This article is part of a series on the changing meaning of English words and its impact on the King James Only debate. To see the introduction to this series, click The King James Version and the changing use of words.

Languages change over time. Some words drop out of use and new words come into being. Even more importantly, words change in their meaning and usage. Words that meant one thing even a few generations ago may now mean something completely different to present-day readers. These changes can impact how we understand older English writings without our even realizing it. Many such words occur in the KJV, words that meant one thing in 1611 but now mean something else, words we can read the wrong way without even noticing we have done so. For an example of this, let’s consider the word “coast.”

If the LORD thy God enlarge thy what?

Living thousands of years after and a world away from biblical cultures, lands, and events presents a set of challenges in rightly understanding the places and situations described in the Scriptures. The authors, for example, assume that you already know where certain mountains, cities, rivers, etc. are in relation to one another and they use these landmarks as reference points in telling their stories. Even in the clearest translation, in some passages, we have to work very hard to follow what would have been quite clear and obvious to someone who lived, worked, and traveled in and around these places. The challenge only increases if the wording of the translation itself gives the reader an inaccurate picture of the place being described.

For example, in the KJV,  we read that Jesus and His disciples “came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi,” (Matthew 16:13). For readers today, this language gives us the picture that Caesarea Philippi was by an ocean or a great sea, perhaps that it was a port city. Jesus and the disciples often traveled by boat and so this seems natural enough, but it isn’t actually correct. To picture Caesarea Philippi as a port town, a bustling coastal city, or a picturesque beachfront area is to get the whole picture wrong. Caesarea Philippi was not “coastal,” in the current use of that term. It was not by any major body of water. It had no sandy shores, no lapping waves. You didn’t sail up to it by ship. Does this mean that Matthew got his description wrong? Or that the KJV translators used the wrong word here? Actually, no. It doesn’t mean either of those things. You see, the word “coast” originally meant “a border; the boundary of a territory or region; the margin of the land; the outer regions of a stated area.” Thus, shorelines were “coasts” in that they are the boundary or limit of the land, but the borders or outer regions of landlocked territories or places were also called “coasts.” It was a far more general term than it is today. In 1611, the “coasts of Caesarea Philippi” would not have called to anyone’s mind the idea of a beach or a body of water. The word did not entail such a thing. In today’s English, however, “coast” has a far more specified meaning, namely, “the land right next to the sea; a seashore.”

Thus, when Moses writes:

“And if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers,” (Deuteronomy 19:8, KJV).

The term “enlarge thy coasts” doesn’t mean to increase their seaside property or their territory along what we would today call the “coastline.” It just means to increase their borders or to make their domain bigger. And this is, indeed, what God had promised to do, to give them the whole of the promised land.

The coast of your brethren

Similarly, when he writes:

“And command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you,” (Deuteronomy 2:4, KJV).

A modern reader might notice that, just a couple verses earlier, it says that the people of Israel traveled “by way of the Red Sea” (2:1). They might also notice that they are told to “turn northward” from mount Seir. They might look up the map in the back of their Bible and notice that above Seir, at the Northernmost part of Edom (the territory of the descendants of Esau), there is a small strip of coast along the Red Sea. They might reasonably assume, then, that this is the “coast of your brethren the children of Esau,” and conclude that God was commanding the Israelites to travel along the shore at that spot. This would be a quite rational conclusion, given the data. It would also be wrong.

The actual scenario in this passage is that the Israelites “journey into the wilderness by way of the red sea,” (2:1) i.e., the path along the Red Sea is the way by which they entered the wilderness or the uninhabited regions. They do not, however, enter the land of Edom. Instead, they keep to the wilderness. They “compassed mount Seir many days,” (2:1). Mount Seir is another name for the land of Edom, as we see in 2:8, “we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir,” and in 2:5, “I have given mount Seir unto Esau for a possession.” Thus, to “compass mount Seir” meant to travel around the land of Edom rather than going straight through (“compass” here being yet another word whose usage has changed, then meaning “to circle or go around.”) God then tells them “Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you,” (2:4).

In other words, Israel was scared to enter Edom’s territory. They didn’t want a fight, so they were going the long way around. God told them to go ahead and cross Edom’s borders (“coasts”) and travel through their territory. God assured them that they would be safe to do so. This isn’t about traveling along the shoreline. Indeed, that’s certainly not the route they took. Rather, the passage is about God’s promise to protect them even when they cross the borders of their potential enemies. To a present-day reader, this is much clearer in a contemporary translation like the NASB, which reads:

“You will pass through the territory of your brothers the sons of Esau who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you.”

Others like the ESV, NIV, NKJV, and CSB read approximately the same. These translations are saying the exact same thing that the KJV translators were saying in the language of their day, but these more recent translations are saying it in words that are clear to us today. And when it comes to narratives that are deeply rooted in the geography and topography of ancient foreign lands, it is helpful to have language that is as clear to us as possible.