HARD SAYINGS; HARD SENTENCES

sa'-ingz;, sen'-ten-siz: In Daniel 5:12 the King James Version (Aramaic 'aqiahan), the Revised Version (British and American) "dark sentences," of enigmatic utterances which preternatural wisdom was needed to interpret; in John 6:60 (skleros. ho logos), of sayings (Christ's words at Capernaum about eating His flesh and drinking His blood) difficult for the natural mind to understand (compare 6:52).

HARD; HARDINESS; HARDDINESS; HARDLY

hard, har'-di-nes, hard'-nes, hard'-li (qasheh, pala'; skleros): The senses in which hard is used may be distinguished as:

(1) "Firm," "stiff," opposite to soft: Job 41:24, yatsaq, "to be firm," "his heart. as hard as a piece of the nether millstone," the Revised Version (British and American) "firm"; Ezekiel 3:7, qasheh, "sharp," "hard of heart"; chazaq, "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, `azaz, "to make strong," "hard," "impudent," "a wicked man hardeneth his face"; Proverbs 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, 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, 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," qasheh (Exodus 1:14, "hard service"; Deuteronomy, 26:6 2 Samuel 3:39 Psalm 60:3 Isaiah 14:3); qashah "to have it hard" (Genesis 35:16, 17 Deuteronomy 15:18); `athaq, "stiff" (Psalm 94:4 the King James Version, "They utter and speak hard things"); skleros (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 Jude 1:15, "hard speeches"; The Wisdom of Solomon 19:13).

(3) "Heavy," "pressing hard," kabhedh, "weighty" (Ezekiel 3:5, 6, "a people of a strange speech and of a hard language," the Revised Version margin (Hebrew) "deep of lip and heavy of tongue"); camakh, "to lay" (Psalm 88:7, "Thy wrath lieth hard upon me").

(4) "Difficult," "hard to do," "know," etc., pala', "difficult to be done" (Genesis 18:14, "Is anything too hard for Yahweh?"; Jeremiah 32:17, 27 Deuteronomy 17:8 2 Samuel 13:2); qasheh (Exodus 18:26, "hard causes"); qashah (Deuteronomy 1:17 2 Kings 2:10); chidhah, "something twisted," "involved," "an enigma"; compare Judges 14:14 (1 Kings 10:1 2 Chronicles 9:1, "to prove Solomon with hard questions"); 'ahidhan, Aramaic (Daniel 5:12); duskolos, 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"); dusnoetos, "hard to be understood" (Hebrews 5:11 2 Peter 3:16; compare Ecclesiasticus 3:21, "things too hard for thee," chalepos).

(5) "Close," or "near to" (hard by), naghash, "to come nigh" (Judges 9:52, the American Standard Revised Version "near"); dabhaq and dabheq, "to follow hard after" (Judges 20:45 Psalm 63:8, etc.); 'etsel, "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 thrasos, the Revised Version (British and American) "boldness."

Hardness is the translation of mutsaq, "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 porosis, "hardness," "callousness"; Matthew 19:8 Mark 10:5; Mark 16:14, sklerokardia, "dryness," "stiffness of heart"; compare Ecclesiasticus 16:10; in Romans 2:5, it is sklerotes; 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" (kakopatheo, "to suffer evil").

Hardly occurs in the Old Testament (Exodus 13:15), "Pharaoh would hardly let us go," qashah, 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 qadshah, 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 (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 mogis, "with labor," "pain," "trouble" (Luke 9:39, "hardly departeth from him" ("painfully")); of molis "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 molis, 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).

W. L. Walker

1. (superl.) Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; -- applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.

2. (superl.) Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem.

3. (superl.) Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.

4. (superl.) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.

5. (superl.) Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms.

6. (superl.) Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.

7. (superl.) Not easy or agreeable to the taste; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style.

8. (superl.) Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.

9. (superl.) Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; -- said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.

10. (superl.) Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.

11. (superl.) Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.

12. (superl.) Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.

13. (adv.) With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.

14. (adv.) With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.

15. (adv.) Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.

16. (adv.) So as to raise difficulties.

17. (adv.) With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; as, to run hard.

18. (adv.) Close or near.

19. (v. t.) To harden; to make hard.

20. (n.) A ford or passage across a river or swamp.

7185. qashah -- to be hard, severe or fierce
... qashah. 7186 >>. to be hard, severe or fierce. Transliteration: qashah Phonetic
Spelling: (kaw-shaw') Short Definition: stiffened. Word Origin a prim. ...
/hebrew/7185.htm - 6k

7186. qasheh -- hard, severe
... << 7185, 7186. qasheh. 7187 >>. hard, severe. Transliteration: qasheh Phonetic
Spelling: (kaw-sheh') Short Definition: hard. Word Origin ...
/hebrew/7186.htm - 6k

1565. galmud -- hard, barren
... << 1564, 1565. galmud. 1566 >>. hard, barren. Transliteration: galmud Phonetic
Spelling: (gal-mood') Short Definition: barren. Word Origin ...
/hebrew/1565.htm - 6k

6864. tsor -- a hard pebble, flint
... << 6863, 6864. tsor. 6865 >>. a hard pebble, flint. Transliteration: tsor Phonetic
Spelling: (tsore) Short Definition: flint. Word Origin ...
/hebrew/6864.htm - 6k

3436. Yoshbeqashah -- "a hard seat," a son of Heman
... Yoshbeqashah. 3437 >>. "a hard seat," a son of Heman. Transliteration: Yoshbeqashah
Phonetic Spelling: (yosh-bek-aw-shaw') Short Definition: Joshbekashah. ...
/hebrew/3436.htm - 6k

7188. qashach -- to make hard, treat roughly
... << 7187, 7188. qashach. 7189 >>. to make hard, treat roughly. Transliteration: qashach
Phonetic Spelling: (kaw-shakh') Short Definition: harden. Word Origin a prim ...
/hebrew/7188.htm - 6k

6862d. tsar -- a hard pebble, flint
... a hard pebble, flint. Transliteration: tsar Short Definition: flint. Word Origin
from an unused word Definition a hard pebble, flint NASB Word Usage flint (1). ...
/hebrew/6862d.htm - 5k

3332. yatsaq -- to pour, cast, flow
... root Definition to pour, cast, flow NASB Word Usage cast (14), casting (1), dished
(1), firm (1), hard (2), hardens (1), molten (2), pour (14), poured (13 ...
/hebrew/3332.htm - 6k

1692. dabaq -- to cling, cleave, keep close
... abide fast, cleave fast together, follow close hard after, be joined together.
A primitive root; properly, to impinge, ie Cling or ...
/hebrew/1692.htm - 6k

386. ethan -- perennial, ever-flowing, permanence
... Word Origin from an unused word Definition perennial, ever-flowing, permanence NASB
Word Usage enduring (3), ever-flowing (2), firm (1), hard (1), normal state ...
/hebrew/386.htm - 6k