H3423 — יָרַשׁ (yârash)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H3423
Original: יָרַשׁ (also יָרֵשׁ yârêsh)
Transliteration: yârash
Pronunciation: yaw-rash'
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Occurrences: 204 unique verses (272 tokens) across 27 books
First Occurrence: Gen 15:3 — "Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir (yorêsh)."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to occupy (by driving out previous tenants, and possessing in their place); by implication, to seize, to rob, to inherit; also to expel, to impoverish, to ruin — KJV: cast out, consume, destroy, disinherit, dispossess, drive(-ing) out, enjoy, expel, without fail, (give to, leave for) inherit(-ance, -or), magistrate, be (make) poor, come to poverty, (give to, make to) possess, get (have) in (take) possession, seize upon, succeed, utterly.

The word fuses two sides of a single action: the incoming party takes possession, the previous tenant is expelled. Qal stem carries the possessing sense ("take/hold as one's own, inherit"); Hiphil stem carries the causative/dispossessing sense ("drive out, cause to be dispossessed").

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Stem	Count	Typical Meaning
Qal	159	to possess, take possession, inherit, succeed to
Hiphil	66	to cause to possess / dispossess, drive out, expel, impoverish
Niphal	4	to be impoverished, come to poverty (passive)
Piel	2	to take possession of, dispossess (intensive)

Tallied from hebrew_parser.py output (lemma ירשׁ, 247 verbal tokens; noun forms excluded).

The Qal/Hiphil split is semantically load-bearing: the same verb describes Israel taking the land (Qal) and Yahweh driving out the nations (Hiphil). The Niphal exclusively describes economic ruin (Prov 20:13; 23:21; 30:9; Gen 45:11).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation (grouped)	Verses	%
possess / possession (possess, to possess, shall possess, possessed, etc.)	~105	~51%
drive out / cast out / expel / driven out / drave / drove	~40	~20%
inherit / shall inherit / heir / inheritor	~25	~12%
dispossess / disinherit / succeed (to)	~12	~6%
(come to) poverty / make poor / (be) poor / impoverish	~6	~3%
destroy / consume / seize	~5	~2%
Other / auxiliary	~11	~6%

Grouped from 140+ distinct KJV renderings in search_strongs.py --lookup output. Top single phrase: "to possess it" (28x, 13.7%).

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Obadiah	3	14.3
Deuteronomy	63	6.6
Joshua	24	3.6
Judges	21	3.4
Habakkuk	1	1.8
Amos	2	1.4
Nehemiah	5	1.2
Numbers	13	1.0
Micah	1	1.0
Isaiah	9	0.7
1 Kings	6	0.7
Ezra	2	0.7
Genesis	9	0.6
2 Kings	4	0.6
2 Chronicles	4	0.5
Ezekiel	6	0.5
Hosea	1	0.5
Zechariah	1	0.5
Jeremiah	5	0.4
Psalms	11	0.4
Proverbs	4	0.4
Exodus	2	0.2
Leviticus	2	0.2
Job	2	0.2
1 Samuel	1	0.1
2 Samuel	1	0.1
1 Chronicles	1	0.1

Pattern: Overwhelmingly concentrated in the conquest/land-grant corpus. Deuteronomy alone accounts for ~31% of all occurrences; Deut + Josh + Jdg = ~53%. Obadiah's density reflects its 21-verse length (3 uses in the "house of Jacob shall possess their possessions" oracle). Absent or sparse in wisdom literature outside Proverbs' poverty sayings and a few Psalms (37, 44, 69, 105) that recall the land gift.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Taking possession of the promised land (Qal — the programmatic use)¶

Gen 15:7 — "I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit (yarash) it"
Deut 1:8 — "Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess (yarash) the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers"
Josh 1:11 — "within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess (yarash) the land"
Deut 4:1 — "that ye may live, and go in and possess (yarash) the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you"

