H1471 — גּוֹי (gôwy)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H1471
Original: גּוֹי (also shortened גֹּי)
Transliteration: gôwy (goy)
Pronunciation: go'-ee
Part of Speech: Masculine noun (occasionally proper noun in place-names)
Root: Apparently from the same root as גֵּוָה (gēvâh, "body/back"), in the sense of "massing"; i.e. a people grouped together as a corporate body
Occurrences: 511 unique verses (607 tokens) across 34 OT books
First Occurrence: Gen 10:5 — "By these were the isles of the Gentiles (gôwyim) divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations"
Hapax Legomenon: No — the standard OT word for "nation"

Lexicon Definition¶

From the same root as גֵּוָה (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts — Gentile, heathen, nation, people.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
nations / the nations / of the nations / among the nations / etc.	~284	~56%
heathen / the heathen / of the heathen / among the heathen / etc.	~141	~28%
nation / a nation / the nation / that nation / etc.	~102	~20%
Gentiles / the Gentiles / of the Gentiles / among the Gentiles	~30	~6%
people / the people / a people / my people	~10	~2%

(Counts overlap because the same verse may be rendered by multiple phrase forms in the concordance tally. The KJV varies its English rendering by context: "Gentiles" and "heathen" appear most where the contrast with Israel is sharpest; "nations" dominates in neutral ethnographic or universal contexts.)

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Obadiah	4	19.0
Zephaniah	7	13.2
Habakkuk	7	12.5
Joel	8	11.0
Zechariah	17	8.1
Haggai	3	7.9
Malachi	4	7.3
Micah	7	6.7
Ezekiel	81	6.4
Jeremiah	77	5.6
Isaiah	66	5.1
Lamentations	7	4.5
Deuteronomy	41	4.3
Nahum	2	4.3
Amos	4	2.7
Psalms	58	2.4
2 Kings	14	1.9
Joshua	12	1.8
Genesis	23	1.5
Nehemiah	6	1.5
Hosea	3	1.5
2 Chronicles	11	1.3
Judges	7	1.1
Leviticus	7	0.8
Daniel	3	0.8
1 Chronicles	7	0.7
2 Samuel	4	0.6
Exodus	6	0.5
1 Kings	4	0.5
Numbers	5	0.4
Ezra	1	0.4
1 Samuel	2	0.2
Job	2	0.2
Proverbs	1	0.1

The word is overwhelmingly prophetic: the twelve minor prophets and Isaiah/Jeremiah/Ezekiel dominate by density. Ezekiel and Jeremiah together account for ~31% of all tokens (158/511). Deuteronomy leads the Torah (41×) as the legal framework for Israel's relationship to the surrounding gôyim. Obadiah has the highest density (19 per 100 verses) because its entire subject is Edom as one of the gôyim. Absent from Ruth, Esther, Song of Solomon, and most of the wisdom literature — the word belongs to covenantal, historical, and prophetic discourse, not sapiential reflection.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Israel as a Nation (The Covenant Goy)¶

Despite later connotations, gôwy is used of Israel itself — sometimes in distinction from the gôyim, sometimes alongside them.

Gen 12:2 — "And I will make of thee a great nation (gôwy gâdôl)" — the Abrahamic promise
Exod 19:6 — "ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation (gôwy qâdôsh)"
Deut 4:6–8 — "what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them... statutes and judgments so righteous"
2 Sam 7:23 — "what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel"

2. The Nations in General (Ethnopolitical Groups)¶

Neutral usage: peoples defined by language, territory, lineage, or kingship.

Gen 10:5, 20, 31, 32 — the Table of Nations: gôyim sorted "after their tongues... after their families... in their lands"
Gen 17:4–5 — Abraham as "father of many nations"
Gen 25:23 — "Two nations are in thy womb" (Jacob/Esau)
Deut 32:8 — "When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance"

3. Foreign/Hostile Nations (Adversaries of Israel)¶

The gôyim as military and political threats — nations God will drive out, or nations that oppress Israel.

Deut 7:1 — "hath cast out many nations before thee... seven nations greater and mightier than thou"
Jer 5:15 — "I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel... it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation"
Hab 1:6 — "I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation"
Obad 1:1 — "an ambassador is sent among the heathen"

4. Morally/Religiously Other ("The Heathen")¶

Nations characterized by idolatry, abomination, uncircumcision, or ignorance of YHWH; the KJV often renders this register as "heathen."

Lev 18:24 — "the nations are defiled which I cast out before you"
Lev 26:33 — "I will scatter you among the heathen"
2 Kgs 17:8, 11 — "walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out"
Jer 10:2 — "Learn not the way of the heathen"
Ezek 36:23 — "I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen"

5. Nations as Objects of Divine Judgment¶

Prophetic oracles where gôyim are the direct targets of YHWH's wrath — the "day of the LORD" extending universally.

Joel 3:2, 12 — "I will also gather all nations... let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat"
Zeph 3:8 — "my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms"
Isa 34:1–2 — "Come near, ye nations, to hear... the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations"
Zech 14:2–3 — "I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle... Then shall the LORD go forth and fight against those nations"

6. Nations as Objects of Redemption / Eschatological Blessing¶

The counter-current: gôyim as witnesses to or sharers in YHWH's salvation.

Gen 22:18 — "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"
Isa 2:2–4 — "all nations shall flow unto it... he shall judge among the nations"
Isa 49:6 — "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth"
Isa 60:3 — "the Gentiles shall come to thy light"
Zech 8:22–23 — "Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD"
Mal 1:11 — "my name shall be great among the Gentiles... from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same"

7. Israel Exiled / Scattered Among the Nations¶

A distinct covenantal pattern: the scattering of Israel among the gôyim as curse, followed by regathering.

