Stranger.
1. This term was applied to any sojourning among the Israelites, who were not descendants of Israel. The law gave injunctions against the oppression of such. Numbers 15:14-30.
2. Gentiles are also called 'strangers' from the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12), showing that the covenants made with Israel did in no wise embrace the Gentiles, though God's grace at all times extended to them.
3. Those called strangers in 1 Peter 1:1 were Jews away from their own land: sojourners of the dispersion.
4. Both the O.T. and the N.T. saints were and are strangers upon earth. David said, "I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." Psalms 39:12. They "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Hebrews 11:13. The same is true of the saints now. 1 Peter 2:11. Their citizenship is in heaven, and this earth is no longer their home or their rest.