What Does Judges 1:31 Mean in the King James?
Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:
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 for “drive out” also means “inherit”: what remains in the place marks possession as unfinished.
THE MEANING
An assigned place can still be occupied on terms that keep possession unfinished. The verse holds both realities together: the land belongs to Asher, while these towns remain inhabited by others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being assigned a place does not mean it is already fully possessed; its former occupants can remain.
THE ROOT
הוֹרִישׁ
hōrîš
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
To take possession or inherit; in the Hiphil form, to dispossess or drive out.
The same root names what the incoming owner receives and what the current occupant loses. “Drive out” therefore carries inheritance inside it: when the inhabitants remain, the taking-possession described by the verse is incomplete.
ALSO GROWS
yārash: Take possession; inherit.
יָרַשׁ
This is the root’s other face: what is called driving out can also be described as receiving an inheritance.
hōrîš: Dispossess; drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This is the form used in the verse, naming the removal that possession entails.
yōrēš: Inheritor; one who takes possession.
יוֹרֵשׁ
The inheritor and the dispossessed stand within the same root, linking the receiving of a place to the displacement of its current occupants.
אָשֵׁר
ʾĀšēr
GROWS FROM
אשר
ʾ-sh-r
Associated with happiness or fortune; the related verb can mean to call someone happy.
Genesis links Asher’s name with being called happy. Here that name stands beside unfinished possession: the promise carried by a name does not mean the towns are already cleared.
ALSO GROWS
ʾašrê: Happy; flourishing.
אַשְׁרֵי
This familiar word from the Psalms shares the happiness language associated with Asher’s name.
ʾiššərûnî: They call me happy (Genesis 30:13).
אִשְּׁרוּנִי
The naming scene links Asher directly to being called happy, giving the name its nature in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Possession and inheritance take shape as the one already occupying a place is displaced.
By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.THE THREAD
Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven,The word translated “possess” comes from the same ירשׁ (y-r-sh) root behind “drive out” in Judges. The shared root holds inheritance and dispossession together as two sides of taking possession.
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