Lev 26:38 — "ye shall perish among the heathen"
Deut 4:27 — "the LORD shall scatter you among the nations"
Deut 28:64–65 — "the LORD shall scatter thee among all people... among these nations shalt thou find no ease"
Ezek 36:19, 24 — "I scattered them among the heathen... I will take you from among the heathen"
Jer 29:14; 30:11 — "I will gather you from all the nations... I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	187× (37%)	"the LORD... and the nations" — YHWH as judge / redeemer of gôyim
אֲשֶׁר (ʼasher)	H834	165× (32%)	relative: "the nations which..." — descriptor for the gôyim
כֹּל (kol)	H3605	154× (30%)	"all the nations" — universalizing formula (kol-haggôyim)
אֶרֶץ (ʼerets)	H776	141× (28%)	"nations of the earth / the land" — territorial framing
לֹא (lôʼ)	H3808	128× (25%)	"a nation that did not..." — negative predication (nation not knowing, not obeying)
עַל (ʻal)	H5921	114× (22%)	"against/upon the nations" — judgment preposition
אֱלֹהִים (ʼelohim)	H430	81× (16%)	"God of all the nations" / "gods of the nations"
עַם (ʻam)	H5971	81× (16%)	"nation and people" parallelism — hendiadys for populace
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrâʼêl)	H3478	59× (12%)	direct Israel↔gôyim contrast
מֶלֶךְ (melek)	H4428	56× (11%)	"kings of the nations" — political leadership
פָּנִים (pânîym)	H6440	53× (10%)	"before/from before the nations" — cast out, displayed among
שֵׁם (shêm)	H8034	40× (8%)	"my name among the nations" — YHWH's reputation
שָׁמַע (shâmaʻ)	H8085	40× (8%)	"the nations have heard" — prophetic audience

Word Family / Cognates¶

H1472 גְּוִיָּה (gᵉvîyâh) — body, corpse (same root sense of a corporate mass)
H1465 גֵּוָה (gēvâh) — back, body, middle (shared "corporate body" imagery)

Synonyms¶

H523 אֻמַּה / אֻמָּה (ʼummah) — nation, people; a rarer near-neighbor for a national grouping.
H3816 לְאֹם (lᵉʼōm) — nation, people-group; poetic/archaic overlap with gôwy.
H5971 עַם (ʻam) — people; covenantal/kinship community that often stands in contrast or parallel to gôwy.
H4467 מַמְלָכָה (mamlākâh) — kingdom; political formation closely adjacent to the nation-term.
H4428 מֶלֶךְ (melek) — king; surfaced by the relationship tool because nations are commonly indexed through their rulers.
H776 אֶרֶץ (ʼerets) — land; adjacent where nationhood is expressed territorially.
H1550 גָּלִיל (gālîyl) — district, circuit; a looser regional/grouping neighbor returned by search_relationships.py.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H1471.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
עַם (ʻam)	H5971	"people" / "nation" (~10 shared renderings)	ʻam = a people bound by kinship or covenant (usually Israel); gôwy = a people bound by territory, language, polity (usually the others). The two often appear in parallel: Israel is God's ʻam among the gôyim.
לְאֹם (lᵉʼôm)	H3816	"nation" / "people" (~11 shared)	Poetic/archaic synonym found mostly in Psalms and Isaiah; carries the same ethnopolitical sense as gôwy but with an elevated register
אֻמָּה (ʼummâh)	H523	"nation" (~7 shared)	Rare Hebrew near-synonym; tribe or clan-scale group (Gen 25:16; Num 25:15); smaller unit than gôwy
מַמְלָכָה (mamlâkâh)	H4467	"kingdom" (frequent collocation, not synonym)	Kingdom = political unit under a king; gôwy = the ethno-demographic body itself, which may or may not have a king

Key distinction (ʻam vs. gôwy): Deut 32:21 plays on this: "they have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God... I will move them to jealousy with a no-people (lôʼ-ʻam), I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation (gôwy nâbâl)." God's relationship to Israel is expressed through ʻam; his relationship to outsiders through gôwy.

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[001002007004] Groups — the primary relationship-tool domain for H1471, matching its core sense of a corporate people-group or nation.
[003001010] Names of Locations — a secondary classifier spillover: nations are frequently indexed by their lands and place-names, but this is not the core gloss of gôwy itself.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ἔθνος (éthnos)	G1484	469	31.34	Primary — overwhelming (~92% of renderings)
χώρα (chṓra)	G5561	29	11.59	"land / country" — where gôwy denotes territory rather than population
διασπείρω (diaspeírō)	G1289	16	10.40	"scatter / disperse" — collocation in exile passages
διασκορπίζω (diaskorpízō)	G1287	11	8.79	"scatter abroad" — similar diaspora contexts
λικμάω (likmáō)	G3039	6	8.14	"winnow" — judgment imagery
ἐπισυνάγω (episynágō)	G1996	5	7.02	"gather together" — eschatological regathering
γῆ (gē)	G1093	126	6.26	"earth / land" — often in the phrase "nations of the earth"

The LXX virtually locks gôwy → ἔθνος (éthnos). This equation is the most consistent ethno-theological bridge in the entire LXX. Because of this, NT authors using ethnos are drawing on the full OT theology of haggôyim — nations as "other," as judged, and as ultimately blessed.