1. people/nation (an ethnic or political community) — A people, nation, or populace — a collective body of persons bound by ethnic, political, or religious identity. The most common NT usage (133x singular) refers to Israel as God's chosen people (Luke 1:68, 2:32, Acts 3:23), though the plural (9x) denotes multiple nations or peoples in eschatological contexts (Rev 5:9, 7:9, 10:11, 11:9, 21:3). Multilingual evidence: spa 'pueblo/pueblos' (people/peoples), hin 'log/logon' (people, unchanged), arb 'sha'b/shu'ub' (people/peoples), kor '백성/백성들' (baekseong, people), swa 'watu' (people, same for both). The sg/pl split is inflectional; the referential scope (one nation vs many) is contextual, not a distinct lexical sense. 142×
AR["الشَّعْبُ","الشَّعْبِ","شَعبِ","شَعْبًا","شَعْبَهُ","شَعْبُ","شَعْبِ","شَعْبِهِ","شَعْبِي","شَّعْبُ"]·ben["জনগণ","জনগণকে","জনগণের","প্রজা","প্রজাদের","প্রজাদের,","প্রজাদের।","লোক","লোকদের","লোকেদের","লোকের","লোকেরা"]·DE["Volk"]·EN["a-people","people"]·FR["peuple"]·heb["הָעָם","עַם","עָם"]·HI["लोग","लोगों","लोगों-का","लोगों-की","लोगों-के","लोगों-को","लोगों-में","लोगोन-क","सन्मान-देते-हैं"]·ID["Bangsa","bangsa","bangsa,","itu","rakyat","rakyat.","umat"]·IT["lao","laon","laos","laou"]·jav["Umat","rakyat","umat","umat,","umatipun","umatipun."]·KO["백성","백성-에게","백성-에게서","백성-은","백성-을","백성-의","백성-이","백성의","백성이"]·PT["povo"]·RU["народ","народа","народу"]·ES["pueblo"]·SW["-wa-watu","Watu","watu"]·TR["halk","halka","halkta","halkımı","halkın","halkına","halkını"]·urd["قوم","قوم-سے","قوم-میں","قوم-نے","قوم-کا","قوم-کے","لوگ","لوگوں","لوگوں-کی"]
Matt 1:21, Matt 2:4, Matt 2:6, Matt 4:16, Matt 4:23, Matt 13:15, Matt 15:8, Matt 26:3, Matt 26:5, Matt 26:47, Matt 27:1, Matt 27:25 (+38 more)
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
λᾱός, ὁ, Ionic dialect ληός Refs 6th c.BC+ (variant{λαόν}, which is in all Mss. in Refs 6th c.BC+; Attic dialect λεώς, which is also used in Refs 5th c.BC+ and in late Prose, as Foed.Byzantine cited in Refs 5th c.BC+ __1 in Refs 8th c.BC+ (λαοί) usually means men, i.e. soldiers, both of the whole army and smaller divisions, κριτὸς ἔγρετο λ. Ἀχαιῶν Refs; periphrastic, στρατὸς λαῶνRefs; mostly…