What does remnant mean in the Bible?

Answer 1

1.Genesis 45:7

But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Genesis 45:6-8 (in Context) Genesis 45 (Whole Chapter)

2.Deuteronomy 3:11

(Only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaites. His bed was made of iron and was more than thirteen feet long and six feet wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

Deuteronomy 3:10-12 (in Context) Deuteronomy 3 (Whole Chapter)

3.2 Kings 19:4

It may be that the LORD your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnantthat still survives."

2 Kings 19:3-5 (in Context) 2 Kings 19 (Whole Chapter)

4.2 Kings 19:30

Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.

2 Kings 19:29-31 (in Context) 2 Kings 19 (Whole Chapter)

5.2 Kings 19:31

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

2 Kings 19:30-32 (in Context) 2 Kings 19 (Whole Chapter)

6.2 Kings 21:14

I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their foes,

2 Kings 21:13-15 (in Context) 2 Kings 21 (Whole Chapter)

7.2 Chronicles 34:9

They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the doorkeepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 34:8-10 (in Context) 2 Chronicles 34 (Whole Chapter)

8.2 Chronicles 34:21

"Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book."

2 Chronicles 34:20-22 (in Context) 2 Chronicles 34 (Whole Chapter)

9.2 Chronicles 36:20

He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

2 Chronicles 36:19-21 (in Context) 2 Chronicles 36 (Whole Chapter)

10.Ezra 9:8

"But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage.

Ezra 9:7-9 (in Context) Ezra 9 (Whole Chapter)

11.Ezra 9:13

"What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this.

Ezra 9:12-14 (in Context) Ezra 9 (Whole Chapter)

12.Ezra 9:14

Shall we again break your commands and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or Survivor?

Ezra 9:13-15 (in Context) Ezra 9 (Whole Chapter)

13.Ezra 9:15

O LORD, God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence."

Ezra 9:14-15 (in Context) Ezra 9 (Whole Chapter)

14.Nehemiah 1:2

Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 1:1-3 (in Context) Nehemiah 1 (Whole Chapter)

15.Isaiah 10:20

[ The Remnant of Israel ] In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 10:19-21 (in Context) Isaiah 10 (Whole Chapter)

16.Isaiah 10:21

A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.

Isaiah 10:20-22 (in Context) Isaiah 10 (Whole Chapter)

17.Isaiah 10:22

Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous.

Isaiah 10:21-23 (in Context) Isaiah 10 (Whole Chapter)

18.Isaiah 11:11

In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.

Isaiah 11:10-12 (in Context) Isaiah 11 (Whole Chapter)

19.Isaiah 11:16

There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt.

Isaiah 11:15-16 (in Context) Isaiah 11 (Whole Chapter)

20.Isaiah 17:3

The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites," declares the LORD Almighty.

Isaiah 17:2-4 (in Context) Isaiah 17 (Whole Chapter)

21.Isaiah 28:5

In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.

Isaiah 28:4-6 (in Context) Isaiah 28 (Whole Chapter)

22.Isaiah 37:4

It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnantthat still survives."

Isaiah 37:3-5 (in Context) Isaiah 37 (Whole Chapter)

23.Isaiah 37:31

Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.

Isaiah 37:30-32 (in Context) Isaiah 37 (Whole Chapter)

24.Isaiah 37:32

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 37:31-33 (in Context) Isaiah 37 (Whole Chapter)

25.Jeremiah 6:9

This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine; pass your hand over the branches again, like one gathering grapes."

Answer 2

Revelation 12:17

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Answer 3

"Remnant": A small part that remains after the rest is gone.

The word "remnant" is used under different circumstances throughout The Bible.

Regarding the construction of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and one aspect of the "fabric" being used, it says:

"...the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the Tabernacle." (Ex.26:12)

"Remnant" is used in sacrificial reference:

"..the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his son's..." (Lev.2:3).

There was a place called: "...the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei..." (Joshua 12:4).

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land... the Lord drove out the pagan nations before them as they went. Joshua warned his people as his death drew near:

"Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remaineth among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you." (Josh.23:11-13)

And many a condemnation came down on the Israelites from God when they eventually did corrupt themselves among the pagan nations around them. A corruption that took its toll on the population of the Israelites, themselves. And eventually removed them from the Promised Land... scattered among the nations of the world.

"Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord..."

[this is also a prophecy and warning for nations, today, who profess the Lord God of the Bible... the modern descendants of the twelve scattered Israelite tribes]

"...From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment..."

[the nations of the world are corrupt... and suffering from festering unsustainable economic sores... and headed for certain destruction]

"...Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown with strangers... Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." (Isa.1:4-9)

Indeed, Bible prophecy warns that a tithe; a 10% "remnant" of the world's population will survive the coming "last days" of man's rule on earth, before Jesus returns to wrest it from him... to save the "remnant," the world... and to use His "remnant tithe" of the world's population to restore the earth and the nations during His thousand year rule.

"...Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet IN IT SHALL BE A TENTH [a 10% remnant], and it shall return... as an oak whose Substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the Holy Seed [the Holy Spirit] shall be the Substance thereof." (Isa.6:11-13)

"And it shall come to pass in that Day [when Jesus returns], that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the House of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord the Holy One of Israel, in Truth ["...thy Word is Truth - John 17:17]. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the Mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return..." (Isa.10:20-22).

According to prophecy... that end time "remnant" shall number 144,000 of the "House of Jacob":

"And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of ALL THE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL." (Rev.7:4)

The last days on earth, before Jesus Christ has to return to save it, will be a time of massive deaths around the world [that's the type of weaponry men seek these days -- weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION]. And not just for the nations of Israel. All the nations of the world will be reduced to "remnants."

Christ, Himself, will slay many "in that Day"... leaving His own end time "remnants"of the nations:

"...the Day of the Lord cometh... For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle... Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the Day of Battle. And His feet shall stand in that Day upon the Mount of Olives... And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth... And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left [the remnant] of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year [for a thousand years] to WORSHIP THE KING, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." (Zech.14:1-16)

The Bible speaks of "remnant" in many different ways. Some, fairly mundane... and some, terrifying, sobering and frightening.

Answer 4

Remnant means a small number/bit of something remaining. In the Bible this usually refers to a small number of true followers of God or believers.