Bible Dictionary
OCCUPY
In older Bible English, occupy can mean to trade, work, use, serve, or conduct business. In Jesus’ parable of the pounds, “occupy” means to engage in business until the master returns.
Definition
In older Bible English, occupy may mean to trade, exchange, use, work, serve, fill, walk, or conduct business. Its meaning must therefore be determined by the particular underlying Hebrew or Greek word and its context.
Biblical Usage
In Jesus’ parable of the pounds, “occupy” means to trade or conduct business until the master returns. Elsewhere the older word may mean trade, exchange, use, work, fill, or be occupied with something.
Historical Background
Many King James uses of occupy have become obsolete. Later translations commonly replace them with trade, deal in, use, work, fill, walk, or conduct business.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ok'-u-pi: Is in the King James Version the translation of 7 different words:</p><p>(1) nathan;</p><p>(2) cachar;</p><p>(3) `arabh;</p><p>(4) `asah, either with or without the added word, mela'khah;</p><p>(5) anapleroun;</p><p>(6) peripatein;</p><p>(7) pragmateuein.</p><p>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.</p><p>(1) In Eze 27:16,19,22, nathan meant "to trade," and the Revised Version (British and American) reads "traded."</p><p>(2) From cachar, "to go about," was derived a designation of "merchants" (Revised Version) (Eze 27:21).</p><p>(3) `Arabh (Eze 27:9) signifies "to exchange" (the English Revised Version and the American Revised Version margin, but the American Standard Revised Version "deal in").</p><p>(4) `asah (Ex 38:24) means simply "to use" (Revised Version), and the same word in Jud 16:11, with mela'khah ("work") added, signifies that work had been done (Revised Version).</p><p>(5) In 1Co 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."</p><p>(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</p><p>(7) pragmateuein (Lu 19:13) is rendered in the King James Version "occupy" in its obsolete sense of "trade" (Revised Version).</p><p>David Foster Estes</p>