תּוֹשָׁב
to.shav
sojourner
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word תּוֹשָׁב (tosháv): Sojourner The Hebrew word תּוֹשָׁב (tosháv) refers to a sojourner—a person residing in a place without being native to it. With 14 biblical occurrences, the term occupies a modest but meaningful place in Hebrew vocabulary, designating a specific social status rather than a temporary visitor. The word describes individuals who have settled in a community but retain the status of outsiders, distinguishing them from both permanent residents and passing travelers. The significance of this term lies in its legal and social implications within ancient Israelite society. The existence of a dedicated word for "sojourner" suggests that biblical communities recognized and regulated the status of non-native residents, likely addressing questions of rights, responsibilities, and integration. The modest frequency of the word—appearing in only 14 instances across the entire biblical text—indicates it served a particular administrative or legal function rather than a common everyday designation, suggesting it was used in formal contexts where precise social categorization mattered.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
14 total occurrences across the text
“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
Genesis 23:4“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
Exodus 12:45A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.
Leviticus 25:40As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.
Leviticus 22:10“ ‘No stranger shall eat of the holy thing: a foreigner living with the priests, or a hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.
Leviticus 25:6The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
Leviticus 25:23“ ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
Leviticus 25:35“ ‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident.
Leviticus 25:45Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.
Leviticus 25:47“ ‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family,
Leviticus 25:47“ ‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family,
Numbers 35:15For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the foreigner living among them, shall these six cities be for refuge, that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.
1 Kings 17:1Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
1 Chronicles 29:15For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.