Christian Pure

18 Bible Verses About Immigration and Welcoming Foreigners

Christian Pure Team

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Summary

  • The law’s most frequent reason for protecting foreigners is “you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 22:21, 23:9; Leviticus 19:34; Deuteronomy 10:19).
  • Hebrew distinguishes the ger, the foreigner living among the people and covered by their law, from the nokri, the outsider passing through.
  • Leviticus 19 gives “love them as yourself” twice in one chapter, once about a neighbor and once about a foreigner.
  • Jeremiah addresses the charge to a king about the conduct of a government, not to individuals.
  • Scripture has no view on visas, quotas or modern borders, and quoting it to close that argument asks it to do work it was not written for.

The law of Moses tells God’s people to protect and love the foreigners living among them, usually with the same reason: they had been foreigners too. “You were foreigners in Egypt” is attached to the command in Exodus 22:21, Exodus 23:9, Leviticus 19:34 and Deuteronomy 10:19. Hebrew distinguishes the ger, a foreigner residing among the Israelites and protected by their law, from the nokri, a foreigner passing through, for whom some rules differed (Deuteronomy 15:3). The eighteen verses below cover…

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Bibliography (Click to show)

Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.

The Hebrew ger denotes a resident foreigner under Israel’s law; nokri denotes an outsider, and some rules — on lending at interest, for instance, at Deuteronomy 23:20 — distinguished between them.

“Love your neighbour as yourself” is at Leviticus 19:18, sixteen verses before 19:34.

The gleaning law that feeds Ruth runs through the book of Ruth from 2:2.

The twelve curses from Mount Ebal are at Deuteronomy 27:15-26.

The mother’s advice to King Lemuel begins at Proverbs 31:1.

Abraham’s visitors at Mamre are at Genesis 18:1-8.

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