What Does Judges 11:23 Mean in the King James?
So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it?
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 same Hebrew root turns dispossession and possession into two sides of one transfer.
THE MEANING
This verse places a claim to possession beside the removal that came before it. One Hebrew root describes the Amorites being driven out and asks whether another party should possess what changed hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What is in my possession can be considered apart from whose removal made it mine.
THE ROOT
הוֹרִישׁ
hôrîš
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
To take possession or inherit; in the causative form, to dispossess or drive out.
“dispossessed / possess” in this verse is hôrîš. English gives the two actions opposite names, but the Hebrew repeats the root ירשׁ (yāraš) for both: God drives the Amorites out, then Jephthah asks whether the king will possess the land. The word holds both sides of the change in possession together.
ALSO GROWS
hôrîš: Dispossess, drive out; the causative form of ירשׁ (yāraš).
הוֹרִישׁ
This is the form translated “dispossessed,” describing the removal that precedes the question of possession.
yāraš: Possess, inherit; also dispossess depending on its grammatical form and context.
יָרַשׁ
The form behind “possess” in the question shares its root with “dispossessed,” joining receiving the land to the prior removal.
môrāšāh: Possession, inheritance.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun from the same root names what is received, keeping inheritance within the same family of words as dispossession.
THE PATTERN
In these verses, receiving possession is joined to the removal of those who held the land before.
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.Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;THE THREAD
Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.Deuteronomy uses ירשׁ (yāraš) for both dispossessing and possessing, then warns against treating possession as proof of personal righteousness. It opens Judges 11:23 further by keeping the transfer and the claim to the land in view together.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us