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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Hard
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HARD.—Besides other meanings which are still in use, ‘hard’ sometimes means close: Jdg_9:52 ‘And Abimelech … went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire’; Psa_63:8 ‘My soul followeth hard after thee’; Act_18:7 ‘Justus … whose house joined hard to the synagogue.’ Cf. Job_17:1 in Coverdale, ‘I am harde at deathes dore.’
Hardiness is used in Jdt_16:10 for courage: ‘the Medes were daunted at her hardiness’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘boldness’).
Hardly means either ‘harshly,’ as Gen_16:5 ‘Sarai dealt hardly with her,’ or ‘with difficulty,’ as Exo_13:15 ‘Pharaoh would hardly let us go’; Mat_19:23 ‘a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven’; Luk_9:39 ‘bruising him, hardly departeth from him’; Act_27:8 ‘And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens.’ So Adams (2Pe_1:4) ‘He that hath done evil once, shall more hardly resist it at the next assault.’
Hardness for modern ‘hardship’ occurs in 2Ti_2:3 ‘endure hardness as a good soldier.’ Cf. Shakespeare, Cymb. iii. vi. 21—
‘Hardness ever
Of hardiness is mother.’