2. Yahweh driving out the nations (Hiphil — divine dispossession)¶

Exod 34:24 — "For I will cast out (yarash Hiphil) the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders"
Deut 9:3 — "the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee... so shalt thou drive them out (yarash Hiphil), and destroy them quickly"
Josh 3:10 — "he will without fail drive out (yarash Hiphil) from before you the Canaanites..."
Josh 23:5 — "the LORD your God, he shall expel (yarash Hiphil) them from before you"

3. Human failure to dispossess (Hiphil negated — conquest shortfall)¶

Judg 1:19 — "he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out (yarash Hiphil) the inhabitants of the valley"
Judg 1:21 — "the children of Benjamin did not drive out (yarash Hiphil) the Jebusites"
Judg 1:27–33 — serial refrain: "Neither did Manasseh / Ephraim / Zebulun / Asher / Naphtali drive out (yarash Hiphil)..."
Josh 15:63 — "the children of Judah could not drive them out (yarash Hiphil)"

4. Inheritance by succession (heir, successor)¶

Gen 15:3–4 — "one born in my house is mine heir (yorêsh)... he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir (yarash)"
Gen 21:10 — "the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir (yarash) with my son"
Prov 30:23 — "an handmaid that is heir (yarash) to her mistress"
Jer 49:1–2 — "hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit (yarash) Gad?"

5. Seizure / illicit or hostile taking¶

1 Kgs 21:15–19 — "Arise, take possession (yarash) of the vineyard of Naboth... Hast thou killed, and also taken possession (yarash)?"
Mic 1:15 — "Yet will I bring an heir (yorêsh) unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah" (conqueror)
Hab 1:6 — "the Chaldeans... which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess (yarash) the dwellingplaces that are not theirs"
Ps 83:12 — "Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession (yarash)"

6. Eschatological / righteous inheritance (Psalms, Isaiah)¶

Ps 25:13 — "his soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit (yarash) the earth"
Ps 37:9, 11, 22, 29 — "those that wait upon the LORD... the meek... such as be blessed of him... the righteous shall inherit (yarash) the earth/land"
Isa 60:21 — "Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit (yarash) the land for ever"
Isa 65:9 — "mine elect shall inherit (yarash) it, and my servants shall dwell there"

7. Impoverishment / economic ruin (Niphal and causative Hiphil)¶

Gen 45:11 — "lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty (yarash Niphal)"
1 Sam 2:7 — "The LORD maketh poor (yarash Hiphil), and maketh rich"
Prov 20:13 — "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty (yarash Niphal)"
Prov 30:9 — "lest I be full, and deny thee... or lest I be poor (yarash Niphal), and steal"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אֶרֶץ (ʼerets) "land"	H776	98x (48%)	"the land... to possess it" — the overwhelmingly dominant object of the verb
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	84x (41%)	"the LORD thy God... giveth / driveth out / sware" — Yahweh as giver/agent of possession
נָתַן (nathan) "give"	H5414	58x (28%)	"the land which the LORD... giveth thee to possess" — divine gift paired with human taking
אֱלֹהִים (ʼelôhîym)	H430	51x (25%)	"the LORD thy God" formula in Deuteronomic land-grant speech
בֵּן (ben) "son"	H1121	44x (22%)	"children of Israel / of Esau / of Ammon" as conquest subjects or objects
בּוֹא (bôʼ) "go/come (in)"	H935	43x (21%)	"go in and possess" — standard paired verbs of entry-then-occupation
פָּנִים (pânîym) "face/before"	H6440	42x (21%)	"from before thee" — nations driven from the face of Israel
יָשַׁב (yashab) "dwell/sit"	H3427	37x (18%)	possess-then-dwell sequence; or "inhabitants" as object of dispossession
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrâʼêl)	H3478	37x (18%)	Israel as the possessing subject
גּוֹי (gôwy) "nation"	H1471	32x (16%)	"the nations" as the peoples being dispossessed
עָשָׂה (ʻasâh) "do/make"	H6213	22x (11%)	often in "do according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out"
עַם (ʻam) "people"	H5971	20x (10%)	Israel as "my people" / the nations as "peoples"

Typical syntactic frame: YHWH + nathan + ʼerets + l- (to Israel) + inf. yarash — "the LORD gives the land to Israel to possess it" (the Deuteronomic formula, varied ~60x).

