What Does Judges 1:29 Mean in the King James?
Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
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 places failed dispossession beside settled dwelling: what Ephraim does not dispossess remains among them.
THE MEANING
You see the result now: the people not driven out remain in Gezer, dwelling among those who did not drive them out. The verse keeps the force of the act in view, driving people out, and makes the failure equally plain: the Canaanites continue to live there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a failed expulsion leaves no continuing presence. The verse states the opposite: the people remain in the place, dwelling among those who did not drive them out.
THE ROOT
הוֹרִישׁ
hôrîsh
GROWS FROM
י־ר־שׁ
y-r-sh
To take possession or inherit; in this causative form, to dispossess.
“drive out” in this verse is hôrîsh. The same root holds both taking possession and dispossessing another, so the verse’s failed expulsion is also a failure to take possession. Ephraim’s name (אֶפְרַיִם, ʾEfrayim) is tied to fruitfulness through פָּרָה (pārāh, “to bear fruit”), adding a pointed resonance to the tribe’s failure to clear the inhabitants from its territory.
ALSO GROWS
yāraš: Possess, inherit.
יָרַשׁ
This is the root’s branch for taking and holding what becomes one’s possession.
môrāšāh: Possession, inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
It shows the root extending from the act of possessing to what is held as an inheritance.
וַיֵּשֶׁב
vayyēshev
GROWS FROM
י־שׁ־ב
y-sh-v
To sit, settle, dwell.
The verse first identifies the Canaanites as those dwelling in Gezer, then says they dwelt there among Ephraim. The repeated root makes their continued presence concrete: they are settled in the place, not passing through it.
ALSO GROWS
yōshēv: One who sits or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
This form describes the Canaanites as residents of Gezer.
môshāv: Dwelling, seat, place of habitation.
מוֹשָׁב
It carries the same root into the settled place where someone lives.
גֶּזֶר
Gezer
GROWS FROM
ג־ז־ר
g-z-r
To cut or divide; the place-name Gezer is traditionally associated with this root.
The name Gezer carries an echo of cutting or division, adding resonance to a verse about failed removal. Yet the sentence’s plain fact remains: the Canaanites are not driven out and continue dwelling among Ephraim.
ALSO GROWS
gāzar: Cut, divide, decree.
גָּזַר
Its sense of cutting or dividing echoes the separation the verse says does not occur.
gəzērāh: Decree, determined decision.
גְּזֵרָה
It carries the root into what is decided or delimited.
THE PATTERN
What a community leaves or takes into its midst can become an active part of its shared condition.
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?THE THREAD
But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.The phrase “drive out” uses the same Hebrew root, י־ר־שׁ (y-r-sh), whose meanings include taking possession and dispossessing. Numbers names what remains when the expulsion is incomplete; Judges shows the Canaanites dwelling among Ephraim.
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