What Does Psalm 83:12 Mean in the King James?

Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

Psalm 83:12 · 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.

THE KEY

“Possess” comes from a root that also means “inherit” and “dispossess,” so “for ourselves” reveals the speakers’ claim on God’s dwelling as an act of taking.

THE MEANING

You hear a collective claim to take God’s dwellings and make them “ours.” The phrase “for ourselves” exposes the direction of the desire: possession through seizure.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that being able to seize something makes it rightfully yours.

THE ROOT

נִירְשָׁה

nireshah

GROWS FROM

ירשׁ

to inherit, take possession, or dispossess

“take ... in possession” in this verse is nireshah. The root ⁨ירשׁ⁩ (yarash, “inherit or take possession”) spans both receiving an inheritance and dispossessing another. Here, “for ourselves” gives the claim its force: the speakers want to make God’s dwelling theirs by taking it.

ALSO GROWS

yarash: inherit, take possession, dispossess

יָרַשׁ

The verb holds both inheritance and seizure within one root, illuminating the force of the speakers’ proposed possession.

yerushah: inheritance, possession

יְרֻשָּׁה

This noun shows the same root can describe what is held as an inheritance, sharpening the contrast with the speakers’ act of taking.

morashah: heritage, inherited possession

מוֹרָשָׁה

A possession received as heritage grows from the same seed as the speakers’ claim to take possession for themselves.

THE PATTERN

Collective self-rule recasts what belongs to God as something to seize or cast off.

Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

Psalm 2:3 · KJVThe rulers’ shared speech treats the LORD’s bonds as something they can throw off.

But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

Matthew 21:38 · KJVThe tenants see the heir and name his inheritance as something they can seize.

THE THREAD

For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

Psalm 37:9 · KJV

“Inherit” comes from the same root, ⁨ירשׁ⁩ (yarash), as “take ... in possession” here. The shared root links possession and inheritance, while the verses distinguish taking for oneself from inheriting.

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