What Does Judges 1:31 Mean?
Asher did not drive out the settlers of Accho, nor of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob.
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
Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for “drive out” also means “inherit”: what remains in the place marks possession as unfinished.
THE MEANING
An assigned place can still be occupied on terms that keep possession unfinished. The verse holds both realities together: the land belongs to Asher, while these towns remain inhabited by others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being assigned a place does not mean it is already fully possessed; its former occupants can remain.
THE ROOT
הוֹרִישׁ
hōrîš
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
To take possession or inherit; in the Hiphil form, to dispossess or drive out.
The same root names what the incoming owner receives and what the current occupant loses. “Drive out” therefore carries inheritance inside it: when the inhabitants remain, the taking-possession described by the verse is incomplete.
ALSO GROWS
yārash: Take possession; inherit.
יָרַשׁ
This is the root’s other face: what is called driving out can also be described as receiving an inheritance.
hōrîš: Dispossess; drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This is the form used in the verse, naming the removal that possession entails.
yōrēš: Inheritor; one who takes possession.
יוֹרֵשׁ
The inheritor and the dispossessed stand within the same root, linking the receiving of a place to the displacement of its current occupants.
אָשֵׁר
ʾĀšēr
GROWS FROM
אשר
ʾ-sh-r
Associated with happiness or fortune; the related verb can mean to call someone happy.
Genesis links Asher’s name with being called happy. Here that name stands beside unfinished possession: the promise carried by a name does not mean the towns are already cleared.
ALSO GROWS
ʾašrê: Happy; flourishing.
אַשְׁרֵי
This familiar word from the Psalms shares the happiness language associated with Asher’s name.
ʾiššərûnî: They call me happy (Genesis 30:13).
אִשְּׁרוּנִי
The naming scene links Asher directly to being called happy, giving the name its nature in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Possession and inheritance take shape as the one already occupying a place is displaced.
By small measures I will drive them out from before you, until you are fruitful and take hold of the land.Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and strip away his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then he will strip his house.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. You are crossing over the Jordan this day, to go in and possess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and walled in rock to the heavens.The word translated “possess” comes from the same ירשׁ (y-r-sh) root behind “drive out” in Judges. The shared root holds inheritance and dispossession together as two sides of taking possession.
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