achuza · possession

What it means

achuza (אֲחֻזָּה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “possession”.

Land that someone holds as his own.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Land that belongs to someone and passes to their children.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Possession: land or property that someone holds as his own and can pass on. It comes from אָחַז (seize, H270): what one holds fast.

• The promised land “as an eternal possession” Genesis 17:8
• “A possession for a grave” Genesis 23:4Genesis 23:20
• Returning to one's possession in the jubilee Leviticus 25:10Leviticus 25:25
• The daughters of Zelophehad ask for a possession Numbers 27:4
• The nations as a possession Psalms 2:8

Historical and cultural background

In the year of jubilee each one returned “to his possession” (Leviticus 25:10), and if someone became poor and sold part of it, his nearest relative was to redeem it (Leviticus 25:25). Abraham had no possession in Canaan but the cave he bought “as a possession for a grave” (Genesis 23:20).

How we translate it

Always “possession” (66 times), distinct from נַחֲלָה, “inheritance” (“nations {as} your inheritance, and {as} your possession the ends of the earth”, Psalm 2:8).

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×9
• Leviticus×20
• Numbers×9
• Deuteronomy×1
• Joshua×6
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Nehemiah×1
• Psalms×1
• Ezekiel×15

• Genesis 17:8

  And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you reside as an alien, all the land of Canaan, as an eternal possession; and I will be their Elohim.”

• Genesis 23:4

  “I am a resident alien and a guest among you. Give me a possession for a grave among you, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

• Genesis 23:9

  that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him, which is at the end of his field. For the full amount of silver let him give it to me among you as a possession for a grave.”

• Genesis 23:20

  The field and the cave that was in it were made over to Abraham as a possession for a grave by the sons of Heth.

• Genesis 36:43

  the chieftain Magdiel, the chieftain Iram. These are the chieftains of Edom, according to their dwelling places in the land of their possession. This is Esau, the father of Edom.

• Genesis 47:11

  Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

• Genesis 48:4

  He said to me, ‘Look, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make you an assembly of peoples, and I will give this land to your offspring after you as an eternal possession.’

• Genesis 49:30

  in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.

• Genesis 50:13

  his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham bought as a possession for a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre.

• Leviticus 14:34

  “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a leprous mark in a house of the land of your possession,

• Leviticus 25:10

  And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, and you shall return, each to his possession, and each to his clan you shall return.

• Leviticus 25:13

  In this year of jubilee you shall return, each to his possession.

• Leviticus 25:24

  And throughout all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption to the land.

• Leviticus 25:25

  If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his possession, then his redeemer, the one who is near to him, shall come and redeem what his brother sold.

• Leviticus 25:27

  he shall calculate the years since his sale and give back the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, and he shall return to his possession.

• Leviticus 25:28

  But if his hand does not find enough to give back to him, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the one who bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go free, and he shall return to his possession.

• Leviticus 25:32

  As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have eternal redemption.

• Leviticus 25:33

  And what one of the Levites redeems, the sale of a house in the city of his possession, shall go free in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.

• Leviticus 25:34

  But the field of the pastureland of their cities shall not be sold, for it is an eternal possession for them.

• Leviticus 25:41

  Then he shall go out from you, he and his sons with him, and return to his clan, and to the possession of his fathers he shall return.

• Leviticus 25:45

  And also from the sons of the temporary residents who reside with you, from them you may buy, and from their clans that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land; and they may be yours as a possession.

• Leviticus 25:46

  And you may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession; forever you may make them serve; but over your brothers, the sons of Israel, one over another you shall not rule with harshness.

• Leviticus 27:16

  And if a man consecrates to YHWH part of the field of his possession, the valuation shall be according to its seed: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.

• Leviticus 27:21

  And the field, when it goes free in the jubilee, shall be holy to YHWH, like a field completely devoted; it shall become the priest’s possession.

• Leviticus 27:22

  And if he consecrates to YHWH a field he has bought, which is not part of the field of his possession,

• Leviticus 27:24

  In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to the one to whom the possession of the land belongs.

• Leviticus 27:28

  But nothing completely devoted that a man completely devotes to YHWH of all that he has, whether human being or beast or field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to YHWH.

• Numbers 27:4

  Why should the name of our father be taken away from among his family because he has no son? Give us a possession among the brothers of our father.”

• Numbers 27:7

  “The daughters of Zelophehad are speaking rightly. You shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among the brothers of their father, and you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them.

• Numbers 32:5

  They said, “If we have found favor in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants as a possession; do not make us cross the Jordan.”

• Numbers 32:22

  and the land is subdued before YHWH, then afterward you shall return and be innocent before YHWH and before Israel; and this land shall be yours as a possession before YHWH.

• Numbers 32:29

  Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben cross with you the Jordan, every armed man for the war before YHWH, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead as a possession.

• Numbers 32:32

  We will cross over armed before YHWH into the land of Canaan, and with us shall remain the possession of our inheritance on this side of the Jordan.”

• Numbers 35:2

  “Command the sons of Israel that they give to the Levites, from the inheritance of their possession, cities to dwell in; and pasturelands for the cities all around them you shall give to the Levites.

• Numbers 35:8

  And the cities that you shall give from the possession of the sons of Israel, from the large you shall take more, and from the small you shall take fewer; each according to his inheritance that they inherit shall give of his cities to the Levites.”

• Numbers 35:28

  For in his city of refuge he must dwell until the death of the high priest; and after the death of the high priest the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

• Deuteronomy 32:49

  “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, which is opposite Jericho, and see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel as a possession.

• Joshua 21:12

  But the field of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his possession.

• Joshua 21:41

  All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the sons of Israel were forty-eight cities with their pasturelands.

• Joshua 22:4

  And now YHWH your Elohim has given rest to your brothers, just as he spoke to them. So now turn and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of YHWH gave you beyond the Jordan.

And 26 more times.