What Does Deuteronomy 2:21 Mean in the King James?
A people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the LORD destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead:
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 word for taking their place also carries the meaning of dispossessing those who were there before.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a transfer of dwelling together with the violence that makes it possible: the LORD destroys the people before the newcomers, who then inhabit their place. The word translated “succeeded” keeps both sides of that transfer in view. The new dwelling remains bound to the removal that cleared it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that taking someone’s place is a clean succession dissolves here: the verb carries the displaced people inside the newcomers’ inheritance.
THE ROOT
וַיִּירָשׁוּם
vayyirashum
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
To take possession, inherit, or dispossess.
The verb behind “succeeded them” can describe taking possession and dispossessing. English makes succession sound like simple sequence, while the Hebrew holds the transfer’s two sides in one word: the newcomers dwell where the former people have been removed.
ALSO GROWS
morashah: Inheritance; possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
It names what is received, showing that inheritance and taking possession grow from the same root as dispossession.
yerushah: Inheritance; possession.
יְרֻשָּׁה
This noun makes the place itself an inheritance, linking the arrival of a new possessor to the removal carried by the verb.
THE PATTERN
Scripture describes inheritance as taking up a place that was not previously yours.
As he did to the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day:But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.THE THREAD
And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.“Inherit” here is also from ירשׁ (yarash), the root behind “succeeded them.” The shared root connects a land given to be inherited with a place taken after its former inhabitants are removed.
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