What Does Deuteronomy 2:31 Mean?
And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before you. Begin to take hold, and take hold of his land.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “possess” also names “inherit” and, in another verb form, “dispossess,” so the promised inheritance already contains another’s loss.
THE MEANING
The verse holds gift and taking together: the land is declared given while possession is only beginning. The Hebrew root behind “possess” also yields “inherit” and, in another form, “dispossess,” keeping the displaced holder within the meaning of inheritance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“Given” does not mean “already in your possession”: the verse places the taking at its beginning.
THE ROOT
רָשׁ
rāš
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
To take possession or inherit; in a causative form, to dispossess or drive out.
“take hold” in this verse is rāš. The verse commands “possess” with יָרַשׁ, the same root used for inheriting and, in a causative form, dispossessing. English gives separate words, “possess” and “inherit”, where Hebrew keeps the transfer under one root: land passes into one hand as it leaves another.
ALSO GROWS
rāš: Take possession; the command form used here.
רָשׁ
“Begin to possess” is the verse’s direct command to take the land.
lārešet: To inherit or take possession.
לָרֶשֶׁת
The same root appears again in “that thou mayest inherit,” joining the act of taking to the inheritance it produces.
hôrîš: Cause to dispossess; drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative branch makes the other side of the transfer visible: one party’s possession comes as another is displaced.
THE PATTERN
An inheritance can be named as a gift before it is fully entered or possessed.
And he said to him, I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to take hold of it.Cross through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, Make ready your provisions, for in three more days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in and take hold of the land that the LORD your God is giving you.So that you do not grow sluggish, but become imitators of those who, through trust and slowness to heat, inherit the promises.THE THREAD
Rise up, pull up, and cross over the torrent-bed of Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to take hold of it, and stir him up in battle.Deuteronomy 2:24 uses the same ירשׁ root in “begin to possess,” then names the battle against Sihon. It makes explicit that the inheritance of 2:31 is a real transfer of land with an opposing holder, rather than an abstraction.
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