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Hard; Hardiness; Harddiness; Hardly

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hard , har´di - nes , hard´nes , hard´li ( קשׁה , ḳāsheh , פלא , pālā' ; σκληρός , sklērós ) : The senses in which hard is used may be distinguished as:

(1) "Firm," "stiff," opposite to soft: Job 41:24 , yācaḳ , "to be firm," "his heart ... as hard as a piece of the nether millstone," the Revised Version (British and American) "firm"; Ezekiel 3:7 , ḳāsheh , "sharp," "hard of heart"; ḥāzāḳ , "firm," "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead"; Jeremiah 5:3 , "They have made their faces harder than a rock"; Proverbs 21:29 , ‛āzaz , "to make strong," "hard," "impudent," "a wicked man hardeneth his face"; Proverbs 13:15 probably belongs here also where 'ēthān 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, Micah 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 Matthew 25:24 , sklēros , "stiff," "thou art a hard man"; The Wisdom of Solomon 11:4, sklēros , "hard stone," the Revised Version (British and American) "flinty rock," margin "the steep rock."

(2) "Sore," "trying," "painful," ḳāsheh ( Exodus 1:14 , "hard service"; Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 26:6; 2 Samuel 3:39; Psalm 60:3; Isaiah 14:3 ); ḳāshāh "to have it hard" (Genesis 35:16 , Genesis 35:17; Deuteronomy 15:18 ); ‛āthāḳ , "stiff" (Psalm 94:4 the King James Version, "They utter and speak hard things"); sklēros (John 6:60 , "This is a hard saying" - hard to accept, hard in its nature; Acts 9:5 the King James Version; Acts 26:14; Judges 1:15 , "hard speeches"; The Wisdom of Solomon 19:13).

(3) "Heavy," "pressing hard," kābhēdh , "weighty" ( Ezekiel 3:5 , Ezekiel 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"); ṣāmakh , "to lay" (Psalm 88:7 , "Thy wrath lieth hard upon me").

(4) "Difficult," "hard to do," "know," etc., pālā' , "difficult to be done" ( Genesis 18:14 , "Is anything too hard for Yahweh?"; Jeremiah 32:17 , Jeremiah 32:27; Deuteronomy 17:8; 2 Samuel 13:2 ); ḳāsheh (Exodus 18:26 , "hard causes"); ḳāshāh (Deuteronomy 1:17; 2 Kings 2:10 ); ḥı̄dhāh , "something twisted," "involved," "an enigma"; compare Judges 14:14 ( 1 Kings 10:1; 2 Chronicles 9:1 , "to prove Solomon with hard questions"); 'ăhı̄dhān , Aramaic (Daniel 5:12 ); dúskolos , literally, "difficult about food," "hard to please," hence, "difficult to accomplish" (Mark 10:24 , "How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God"); dusnóētos , "hard to be understood" (Hebrews 5:11; 2 Peter 3:16; compare Ecclesiasticus 3:21, "things too hard for thee," chalepós ).

(5) "Close," or "near to" (hard by), nāghash , "to come nigh" ( Judges 9:52 , the American Standard Revised Version "near"); dābhāḳ and dābhēḳ , "to follow hard after" (Judges 20:45; Psalm 63:8 , etc.); 'ēcel , "near" (1 Kings 21:1 ); le'ummath , "over against" (Leviticus 3:9 ); ‛adh , "to" "even to" (1 Chronicles 19:4 , the King James Version "hard by," the Revised Version (British and American) "even to").

Hardiness occurs in Judith 16:10 thrásos , the Revised Version (British and American) "boldness."

Hardness is the translation of mūcāḳ , "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 Mark 3:5 , it is pō̇rōsis , "hardness," "callousness"; Matthew 19:8; Mark 10:5; Mark 16:14 , sklērokardia , "dryness," "stiffness of heart"; compare Ecclesiasticus 16:10; in Romans 2:5 , it is sklērótēs ; in 2 Timothy 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" ( kakopathéō , "to suffer evil").

Hardly occurs in the Old Testament ( Exodus 13:15 ), "Pharaoh would hardly let us go," ḳāshāh , literally, "hardened to let us go," the Revised Version margin "hardened himself against letting us go"; "hardly bestead" (Isaiah 8:21 ) is the translation of ḳāshāh , the American Standard Revised Version "sore distressed." In the New Testament "hardly" is the translation of duskólōs , "hard to please," "difficult," meaning not scarcely or barely , but with difficulty ( Matthew 19:23 , "A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven," the Revised Version (British and American) "it is hard for"; Mark 10:23; Luke 18:24 , "how hardly" ("with what difficulty")); of mógis , "with labor," "pain," "trouble" (Luke 9:39 , "hardly departeth from him" ("painfully")); of mólis "with toil and fatigue" (Acts 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 mólis , but in the last two instances we seem to see the transition to "scarcely"; compare also Exodus 13:15 ).

The Revised Version has "too hard" for "hidden" (Deuteronomy 30:11 , margin "wonderful"); "hardness" for "boldness" (of face) (Ecclesiastes 8:1 ); for "sorrow" (Lamentations 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" (Acts 9:5 , corrected text); "hardship" for "trouble" (2 Timothy 2:9 ).