What Does Judges 2:21 Mean in the King James?
I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
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 root behind “drive out” also means “inherit,” joining dispossession and possession in a single word.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks into the moment when what remains is not removed: God says plainly that he will no longer drive out the nations left before the people. The refusal is deliberate, and the line holds its severity without promising that every obstacle will be cleared. Its verb also carries the sense of inheriting, joining the removal of what holds land to the act of possessing it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that whatever remains in the way must be an oversight. This verse names a deliberate refusal to remove what remains.
THE ROOT
לְהוֹרִישׁ
lehorish
GROWS FROM
ירש
To take possession; depending on the verb form, to inherit or dispossess.
The same root names both sides of taking possession: dispossessing a holder and receiving what is held as an inheritance. So “drive out” and “inherit” are joined beneath the English, and the verse’s refusal to expel leaves possession incomplete.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: Possess, take possession, inherit.
יָרַשׁ
This form shows the receiving side of the root, linking the verse’s “drive out” to the land that is to be possessed.
horish: Cause to possess; dispossess or drive out.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative form is used in the verse: removing those who hold the land clears the way for another to possess it.
THE PATTERN
What remains under pressure reveals whether trust holds when the path is not cleared.
And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.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 verb translated “inherit” is יָרַשׁ (yarash), the same root carried by “drive out” in Judges 2:21, where the form means to dispossess. One root holds both the removal of a holder and the receiving of what is held.
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