Post by librarylarry on Oct 8, 2017 11:42:40 GMT -8
Shalom to the Ahavat Elohim Mishpakha, I was looking at the entry 'HARD' in William Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies and found that it was used 22 times in Exodus and was translated from 3 different Hebrew words. Eleven times the word CHAZAQ occurs when describing the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Interestingly, there is a twelfth occurrence of CHAZAQ that deserves special treatment. This final occurrence is found in Exodus 14:17 and instead of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, the hardening of the Egyptians' hearts collectively is involved in this particular word usage.
biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/14-17.htm
Chazak (pronounced khaw-zak') according to Wilson means "to brace up or tighten, in opposition to a state of relaxation": .... [as a prime example of this portion of his definition he quotes Isaiah 35:3 as a proof-text]
biblehub.com/interlinear/isaiah/35-3.htm
Wilson further defines and comments on 'chazak' as follows... "to be stout and courageous, to be confirmed and established. This is the word used of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, and implies his strengthening himself against all fear and alarm, stoutly resisting the warnings and motives urged upon him, and the terrors of God's judgments;" He interrupts with a comparison text, namely Psalms 95:8 which, by the way, is repeated in Hebrews 3:8...
biblehub.com/interlinear/psalms/95-8.htm
He goes on to say "It is in Piel that this word is used of God's hardening his heart, when he left him to his own obstinacy and rebellion, and withdrew that favor or benevolence by which alone he might have been brought to relent. The Hebrew, in the narrative respecting Pharaoh, employs three distinct words, differing from each other by a marked diversity of import, but which are all indiscriminately rendered by "harden." The whole number of passages in which Pharaoh's heart is said to have been hardened is nineteen; ***** Here is where he gets his count messed up a little bit. He counts thirteen instances of 'chazaq' but his concordance list only contains eleven. He mentions five occurrences of 'kabed' but there are six in his list, and he mentions one occurrence of 'qesheh' when there are actually two. *****
'Chazak' is entry #4, seven of which are in the Piel verbal conjugation mentioned above. While there seems to be a lot more that could be said on Piel from a highly qualified Hebrew grammarian, this aspect of "intentional, repeated, extended action" certainly fits Pharaoh to a tee. The remaining four instances of 'chazak' are rather glaring to me. They are in the future tense of the Kal (or Qal) verbal conjugation. This is the simplest and most direct action verb in Hebrew. There is a movement among certain Christians today that attempts to keep YHVH's character from being maligned. While this is a very lofty and noble undertaking, I wonder if some of these Kal direct action Hebrew verbs would be a "hot potato" issue for them. They are trying to wrap all Holy Writ that involves Divine activity into a nice, neat, user-friendly package of causative-action Hebrew verbs, of which there are plenty, but what about passages like 2nd Kings 19:35 and Isaiah 37:36 where the Angel of the Lord struck 185,000 Assyrians?
biblehub.com/interlinear/2_kings/19-35.htm
biblehub.com/interlinear/isaiah/37-36.htm
Oh well... so much for that ranting and raving campaign... allow me to continue with William Wilson's second Hebrew word, namely, 'kabed'. Under "Phonetic Spelling," Strong's has (kaw-bade'). This is entry #6 in Wilson's O. T. Word Studies and reads as follows: "to be heavy. This word is also applied to the hardness of the heart of Pharaoh, and seems to point to his insensibility and want of conviction, as the same word is applied to the ear when not duly impressed with sounds, or to the eye, when it becomes dim."
We see again the direct action Hebrew verbal conjugation known as Kal, in the future tense, when we look at 'kabed'. It only occurs once compared to the four times it happens when the word 'chazaq' is used for 'harden' in Exodus, but it's there, nonetheless. The third word for 'harden' mentioned in Wilson's is 'qesheh' and Wilson defines it this way... "to be hard, harsh, severe; to be obstinate, intractable, perverse; applied to that which is very difficult and distressing."
biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/14-17.htm
Chazak (pronounced khaw-zak') according to Wilson means "to brace up or tighten, in opposition to a state of relaxation": .... [as a prime example of this portion of his definition he quotes Isaiah 35:3 as a proof-text]
biblehub.com/interlinear/isaiah/35-3.htm
Wilson further defines and comments on 'chazak' as follows... "to be stout and courageous, to be confirmed and established. This is the word used of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, and implies his strengthening himself against all fear and alarm, stoutly resisting the warnings and motives urged upon him, and the terrors of God's judgments;" He interrupts with a comparison text, namely Psalms 95:8 which, by the way, is repeated in Hebrews 3:8...
biblehub.com/interlinear/psalms/95-8.htm
He goes on to say "It is in Piel that this word is used of God's hardening his heart, when he left him to his own obstinacy and rebellion, and withdrew that favor or benevolence by which alone he might have been brought to relent. The Hebrew, in the narrative respecting Pharaoh, employs three distinct words, differing from each other by a marked diversity of import, but which are all indiscriminately rendered by "harden." The whole number of passages in which Pharaoh's heart is said to have been hardened is nineteen; ***** Here is where he gets his count messed up a little bit. He counts thirteen instances of 'chazaq' but his concordance list only contains eleven. He mentions five occurrences of 'kabed' but there are six in his list, and he mentions one occurrence of 'qesheh' when there are actually two. *****
'Chazak' is entry #4, seven of which are in the Piel verbal conjugation mentioned above. While there seems to be a lot more that could be said on Piel from a highly qualified Hebrew grammarian, this aspect of "intentional, repeated, extended action" certainly fits Pharaoh to a tee. The remaining four instances of 'chazak' are rather glaring to me. They are in the future tense of the Kal (or Qal) verbal conjugation. This is the simplest and most direct action verb in Hebrew. There is a movement among certain Christians today that attempts to keep YHVH's character from being maligned. While this is a very lofty and noble undertaking, I wonder if some of these Kal direct action Hebrew verbs would be a "hot potato" issue for them. They are trying to wrap all Holy Writ that involves Divine activity into a nice, neat, user-friendly package of causative-action Hebrew verbs, of which there are plenty, but what about passages like 2nd Kings 19:35 and Isaiah 37:36 where the Angel of the Lord struck 185,000 Assyrians?
biblehub.com/interlinear/2_kings/19-35.htm
biblehub.com/interlinear/isaiah/37-36.htm
Oh well... so much for that ranting and raving campaign... allow me to continue with William Wilson's second Hebrew word, namely, 'kabed'. Under "Phonetic Spelling," Strong's has (kaw-bade'). This is entry #6 in Wilson's O. T. Word Studies and reads as follows: "to be heavy. This word is also applied to the hardness of the heart of Pharaoh, and seems to point to his insensibility and want of conviction, as the same word is applied to the ear when not duly impressed with sounds, or to the eye, when it becomes dim."
We see again the direct action Hebrew verbal conjugation known as Kal, in the future tense, when we look at 'kabed'. It only occurs once compared to the four times it happens when the word 'chazaq' is used for 'harden' in Exodus, but it's there, nonetheless. The third word for 'harden' mentioned in Wilson's is 'qesheh' and Wilson defines it this way... "to be hard, harsh, severe; to be obstinate, intractable, perverse; applied to that which is very difficult and distressing."
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