My oxanptvute tds xapding dwar, 8233? napnm be; __« Harden not your hearts.” This expression is sacred; it occurs not in other authors. To harden the heart, is a thing peculiarly regarding the obedience that God requireth of us. Anpe- zns, “ hardness,” is indeed sometimes used in heathen writers for stubbornness of mind and manners. So Aristotle says of some that they are dvoysorerero: trl oxAnporntt, “famous for stubbornness.” Such as Homer describes Achilles to have been, who had wepioxersis Qpevas, “a hard, stubborn, inflexible mind.” So is oxAnporpaxnros sometimes used, “ duricervicus,” * hard-necked” or “ stiff-neck- ed,” “ curvicervicum pecus,” “a crook-necked, perverse beast.” But czAnpivo, “to harden,” is scarcely used unless it be in the New Testament and in the trans- lation of the Old by the LXX. Three times it occurs in the New Testament,— Acts xix. 9, Rom. ix. 18, and in this chapter; everywhere by Paul, so that it is a word peculiar unto him. ZxAnpive qv xapdiav, therefore, “to harden the heart,” in a moral sense, is peculiar to holy writ; and it is ascribed both to God and man, but in different senses, as we shall see afterwards. By this word the apostle expresseth "2? out of the original; that is, “to be hard, heavy, and also difficult.” In Hiphil it is “to harden and make obdurate,” and is used only in a moral sense. The LXX. render it constantly by oxanpive, “ induro;” or Bapiva, “ gravo,” 1 Kings xii. 4; to “harden,” or to “burden.” Sometimes it is used absolutely: Job ix. 4, “bs mpm, “hardened against him,” that is, himself;— “ hardened himself against him.” Ofttimes it hath 47, the * neck,” added unto it: 59 TYpP2, Prov. xxix. 1, that “stiffeneth,” or “hardeneth his neck;” as one that goes on resolyedly, as will not so much as turn aside or look back towards any one that calls him. Sometimes it hath [, the “ spirit” joined to it: Deut. ii. 30, ‘HTS HP, “he hardened his spirit.” But most commonly it hath 33) the “heart,” as here. And it still in man denotes a voluntary perverseness of mind, in not taking notice of, or not applying the soul unto the will of God as revealed, to do and observe it.
“Os ty 7 rapaminxpaoud, as in the provocation;” 2°22. The LXX. ren- der this word, where it is first used, by Aosd<pnors, “ convitium,” “a reproach,” Exod, xvii. 7; afterwards constantly by dvriAoy/a, “ contradiction,” or coaten-
VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 9
tion by words, as Num..xx. 13, xxvii. 14, Deut. xxxiii. 8; and nowhere by zapa- wixpeowos, as in this place of the psalm. Hence some suppose it is evident that the present Greek translation is not the work or endeavour of the same persons, but a cento of many essays. I rather think that we have hence a new evidence of the insertida of the apostle’s words into that version; for, as I will not deny but that the writers of the New Testament might make use of that Greek version of the Old which was then extant, so that many words and expressions are taken from them, and inserted in that which we now enjoy, is too evident for any man of modesty or sobriety to deny. And this word, as here compounded, is scarce used in any other author. Ilsxpd¢ is “ bitter,” in opposition to yavxds, “sweet,” “pleasant ;” that is the proper, natural sense of the word. So also of xixpéw and wixpalva, “to make bitter to the taste” or sense. But the metaphorical use of these words in a moral sense is frequent for “exacerbo,” “provoco.” The Hebrew 5239, is “to stir up to anger,” “to vex,” “imbitter,” “provoke,” as 1 Sam. i. 6. So saperi- xpaoos must be “ exacerbatio,” “provocatio,” animbitterin ga AL ener toanger by contention; 72°, which here is so rendered, is “ jurgium,” a strife agitated in words. We render it “chiding.” The story which this principally refers unto is recorded, Exod, xvii. 1-7, “And they pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lorp? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our eattle, with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lorn, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lorp said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lorp, saying, Is the Lorp among us, or not?” Another story to the like purpose we have of what befell the people in the wilderness of Zin nearly forty years afterwards, when, in their murmuring for water, another rock was smitten to bring it forth, whereon it is added, “ This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the Lorp,” Num. xx.13. It is also said on the same occasion that they “ chode with Moses,” verse 3.