What Does Deuteronomy 2:5 Mean in the King James?
Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth; because I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.
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
A footprint is already a claim on an inheritance that has been assigned to someone else.
THE MEANING
This verse places the reader before a boundary: land assigned to another is not open to claim, down to a single footprint. Esau’s allotment stands as an inheritance with a named holder. The limit is measured at the body’s smallest advance, the tread of a foot.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that what lies within reach becomes yours to claim; nearness does not erase another’s assigned boundary.
THE ROOT
יְרֻשָּׁה
yerushah
GROWS FROM
ירש
The three consonants י־ר־שׁ (y-r-sh) carry the sense of inheriting or taking possession; in some forms, the root also describes dispossessing another.
יְרֻשָּׁה (yerushah), rendered “possession,” comes from the same root as יָרַשׁ (yārash), to inherit or take possession, and יוֹרֵשׁ (yōrēsh), an inheritor. The root holds both the inheritance and the act of taking possession together: here, the land has a named holder, so even one tread crosses into another’s assigned holding.
ALSO GROWS
yārash: To inherit or take possession.
יָרַשׁ
This verb names the act behind the noun: the land is held as an inheritance, not left open to whoever reaches it.
yōrēsh: An inheritor or heir.
יוֹרֵשׁ
The word names the person attached to the inheritance; here, Esau is the named holder of Mount Seir.
מִדְרַךְ
midrakh
GROWS FROM
דרך
The three consonants ד־ר־ךְ (d-r-kh) mean to tread or step; the root also forms the word for a way or path.
“foot breadth” in this verse is midrakh. מִדְרַךְ (midrakh) points to a tread, and its root דרך also forms דֶּרֶךְ (déreḵ), a way or path. The language joins one footprint to a route: the boundary begins at the first step, not after some larger crossing.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: To tread or step upon.
דָּרַךְ
This verbal form makes the boundary tangible: the verse excludes even a single tread.
déreḵ: A way, road, or path.
דֶּרֶךְ
The same root links an individual step with a path through the land, showing how a route begins with the smallest advance.
THE PATTERN
A boundary protects what has already been assigned as another’s inheritance.
And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;THE THREAD
And the LORD said unto me, Distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle: for I will not give thee of their land for a possession; because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a possession.The same inheritance word from ירש appears as Deuteronomy sets a matching boundary around Moab’s land. The repeated wording reveals a pattern of named inheritances: another’s holding remains beyond the reader’s reach, even when it is near.
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