What Does Joshua 3:10 Mean in the King James?
And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
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 verb behind “drive out” is also the verb behind “inherit,” so the promised possession is inseparable from the dispossession of those already there.
THE MEANING
The living God is among you, and the verse says you recognize that presence through what happens next. Its promise is concrete and violent: seven named peoples are driven out from before you. The verse makes divine presence and the transfer of their land inseparable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that this promised inheritance is a neutral gift: the verse makes its arrival depend on expelling the peoples already occupying the land.
THE ROOT
יָרַשׁ
yārash
GROWS FROM
ירש
Take possession of, inherit; dispossess or drive out, depending on context.
“drive out / inherit” in this verse is yārash. The same root can describe inheriting land or dispossessing its occupants; the subject and context determine which side is in view. Here, הוֹרֵשׁ יוֹרִישׁ (horēsh yôrîsh, “he will surely dispossess”) intensifies the promise, making the cost of possession explicit.
ALSO GROWS
yerushah: Inheritance, possession
יְרֻשָּׁה
This noun names the receiving side of the same root that describes others being dispossessed here.
yoresh: Heir, inheritor
יוֹרֵשׁ
The heir receives what the root also describes as taken from its present holders.
יָדַע
yādaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
Know, recognize, perceive.
“know” in this verse is yādaʿ. The verb can describe knowing through encounter, not information alone. Here, the promised sign makes the living God’s presence recognizable through a concrete act.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun shows knowing as more than receiving a report; the verse ties recognition to what is made evident.
yodea: One who knows
יוֹדֵעַ
The participle describes a person who recognizes; here, the people are told what will let them recognize God’s presence.
חַי
chai
GROWS FROM
חיה
Live, be alive.
אֵל חַי (El chai, “living God”) uses the language of life and vitality. The verse couples this living presence with forceful action that changes who occupies the land.
ALSO GROWS
chayah: To live, remain alive
חָיָה
The verb gives the life-root behind the description of God as living.
chayyim: Life
חַיִּים
This noun makes the shared life-root visible beneath the verse’s title for God.
THE PATTERN
Scripture ties inheritance of the land to the removal of the peoples already occupying it.
Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.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.And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.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.The same root, ירש (yārash, inherit or dispossess), appears in “to inherit it.” Genesis names the receiving side of possession; Joshua 3:10 names the expulsion that this passage makes part of that transfer.
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