their neighbors in the Levant (Canaanites, Ammonites, etc.) in the where they are going to. I wonder what the implications of that would be on US immigration policy?
Exodus 12 and Numbers 1 do not belong on the list: the word used for "stranger" in the original everywhere else you cite is "ger" (גר), which comes from the same root as "to live in a place" or "sojourn". While in those two cases the word used is "zar" (זר), which means "foreign", as in "foreign matter", something or someone that does not belong. In Exodus 12 it refers to anybody who is not a priest (even if he is not a "stranger" in the first sense.) In Numbers 1 it refers to anybody who is not a priest or a Levite.
Here is a passage that makes your main point even stronger: "Though you beget sons and daughters, they shall not remain with you, for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall take over all the trees and produce of your land. *The stranger (הגר) in your midst* shall rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower. They shall be your creditors, but you shall not be theirs; they shall be the head and you the tail. All these *curses* shall befall you..." (Deuteronomy 28, 41-45)
Very good article! I always thought of being kind to "strangers" as an individual basis, not large groups or setting immigration policy. Plus in a country as large as the US, a "stranger" could easily be someone from another State.
The Bible also mentions how Egyptians could be let into the assembly after three generations, but Ammonites or other Caananites could not be allowed into the assembly even to the tenth generation. It is interesting how Israel was to be on more friendly terms with the People from which they came (Egypt) and people they are closely related to (Edom), but are to be very hostile to their neighbors in the Levant (Canaanites, Ammonites, etc.) in the where they are going to. I wonder what the implications of that would be on US immigration policy?
Good piece.
Exodus 12 and Numbers 1 do not belong on the list: the word used for "stranger" in the original everywhere else you cite is "ger" (גר), which comes from the same root as "to live in a place" or "sojourn". While in those two cases the word used is "zar" (זר), which means "foreign", as in "foreign matter", something or someone that does not belong. In Exodus 12 it refers to anybody who is not a priest (even if he is not a "stranger" in the first sense.) In Numbers 1 it refers to anybody who is not a priest or a Levite.
Here is a passage that makes your main point even stronger: "Though you beget sons and daughters, they shall not remain with you, for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall take over all the trees and produce of your land. *The stranger (הגר) in your midst* shall rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower. They shall be your creditors, but you shall not be theirs; they shall be the head and you the tail. All these *curses* shall befall you..." (Deuteronomy 28, 41-45)