Occupy

OCCUPY [ISBE]

OCCUPY - ok'-u-pi: Is in the King James Version the translation of 7 different words: (1) nathan; (2) cachar; (3) `arabh; (4) `asah, either with or without the added word, mela'khah; (5) anapleroun; (6) peripatein; (7) pragmateuein. In almost every case the meanings of "to occupy" as used in the King James Version in harmony with the common usage of the time have become obsolete. (1) In Ezek 27:16,19,22, nathan meant "to trade," and the Revised Version (British and American) reads "traded." (2) From cachar, "to go about," was derived a designation of "merchants" (Revised Version) (Ezek 27:21). (3) `Arabh (Ezek 27:9) signifies "to exchange" (the English Revised Version and the American Revised Version margin, but the American Standard Revised Version "deal in"). (4) `asah (Ex 38:24) means simply "to use" (Revised Version), and the same word in Jdg 16:11, with mela'khah ("work") added, signifies that work had been done (Revised Version). (5) In 1 Cor 14:16, "occupy," the King James Version rendering of anapleroun, would still be as intelligible to most as the Revised Version (British and American) "fill." (6) "Occupy" in Heb 13:9, in the sense of "being taken up with a thing," is the translation (both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) of peripatein, literally, "to walk." Finally (7) pragmateuein (Lk 19:13) is rendered in the King James Version "occupy" in its obsolete sense of "trade" (Revised Version).

David Foster Estes