What Does Deuteronomy 19:1 Mean in the King James?
When the LORD thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the LORD thy God giveth thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their houses;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse calls the land a gift while naming the removal of the people already living in it as part of how that gift arrives.
THE MEANING
This verse puts you before a claim in which land is given to you as nations are cut off, and their cities and houses become your dwelling. It names another people’s displacement as part of the transfer, without hiding it behind the language of inheritance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a gift named as divine must arrive without another people being displaced.
THE ROOT
וְיָרַשְׁתָּם
veyarashtam
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
yarash
To take possession or inherit; in some contexts, to dispossess.
“succeedest them” in this verse is veyarashtam. The word rendered “succeedest” carries both inheritance and dispossession. It leaves visible what “succeed” can smooth over: the transfer follows the nations being cut off, and ends with their cities and houses inhabited by others.
ALSO GROWS
yerushah: Possession or inheritance
יְרֻשָּׁה
This branch keeps inheritance tied to taking possession, illuminating the transfer the verse describes.
morashah: Heritage or inherited possession
מוֹרָשָׁה
A possession passed on as heritage still carries the question of how it first became available to be inherited.
יַכְרִית
yakhrit
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
To cut or sever; also used in the expression “cut a covenant.”
“cut off” in this verse is yakhrit. The LORD “cuts off” the nations here; the same verb appears in the Hebrew expression for making a covenant. The root does not make removal and covenant the same act, but it lets severing and binding sit within one word family.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: To cut a covenant; to make a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
Genesis 15:18 uses this expression as the land is promised, linking the verse’s cutting language to a covenant over the land.
sefer keritut: A bill of divorce; literally, a document of separation
סֵפֶר כְּרִיתוּת
This branch also carries the sense of a bond being severed, showing another way the root’s cutting meaning appears.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names promised possession alongside the displacement of those who previously inhabited the land.
And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward.Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:Genesis uses כָּרַת בְּרִית (karat berit, “cut a covenant”) as the land is promised; Deuteronomy uses the same root, כרת (karat, “cut”), for cutting off the nations. The shared root brings covenant and severance into view together without making them the same act.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us