the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Possess
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or A. Verb.
Yârash (יָרֵשׁ, Strong's #3423), “to inherit, subdue, take possession, dispossess, impoverish.” This word is attested in all Semitic languages except Akkadian, Phoenician, and biblical Aramaic. The word appears in all periods of Hebrew; the Bible attests it about 260 times.
Basically yârash means “to inherit.” The verb can connote the state of being designated as an heir. Abram said to God: “Behold, to me thou hast given no [offspring]: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir [literally, “is the one who is inheriting me”]” (Gen. 15:3—the first biblical occurrence of the word). Whatever Abram had to be passed on to his legal descendants was destined to be given to his servant. Hence his servant was his legally designated heir.
This root can also represent the status of having something as one’s permanent possession, as a possession which may be passed on to one’s legal descendants. God told Abram: “I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it” (Gen. 15:7). Yârash can mean “to take over as a permanent possession”: “And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it …” (Num. 27:11). The verb sometimes means to take something over (in the case of the Promised Land) by conquest as a permanent possession: “The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it” (Deut. 28:21).
When people are the object, yârash sometimes means “to dispossess” in the sense of taking away their inheritable goods and putting them in such a social position that they cannot hold possessions or inherit permanent possessions: “The Horim also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead …” (Deut. 2:12). To cause someone to be dispossessed is “to impoverish” him: “The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich …” (1 Sam. 2:7), the Lord makes one to be without permanent inheritable possessions.
B. Nouns.
Several nouns related to yârash occur infrequently in biblical Hebrew. Yereshah which appears twice, means “something given as a permanent possession; to be taken over by conquest” (Num. 24:18). Yerushshah occurs 14 times; it means “to have as a possession” (Deut. 2:5), “to be designated as a possession, to receive as a possession” (Deut. 2:9). The noun morash means “a place one has as a permanent possession” in its 2 appearances (Isa. 14:23; Obad. 17). Morashah, which occurs 9 times, can refer to “a place one has as a permanent possession” (Exod. 6:8), “a thing one has as a permanent possession” (Deut. 33:4), and “people to be dispossessed” (Ezek. 25:4).
Some scholars associate reshet, “net,” with yarash. Hence, a “net” is conceived as a thing which receives and holds (possesses) something or someone (Job 18:8). Others suggest that can also mean “pit” (cf. Ps. 9:15; 35:7-8).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Possess'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/p/possess.html. 1940.
