Hebrew word · H4181

מוֹרָשָׁה

morashah

possession

A possession or holding, especially a hereditary or granted possession of land. It comes from the root yarash.

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a possession

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 33:24

Range of meaning

A possession or holding, especially a hereditary or granted possession of land. It comes from the root yarash.

Against the English

KJV and WEB say 'inheritance'; BSB, NIV and others say 'possession'. 'Possession' is closer. The word means a holding granted to someone, not necessarily something passed down at death.

How it drifted

The same issue as with yarash: modern 'inheritance' narrows the sense to bequests.

Used elsewhere in the period

A rare word. It appears in Exod 6:8, God's oath: 'I will give it to you as a possession (morashah)', and in Deut 33:4, where the Torah is called the 'morashah' of Jacob's assembly. Ezekiel uses it more than any other book: 11:15; 25:4, 10; 33:24; 36:2, 3, 5. In Ezek 36:2–5 the enemy nations use the same word to claim Israel's land.

From the study of Ezekiel 36:2

Range of meaning

A possession or holding, especially land acquired by taking it over. It comes from yarash, 'to take possession of, inherit, dispossess'. It is used of the land promised to the patriarchs (Exod 6:8) and of Torah as Jacob's heritage (Deut 33:4).

Against the English

English 'possession' is accurate but flat. The Hebrew carries the overtone of inheritance by right, or of conquest that drives out the former occupants.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel uses it as a running theme of disputed land: the Jerusalemites say of the exiles 'to us this land is given as a possession' (11:15); the survivors in the ruins say 'Abraham was one man… to us the land is given as a possession' (33:24); the eastern peoples receive Ammon 'as a possession' (25:4, 10); Israel became a 'possession' of the nations (36:3, 5).

From the study of Ezekiel 36:3

Range of meaning

'Possession, property acquired by taking over'. It comes from the root yarash, 'take possession of, inherit, dispossess'. In the Hebrew Bible it occurs mostly in Ezekiel (11:15; 25:4, 10; 33:24; 36:2, 3, 5) and in Exod 6:8 and Deut 33:4.

Against the English

'Possession' is accurate. It is not a neutral word for something owned, though. It carries the sense of seizure and of a claim to land.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Exod 6:8 God promises to give the land to Israel 'as a possession (morashah)'. In Ezek 11:15 and 33:24 Judeans left in the land claimed it for themselves as their morashah, and Ezekiel rejected that claim. In 25:4, 10 Ammon is handed to 'the people of the east' as a morashah.

Similar words

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 6:8 מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה a possession

    And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD!’”

    Here: A rare word from the verb 'take possession of, take over (often by displacing others), inherit'. Here it describes land held as one's own. It is the opposite of the 'land of their sojournings' in v. 4, where the ancestors lived only as resident foreigners.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 33:4 מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה a possession

    the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob.

Ezekiel · 7

  1. Ezekiel 11:15 לְמוֹרָשָֽׁה׃ ס to a possession

    “Son of man, your brothers—your relatives, your fellow exiles, and the whole house of Israel—are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘They are far away from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

  2. Ezekiel 25:4 לְמֽוֹרָשָׁ֗ה to a possession

    therefore I will indeed give you as a possession to the people of the East. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.

  3. Ezekiel 25:10 לְמֽוֹרָשָׁ֑ה to a possession

    I will give it along with the Ammonites as a possession to the people of the East, so that the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations.

  4. Ezekiel 33:24 לְמוֹרָשָֽׁה׃ ס to a possession

    “Son of man, those living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.’

    Here: 'As a possession', a noun from the same root as 'possessed' above. It echoes the language of God's land promise (Exod 6:8) and the same slogan in Ezek 11:15.

  5. Ezekiel 36:2 לְמֽוֹרָשָׁ֖ה <into> a possession

    This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’

    Here: 'As a possession'. From the verb for taking over land, often by driving others out (yarash). The enemy is using Israel's own conquest-and-inheritance language to claim Israel's land.

  6. Ezekiel 36:3 מֽוֹרָשָׁה֙ a possession

    therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers,

    Here: Repeats the enemy's boast in v. 2 ('the ancient heights have become our possession'). It is the language of taking over a land, the very word Israel used for its own claim to the land (Exod 6:8; Ezek 11:15; 33:24).

  7. Ezekiel 36:5 לְמ֨וֹרָשָׁ֜ה into a possession

    Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.

    Here: 'As a possession'. This is the same word God used when he promised the land to Israel (Exod 6:8), so Edom is presented as a counterfeit heir.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.