What Does Obadiah 1:19 Mean in the King James?
And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
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 root that says “inherit” can also say “dispossess,” so this widening inheritance is a transfer of ground, not an inward metaphor.
THE MEANING
The inheritance opens across the map: from the south to the plain, through Ephraim and Samaria, and east into Gilead. Belonging is tangible here: ground is not merely remembered but inhabited. The verse holds restoration as a real change in who can possess a place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What has been taken can never again become a place of belonging.
THE ROOT
יָרְשׁוּ
yārešû
GROWS FROM
ירשׁ
y-r-sh
To inherit or take possession; in the causative stem, to dispossess.
“possess” in this verse is yārešû. The root gathers inheritance and dispossession into one word-family: taking possession can mean receiving ground as an inheritance, while its causative form means driving another out. That link makes the verse’s inheritance a change in who holds and inhabits the land.
ALSO GROWS
inheritance: Heritage or inherited possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This noun makes explicit the inheritance already carried by “possess”: the land is received as a lasting share.
dispossess: To drive out or dispossess.
הוֹרִישׁ
This causative branch reveals the other side of taking possession: one people’s inheritance can mean another’s loss of ground.
THE PATTERN
Biblical inheritance turns promise into actual belonging, whether the ground is a land or the earth itself.
And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.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 Hebrew verb translated “inherit” here is ירשׁ, the same root Obadiah uses for “possess.” Genesis names the land as an inheritance; Obadiah gives that inheritance a map, naming the ground where belonging takes shape.
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