What Does Judges 11:22 Mean in the King James?

And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.

Judges 11:22 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew root behind “possessed” also means “dispossess,” so this claimed inheritance carries the trace of removal.

THE MEANING

This verse names possession as a whole expanse held from boundary to boundary. It keeps the Amorites in the sentence: this is their territory being occupied. The Hebrew root holds inheriting and dispossessing together, so the claim carries both a new holder and the removal of the former one.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that an inheritance is always an empty gift: here, the claimed possession is Amorite territory, and the root also names dispossession.

THE ROOT

וַיִּירָשׁוּ

wayyirashu

GROWS FROM

יָרַשׁ

to take possession or inherit; in its causative form, to dispossess or drive out

“possessed” in this verse is wayyirashu. English separates “possess” from “dispossess,” but both grow from ⁨ירש⁩ (y-r-sh; yarash): to take possession, or in its causative form, to drive out. The land is not an empty prize; the root holds arrival and displacement together. The verse traces that claim across explicit borders.

ALSO GROWS

morashah: inheritance, possession

מוֹרָשָׁה

This branch names the land as an inheritance within the same root family as taking possession.

horish: to dispossess, drive out

הוֹרִישׁ

This causative branch exposes the force that can accompany possession: making room by removing a prior holder.

THE PATTERN

Scripture presents inheritance as a real place entered and occupied, with promise taking shape across a boundary.

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

Deuteronomy 2:24 · KJVThe promised possession begins at a named river crossing and includes a direct conflict over the land.

Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it.

Joshua 1:11 · KJVThe inheritance becomes concrete through crossing the Jordan into the land.

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

Hebrews 11:8 · KJVAbraham’s inheritance is also a real place approached by leaving what is known, even before its destination is clear.

THE THREAD

So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?

Judges 11:23 · KJV

The next verse uses the same root twice: first for God’s dispossession of the Amorites, then for the land Israel is to possess. English gives these opposite sides different words; Hebrew reveals them as one contested transfer.

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