What Does Joshua 23:5 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.
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 uses one root for driving them out and possessing their land, binding inheritance to dispossession.
THE MEANING
The verse places you inside a stark transfer: a people is driven from before you, and their land becomes yours. It names this displacement as the LORD’s action and the fulfillment of a promise; the promise does not erase the dispossession.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that promised possession is only receiving something new: this verse binds it to the expulsion of those who already hold the land.
THE ROOT
וִירִשְׁתֶּם
virishtem
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
To take possession or inherit; in the causative form, to dispossess or drive out.
The KJV’s “drive them out” and “possess their land” look like separate acts, but Hebrew joins them in one root: הוֹרִישׁ (horish, dispossess) and וִירִשְׁתֶּם (virishtem, possess). Gaining the land and removing its prior holders are two sides of the same verb-family here.
ALSO GROWS
vehorish: To drive out or dispossess.
וְהוֹרִישׁ
This is the causative form of the root in the clause about removing the people, linking their expulsion to the possession that follows.
lerishtah: To take possession of or inherit it.
לְרִשְׁתָּהּ
Genesis uses this form for inheriting the land, showing the same root at work in the language of promise.
THE PATTERN
A transfer of land or rule is named from both sides: removal from one holder and possession by another.
And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.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.Genesis uses the same ירשׁ (yarash, possess or inherit) root for inheriting the land, framing the promise in the language of possession. Joshua makes the other side of that inheritance visible: the land is possessed as its former holders are driven out.
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