INHABIT; INHABITANT

in-hab'-it, in-hab'-it-ant (yashabh, "to sit," "remain, "dwell," "inhabit" shakhen, "to settle down" "tabernacle," "dwell"; katoikeo, "to settle," "dwell"): See DWELL . The verb "to inhabit," now used only transitively, had once an intransitive meaning as well. Compare Cowper, Olney Hymns,XIV ,

"Who built it, who inhabits there?"

So in 1 Chronicles 5:9 the King James Version, "And eastward he inhabited unto the entering in of the wilderness" (but the Revised Version (British and American) "dwelt"). We have the obsolete inhabiters for "inhabitants" in Revelation 8:13 the King James Version (but the Revised Version (British and American) "them that dwell") and Revelation 12:12 the King James Version (but omitted in the Revised Version (British and American)). The rare inhabitress (feminine) is found only in Jeremiah 10:17 margin; "the church called the inhabitress of the gardens" (Bishop Richardson).

D. Miall Edwards

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.