Reference: Hard
Hastings
Besides other meanings which are still in use, 'hard' sometimes means close: Jg 9:52 'And Abimelech
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And Sarai saith unto Abram, 'My violence is for thee; I -- I have given mine handmaid into thy bosom, and she seeth that she hath conceived, and I am lightly esteemed in her eyes; Jehovah doth judge between me and thee.'
yea, it cometh to pass, when Pharaoh hath been pained to send us away, that Jehovah doth slay every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of man even unto the first-born of beast; therefore I am sacrificing to Jehovah all opening a womb who are males, and every first-born of my sons I ransom;
And Abimelech cometh unto the tower, and fighteth against it, and draweth nigh unto the opening of the tower to burn it with fire,
My spirit hath been destroyed, My days extinguished -- graves are for me.
and Jesus said to his disciples, 'Verily I say to you, that hardly shall a rich man enter into the reign of the heavens;
and lo, a spirit doth take him, and suddenly he doth cry out, and it teareth him, with foaming, and it hardly departeth from him, bruising him,
And having departed thence, he went to the house of a certain one, by name Justus, a worshipper of God, whose house was adjoining the synagogue,
and hardly passing it, we came to a certain place called 'Fair Havens,' nigh to which was the city of Lasaea.
thou, therefore, suffer evil as a good soldier of Jesus Christ;
through which to us the most great and precious promises have been given, that through these ye may become partakers of a divine nature, having escaped from the corruption in the world in desires.