What Does Exodus 23:30 Mean in the King James?
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
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 Hebrew ties inheritance to becoming fruitful, even as the verse names the inhabitants driven out to make that inheritance possible.
THE MEANING
The sentence holds two actions together: those before you are driven from the land in stages, and your increase reaches the point where you inherit it. It does not present the land as empty; their expulsion is the stated cost of your possession.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that this inheritance is harmless or cost-free: it explicitly binds possession to the expulsion of people already on the land.
THE ROOT
תִּפְרֶה
tifreh
GROWS FROM
פרה
pārāh: to bear fruit, become fruitful; by extension, to increase.
The verb translated “increased” is literally about becoming fruitful. The verse makes that fruitfulness the threshold for inheriting the land, linking growth to the measure of possession.
ALSO GROWS
pārāh: To bear fruit; to be fruitful.
פָּרָה
This basic verb shows the living growth contained in “be increased.”
hip̄rāh: To make fruitful; to cause to increase.
הִפְרָה
This causative form keeps increase rooted in fruitfulness, the same image behind the verse’s condition.
וְנָחַלְתָּ
ve-naḥalta
GROWS FROM
נחל
nāḥal: to inherit or take possession as an allotted holding.
This root makes “inherit” concrete: what is received is a holding, here the land itself. The sentence places that possession beside the expulsion of those already there.
ALSO GROWS
naḥălāh: Inheritance; an allotted possession.
נַחֲלָה
This noun names the kind of holding the verb describes receiving.
hinḥîl: To cause someone to inherit; to assign as an inheritance.
הִנְחִיל
This causative form shows the root’s movement from allotting a holding to someone receiving it.
אֲגָרְשֶׁנּוּ
ʾăgāršennû
GROWS FROM
גרש
gāraš: to expel, drive away, banish.
“drive them out” in this verse is ʾăgāršennû. The verb is forceful: those already before you are expelled. A related form for divorce shares this root, preserving the image of separation by sending away.
ALSO GROWS
legāreš: To drive away; to expel.
לְגָרֵשׁ
This infinitive retains the direct force of the action in the verse.
gērûšîn: Divorce; dismissal from a marriage.
גֵּרוּשִׁין
This related noun expresses separation through the act of sending away.
THE PATTERN
What is to be occupied or brought to completion unfolds in stages rather than all at once.
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.THE THREAD
And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.Deuteronomy repeats “by little and little” and states why the removal is not immediate: the land cannot be cleared all at once without creating another danger. This makes the pace of possession explicit while leaving the displacement fully visible.
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