Word Family / Cognates¶

Derived from the same root: - יְרֻשָּׁה (yerushshah) H3425 — possession, inheritance (noun; 14x, e.g., Num 24:18; Deut 2:5, 9, 19) - יְרֻשָּׁה / יְרֵשָׁה feminine abstract nouns — "possession" (appears in the parser output at Num 24:18; Deut 2:5ff., 3:20; Josh 1:15; 12:6–7; Jer 32:8; 2 Chr 20:11; Ps 61:5) - מוֹרָשׁ / מוֹרָשָׁה (môrâsh / môrâshâh) H4180/H4181 — possession, heritage

Synonyms¶

No discrete synonym list was returned by search_relationships.py for H3423.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H3423.

Easily Confused Words (KJV + LXX overlap)¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
נָחַל (nâchal)	H5157	"inherit", "possess"	nachal = receive as an assigned share/portion (emphasis on allotment, tribal division); yarash = take by displacing prior holders (emphasis on the act of dispossession/occupation). LXX bridges both to κληρονομέω.
גָּרַשׁ (gârash)	H1644	"drive out", "cast out"	garash = expel / divorce (generic ejection, often without succession); yarash Hiphil = drive out specifically so that another party takes the place. Both occur in the same verses (e.g., Exod 23:28–31) but nuanced differently.
שָׁלַח (shâlach) Piel	H7971	"cast out", "send away"	shalach = send/dispatch (very broad); yarash Hiphil narrowly = dispossess from a place.
שָׁמַד (shâmad)	H8045	"destroy utterly", "utterly"	shamad = exterminate, annihilate; yarash need not imply annihilation — only displacement. Often paired: "destroy and dispossess."
חָרַם (châram)	H2763	"utterly destroy"	cheyrem = devote to destruction (sacral ban); yarash = take over property (practical seizure). Complementary in conquest narratives.
אָבַד (ʼâbad) Hiphil	H6	"destroy", "perish"	avad = cause to perish / be lost; yarash = cause to lose possession.
חֲסַן (chăsan) [Aramaic]	H2631	"possess"	Aramaic counterpart of nachal; appears in Dan 7:18, 22 for saints "possessing the kingdom."
נָדַח (nâdach)	H5080	"cast out"	nadach = push away, banish (often individual, often metaphorical); yarash Hiphil = territorial dispossession.

UBS Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
002003002018	Possess	Core domain: take possession, inherit, occupy.
002003002017	Non-Possess	Inverse field: lose possession, be dispossessed, be driven from what one held.
002002001012	Move	Reflects land-entry and boundary-crossing contexts in conquest formulas.
002003003003	Bear	Fits heir/succession uses where the inheriting party is the one who "succeeds to" a possession.

search_relationships.py clusters yarash across possession, dispossession, land-entry, and succession. The rows above capture the clearest matches to the established categories already present in this study.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
κληρονομέω (klēronoméō) G2816	100	6.38	Primary bridge — "to inherit, be heir"; covers the Qal "take possession/inherit" sense
ἐξαίρω (exaírō) G1808	20	3.80	"remove, take away" — often for Hiphil "drive out"
κατοικέω (katoikéō) G2730	38	3.00	"dwell, settle" — translates the result state of yarash + yashab pairings
γῆ (gē) G1093	103	2.30	"land, earth" — the frequent collocate, not the translation
εἰσπορεύομαι (eisporeúomai) G1531	15	3.66	"enter in" — often for the "go in to possess" sequence
κληρονόμος (klēronómos) G2818	3	6.80	"heir" — for Qal participle "heir" in Gen 15:3–4 etc.
ἔθνος (éthnos) G1484	34	2.61	"nation" — collocate (the peoples dispossessed), not the translation
κλῆρος (klēros) G2819	12	3.54	"lot, inheritance-share"

Principal bridge: κληρονομέω (G2816). This is a strong LXX bridge (co-occ = 100, well above the 20 threshold) and carries both the "inherit" and "possess" senses into the NT.