yarash · possess, drive out

What it means

yarash (יָרַשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “possess, drive out”.

Take possession of something; inherit. Also take from others what they had: drive out, dispossess.

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. To occupy a land and make it one's own.
2. To receive a land or goods as an inheritance, from fathers to sons.
3. To drive others out of their land.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Take possession; inherit; and also dispossess another. BDB defines it as to occupy by driving out previous tenants and possessing in their place; from there to seize, to inherit, to expel.

• To inherit: to be an heir Genesis 15:3
• To take possession of the land Genesis 15:7Deuteronomy 1:8
• To “possess the gate” of enemies Genesis 22:17
• To dispossess the nations Joshua 13:13Judges 1:27Judges 1:28
• Both senses in one sentence Judges 11:24

How we translate it

“Possess” 67 times, “take possession of” 41, “dispossess” 39, “dispossessed” 20, “heir” 7. This edition sets: with the land, “possess” or “take possession”; with the nations, “dispossess”; as for an heir, “be my heir” (Genesis 15:3).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• possess ×67
• take possession of ×41
• dispossess ×39
• dispossessed ×20
• take possession ×10
• possessed ×9
• heir ×7
• they took possession ×7
• took possession ×6
• dispossessing them ×3
• others ×22

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×10
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×3
• Numbers×15
• Deuteronomy×71
• Joshua×29
• Judges×27
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×6
• 2 Kings×4
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×4
• Ezra×2
• Nehemiah×5
• Job×2
• Psalms×11
• Proverbs×4
• Isaiah×10
• Jeremiah×7
• Ezekiel×6
• Hosea×1
• Amos×2
• Obadiah×4
• Micah×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 15:3

  And Abram said, “Look, to me you have not given offspring; and look, one born in my house will be my heir.”

• Genesis 15:4

  And look, the word of YHWH came to him, saying, “This one will not be your heir; but one who will come out from your own body, he will be your heir.”

• Genesis 15:7

  And he said to him, “I am YHWH who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it.”

• Genesis 15:8

  But he said, “Adonai YHWH, how will I know that I will possess it?”

• Genesis 21:10

  And she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman will not inherit with my son, with Isaac.”

• Genesis 22:17

  that I will surely bless you and will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea; and your offspring will possess the gate of its enemies.

• Genesis 24:60

  They blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate it.”

• Genesis 28:4

  May he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you, so that you may possess the land where you reside as an alien, which Elohim gave to Abraham.”

• Genesis 45:11

  I will provide for you there, for there are still five years of famine, so that you do not come to poverty, you and your household and all that you have.’

• Exodus 15:9

  The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the plunder; my soul will have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

• Exodus 34:24

  For I will dispossess nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no man shall covet your land when you go up to appear before YHWH your Elohim three times in the year.

• Leviticus 20:24

  But I said to you, ‘You shall possess their ground, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am YHWH your Elohim, who have separated you from the peoples.

• 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.

• Numbers 13:30

  But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession of it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

• Numbers 14:12

  I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”

• Numbers 14:24

  But my servant Caleb, because there was a different spirit in him and he has followed me fully, I will bring him into the land into which he went, and his offspring shall possess it.

• Numbers 21:24

  And Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was strong.

• Numbers 21:32

  And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorite who were there.

• Numbers 21:35

  So they struck him and his sons and all his people, until no survivor was left to him; and they took possession of his land.

• Numbers 27:11

  And if there are no brothers of his father, you shall give his inheritance to his relative who is nearest to him from his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be for the sons of Israel a statute of justice, as YHWH commanded Moses.”

• Numbers 32:21

  and every armed man of you crosses the Jordan before YHWH until he has dispossessed his enemies from before him,

• Numbers 32:39

  The sons of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the Amorite who was in it.

• Numbers 33:52

  you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and do away with all their carved stones, and all their molten images you shall do away with, and all their high places you shall destroy.

• Numbers 33:53

  You shall take possession of the land and dwell in it, for to you I have given the land to possess it.

• Numbers 33:55

  But if you do not dispossess the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those whom you let remain of them shall be as barbs in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land in which you dwell.

• Numbers 36:8

  And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from the tribes of the sons of Israel shall become wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, so that the sons of Israel may possess, each, the inheritance of his fathers.

• Deuteronomy 1:8

  See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.”

• Deuteronomy 1:21

  See, YHWH your Elohim has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

• Deuteronomy 1:39

  And your little ones, who you said would become plunder, and your sons, who today do not know good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them I will give it, and they shall take possession of it.

• Deuteronomy 2:12

  In Seir the Horites lived formerly, but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and lived in their place, just as Israel did to the land of its possession, which YHWH gave them.)

• Deuteronomy 2:21

  a people great, numerous, and tall like the Anakim. But YHWH destroyed them from before them, and they dispossessed them and lived in their place,

• Deuteronomy 2:22

  just as he did for the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horite from before them; they dispossessed them and have lived in their place to this day.

• Deuteronomy 2:24

  “Rise up, set out, and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I have given into your hand Sihon, the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and provoke him to war.

• Deuteronomy 2:31

  YHWH said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land before you. Begin to take possession, so as to take possession of his land.”

• Deuteronomy 3:12

  This land we took possession of at that time. From Aroer, which is by the Wadi Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead and its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and to the Gadites.

• Deuteronomy 3:18

  I commanded you at that time, saying, “YHWH your Elohim has given you this land to take possession of it. Armed, you shall cross over before your brothers, the sons of Israel, all the valiant men.

• Deuteronomy 3:20

  until YHWH gives rest to your brothers as to you, and they also take possession of the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then you shall return, each to his possession that I have given you.”

• Deuteronomy 4:1

  And now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the rules that I am teaching you to carry out, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, is giving you.

• Deuteronomy 4:5

  See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as YHWH my Elohim commanded me, so that you may do so in the midst of the land into which you are going to take possession of it.

• Deuteronomy 4:14

  And YHWH commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, for you to carry them out in the land into which you are crossing to take possession of it.

And 191 more times.