Hard, Hardiness, Harddiness, Hardly
Hard, Hardiness, Harddiness, Hardly
hard, hardi-nes, hardnes, hardli (, kasheh, , pala’; , skleros) : The senses in which hard is used may be distinguished as:
(1) Firm, stiff, opposite to soft: Job 41:24, yacak, to be firm, his heart … as hard as a piece of the nether millstone, the Revised Version (British and American) firm; Eze 3:7, kasheh, sharp, hard of heart; hazak, firm, As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead; Jer 5:3, They have made their faces harder than a rock; Pro 21:29, azaz, to make strong, hard, impudent, a wicked man hardeneth his face; Pro 13:15 probably belongs here also where ‘ethan is translated hard: The way of the transgressor is hard, the English Revised Version The way of the treacherous is rugged; the Hebrew word means, lasting, firm, poet. rocks (the earth’s foundations, Mic 6:2), and the meaning seems to be, not that the way (path) of transgressors, or the treacherous (Delitzsch has uncultivated), is hard (rocky) to them, but that their way, or mode of acting, is hard, unsympathetic, unkind, destitute of feeling in things which, as we say, would soften a stone (Delitzsch on passage); also Mat 25:24, skleros, stiff, thou art a hard man; The Wisdom of Solomon 11:4, skleros, hard stone, the Revised Version (British and American) flinty rock, margin the steep rock.
(2) Sore, trying, painful, kasheh (Exo 1:14, hard service; Deuteronomy, Deu 26:6; 2Sa 3:39; Psa 60:3; Isa 14:3); kashah to have it hard (Gen 35:16, Gen 35:17; Deu 15:18); athak, stiff (Psa 94:4 the King James Version, They utter and speak hard things); skleros (Joh 6:60, This is a hard saying – hard to accept, hard in its nature; Act 9:5 the King James Version; Act 26:14; Jud 1:15, hard speeches; The Wisdom of Solomon 19:13).
(3) Heavy, pressing hard, kabhedh, weighty (Eze 3:5, Eze 3:6, a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, the Revised Version margin (Hebrew) deep of lip and heavy of tongue); samakh, to lay (Psa 88:7, Thy wrath lieth hard upon me).
(4) Difficult, hard to do, know, etc., pala’, difficult to be done (Gen 18:14, Is anything too hard for Yahweh?; Jer 32:17, Jer 32:27; Deu 17:8; 2Sa 13:2); kasheh (Exo 18:26, hard causes); kashah (Deu 1:17; 2Ki 2:10); hdhah, something twisted, involved, an enigma; compare Jdg 14:14 (1Ki 10:1; 2Ch 9:1, to prove Solomon with hard questions); ‘ahdhan, Aramaic (Dan 5:12); duskolos, literally, difficult about food, hard to please, hence, difficult to accomplish (Mar 10:24, How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God); dusnoetos, hard to be understood (Heb 5:11; 2Pe 3:16; compare Ecclesiasticus 3:21, things too hard for thee, chalepos).
(5) Close, or near to (hard by), naghash, to come nigh (Jdg 9:52, the American Standard Revised Version near); dabhak and dabhek, to follow hard after (Jdg 20:45; Psa 63:8, etc.); ‘ecel, near (1Ki 21:1); le’ummath, over against (Lev 3:9); adh, to even to (1Ch 19:4, the King James Version hard by, the Revised Version (British and American) even to).
Hardiness occurs in Judith 16:10 thrasos, the Revised Version (British and American) boldness.
Hardness is the translation of mucak, something poured out, dust wetted, running into clods (Job 38:38), the Revised Version (British and American) runneth into a mass; hardness of heart occurs in the Gospels; in Mar 3:5, it is porosis, hardness, callousness; Mat 19:8; Mar 10:5; Mar 16:14, sklerokardia, dryness, stiffness of heart; compare Ecclesiasticus 16:10; in Rom 2:5, it is sklerotes; in 2Ti 2:3 the King James Version we have, Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, the Revised Version (British and American) Suffer hardship with me (corrected text), margin Take thy part in suffering hardship (kakopatheo, to suffer evil).
Hardly occurs in the Old Testament (Exo 13:15), Pharaoh would hardly let us go, kashah, literally, hardened to let us go, the Revised Version margin hardened himself against letting us go; hardly bestead (Isa 8:21) is the translation of kashah, the American Standard Revised Version sore distressed. In the New Testament hardly is the translation of duskolos, hard to please, difficult, meaning not scarcely or barely, but with difficulty (Mat 19:23, A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven, the Revised Version (British and American) it is hard for; Mar 10:23; Luk 18:24, how hardly (with what difficulty)); of mogis, with labor, pain, trouble (Luk 9:39, hardly departeth from him (painfully)); of molis with toil and fatigue (Act 27:8, the Revised Version (British and American) with difficulty; The Wisdom of Solomon 9:16, Hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth; Ecclesiasticus 26:29, A merchant shall hardly keep himself from wrong doing; 29:6, He shall hardly receive the half, in each instance the word is molis, but in the last two instances we seem to see the transition to scarcely; compare also Exo 13:15).
The Revised Version has too hard for hidden (Deu 30:11, margin wonderful); hardness for boldness (of face) (Ecc 8:1); for sorrow (Lam 3:65); deal hardly with me for make yourselves strong to me (Job 19:3); omits It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (Act 9:5, corrected text); hardship for trouble (2Ti 2:9).