Strange , in a variety of degrees and applications ( foreign , non-relative , adulterous , different , wonderful )
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The Hebrew adjective nokĕrî describes someone or something as foreign, unfamiliar, outside recognized kinship, or different from what belongs in the immediate setting. It can name a person from another people, Moses’ experience in a foreign land, property passing to a stranger, a strange divine work, or a wild vine.
Reader summary
Full entry for נׇכְרִי (H5237) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew adjective nokĕrî describes someone or something as foreign, unfamiliar, outside recognized kinship, or different from what belongs in the immediate setting. It can name a person from another people, Moses’ experience in a foreign land, property passing to a stranger, a strange divine work, or a wild vine.
The BSB source-word alignment has 45 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include foreign (8), a foreigner (4), the foreigner (4), . . . (3), from the stranger (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:15. Its strongest book concentrations include Proverbs (9), Ezra (7), Deuteronomy (5), 1 Kings (4).
The Hebrew adjective nokĕrî describes someone or something as foreign, unfamiliar, outside recognized kinship, or different from what belongs in the immediate setting. It can name a person from another people, Moses’ experience in a foreign land, property passing to a stranger, a strange divine work, or a wild vine. In Proverbs, the feminine form can describe the forbidden or adulterous woman because she stands outside the son’s covenant marriage, not because foreign ethnicity itself makes a woman immoral.
Other passages distinguish a foreigner from Israel for specific civic or covenant purposes. Yet Solomon’s temple prayer asks God to hear the distant foreigner who comes because of his name, and Ruth calls herself a foreigner while receiving concrete protection and favor. The word names relational location; each passage determines whether the concern is distance, unfamiliarity, unfaithfulness, danger, or welcome.
Nokĕrî ranges from literal foreign person or land to relational outsider, unfamiliar action, and covenantally forbidden relationship, requiring context before any moral judgment is attached.
And as for the foreigner who is not of Your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of Your name—
Solomon’s temple prayer explicitly brings before God the distant foreigner who comes because he has heard of the Lord’s name.
Then may You hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You. Then all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and they will know that this house I have built is called by Your Name.
Solomon asks God to hear the foreigner so that all peoples may know, fear, and recognize the Lord’s name upon the temple.
At this, she fell on her face, bowing low to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, even though I am a foreigner?”
Ruth names her foreign status while asking why Boaz has noticed her, locating favor inside a real ancestry and power difference.
And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Moses names his son Gershom while describing his own experience of being a foreigner in a foreign land.
For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.
The adjective describes the Lord’s work as strange or disturbing, extending the range beyond ethnicity or national origin.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Denotes the fundamentally "other"—from foreign nationals to adulterous lovers to divine wonders—marking exclusion or transgression.
Denotes the fundamentally "other"—from foreign nationals to adulterous lovers to divine wonders—marking exclusion or transgression.
strange, in a variety of degrees and applications (foreign, non-relative, adulterous, different, wonderful) BDB: foreign Usage: alien, foreigner, outlandish, strange(-r, woman).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 46 lexical occurrence verses.
נׇכְרִי is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Nokĕrî marks an outside relationship, but outside does not automatically mean wicked. Moses can experience himself as foreign in another land. Ruth can be a foreign woman whose loyalty, labor, and faithfulness are honored. Solomon can pray that God will hear a foreigner so all peoples may know the Lord. The same adjective can describe something unfamiliar, a stranger to the family, or, in wisdom warnings, a sexual relationship outside covenant faithfulness.
Those senses must remain distinct. Scripture sometimes establishes real covenant and civic boundaries, yet the lexeme cannot turn national origin into a moral verdict. Faithful preaching should ask: foreign to whom, outside what relationship, and doing what? It should confront idolatry, betrayal, or exploitation where the passage does, while refusing contempt, racial hierarchy, or suspicion toward people merely because they come from another nation or family.
1Kgs.8.43
Nokĕrî is an adjective that can function substantivally as foreigner or stranger. Its feminine form in Proverbs may denote a woman outside the covenant marriage relationship, while other occurrences describe land, clothing, action, a vine, or unfamiliar possession.
The New Testament commands hospitality, depicts Gentiles hearing the gospel, and describes those once far off as brought near in Christ. It also preserves moral and church boundaries governed by allegiance to Jesus. Those trajectories deepen the distinction between foreign origin and unfaithful conduct rather than making either welcome or holiness meaningless.