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) InEze 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) (Eze 27:21).
(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").
(4) `asah (Ex 38:24) means simply "to use" (Revised Version), and the same word inJud 16:11, with mela'khah ("work") added, signifies that work had been done (Revised Version).
(5) In1Co 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" inHeb 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 (Lu 19:13) is rendered in the King James Version "occupy" in its obsolete sense of "trade" (Revised Version).
David Foster Estes