The stranger

11th century Hebrew Bible with targum, perhaps from Tunisia, found in Iraq: part of the Schøyen Collection. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thou shalt neither vex a stranger ¹⁶¹⁶, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers ¹⁶¹⁶ in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21).

stranger ¹⁶¹⁶ [a noun, from the root verb sojourn ¹⁴⁸¹ גּוּר (guwr)] This is the Hebrew word גָּר (ger) or (fully) geyr. It means a guest; it implies a foreigner (Strong’s). Besides stranger, it is also translated elsewhere as alien or sojourner. It occurs 92 times in the Hebrew Bible.

This type of stranger is an outside guest within a community.

Two Negative Commandments given in Mishneh Torah are:

 252  Not to wrong the convert in speech, as it is written “and a stranger shalt thou not wrong” (Exodus 22,20).

 253  Not to wrong the convert in buying and selling, as it is written “neither shalt thou oppress him” (Exodus 22,20).

Here the writer of Mishneh Torah equates the stranger with a convert to Judaism. This is not the primary meaning of the word גָּר (ger). Using the concept of a convert here has the effect of excluding the rights of a stranger and erroneously allocating these rights to people who have already become Jews and already have those rights. This is not only spurious but is an exercise in superfluity.

Futher, the Israelites were strangers גָּר (ger) in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21). Do you mean to say that they were converts to the Egyptian religion? Of course not. So then, you may not call the stranger in the Jewish community a convert. A stranger is a stranger.

The stranger may become a convert, but converts are a subset of strangers, and you cannot substitute “stranger” with “convert”.

So now, what is the import of God‘s instruction: Thou shalt neither vex a stranger ¹⁶¹⁶, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers ¹⁶¹⁶ in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21).

Well, it simply means that the Jews are not to vex (יָנָה – yanah – violently treat)  a stranger nor to oppress ( לָחַץ – lachats – force, thrust, crush) him, because they were strangers in Egypt. This includes the Palestinians who the Jews regarded as strangers in Israel (although they were fully-fledged residents) encountered in 1948 and over 800 000 of whom were driven from their homes in Jerusalem alone in direct contravention of God’s instruction concerning the stranger.

These Palestinians were not child-sacrificers, Baal-worshipers or morally corrupt people such as the people whom Joshua removed from the land. They were simply “strangers in the land”, so how could the Jews oppress and treat them violently then and to this day?

It is wrong what the Jews are doing to the Arabs in Israel-Palestine. The Jews must take their responsibility correctly upon themselves to obey God’s word to treat the stranger with humility and respect. All forms of harassment, hatred, disrepect, blockading, mistreating, occupation and apartheid must stop in Israel-Palestine. All legislation allowing these wrongs and encouraging them must be repealed. Jews and Arabs must treat each other as equals and must dig deep inside their souls to bring out a new respect and regard for each other. Only then will God bless the Jews.

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