What Does Deuteronomy 11:23 Mean in the King James?

Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.

Deuteronomy 11:23 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew uses one root for both the LORD’s driving out and your possessing, joining clearance and inheritance as two sides of the same movement.

THE MEANING

What stands before you can be greater and mightier than you, yet the verse places the decisive movement in the LORD’s act of clearing the way. That same movement opens what you can possess: what exceeds your strength does not exceed the reach of the promise.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that anything greater and mightier than you must be beyond your reach.

THE ROOT

הוֹרִישׁ

hôrîš

GROWS FROM

ירשׁ

y-r-sh

To take possession; in the causative form, to dispossess or drive out.

“drive out / possess” in this verse is hôrîš. English makes “drive out” and “possess” sound like separate actions, but both come from ⁨ירשׁ⁩ (y-r-sh). The LORD’s dispossessing and your inheriting belong to one movement: what is cleared becomes what you receive.

ALSO GROWS

hôrîš: He caused to dispossess; he drove out.

הוֹרִישׁ

This is the LORD’s action in the verse: clearing the way by removing what occupies it.

yerushah: Inheritance; possession.

יְרֻשָּׁה

This branch names what follows the clearing: the land becomes an inheritance to receive.

THE PATTERN

Inheritance can exceed the inheritor’s strength because its opening comes through a power that goes before them.

Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.

Deuteronomy 9:3 · KJVThe LORD goes before you, and the same root of dispossession appears as you drive out what stands in the way.

For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

Psalm 44:3 · KJVThe land is possessed through the LORD’s action, not through the inheritors’ own strength.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Matthew 5:5 · KJVThe earth is received as an inheritance, held out to those whose way is not domination.

THE THREAD

Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.

Deuteronomy 9:3 · KJV

The same ⁨ירשׁ⁩ (y-r-sh) root appears in “drive them out,” joining dispossession to possession as it does here. The LORD goes before you, and what is cleared becomes the ground of inheritance.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us