Since It Came Up On the Christian Thread...

And it's such an issue today I thought I would start a thread dedicated to this topic.

If anyone tries to tell you that the Bible commands nations to allow illegal immigration and not throw illegal immigrants out, IMO they are 100% wrong.

The word in the relevant passages commanding hospitality to immigrants, usually translated as "foreigners," "sojourners," "aliens," or "strangers," (depending upon the translation and passage) is the Hebrew word "ger." It appears over 80 times in passages in the Old Testament.

There are two other words used in Hebrew to designate foreigners, "nekhar" and "zar." I couldn't find an example of either being used in the same context of God commanding the Israelites to accept and show hospitality to foreigners.

All three words can mean "foreigner" in Hebrew, but only "ger" means a person who has obtained legal status to be in a foreign country. That seems to be its unique and defining linguistic characteristic.

"Gers" in ancient Israel had legal status and certain enumerated rights according to the Law as legal immigrants. They also were considered converts to Judaism and were able to take part in all religious ceremonies and sacraments. Which means, they were expected to assimilate into the culture, not remain separate from it.

There are also examples of interactions from the Old Testament that show clearly that in the ancient world, national sovereignty was as recognized as it is today and people were expected to obtain permission to enter another nation.

One such example is Numbers 20:14-21, in which Israel sought permission to travel through Edom. He and his group offered to pay for whatever they ate or drank (which clearly illustrates that they recognized that the reason that national sovereignty and obtaining permission was important was because people from outside of a nation would be consuming resources that rightly belonged to the natural citizens of the nation). They also submitted upon being told no—they went around. They didn't just sneak in anyway.

So from what I can see, the "foreigner/immigrant/sojourner/stranger/alien" that the Israelites were commanded to take in and give hospitality to in the Old Testament was not someone illegally violating their national sovereignty who came in into their nation without permission and with no intention to assimilate to the culture.

They were people who respected their sovereignty, obtained permission to be there, and wanted to convert/assimilate into the culture.

What we would call "legal immigrants" today.

James K. Hoffmeier, Professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern Archaeology at Trinity International University wrote a whole book about this in 2009.