DAYSMAN is a word which occurs but once in the A. V. of the Scriptures, in Job ix..33 ; it is more remarkable from its structure and derivation as an English word, than from any doubt of the meaning of the original Hebrew term, which it re presents. This term is rrzin, the Hiphil participle of the verb ny, which is not found in Kal, and but thrice in Nzphal, and once in Hophal and in HiMpae/, whereas it occurs more than fifty times in Hiphil. The primitive meaning of the word (according to Gesenius, Thes. 592), is to be clear or manifest ; ' and in MPhil ' to make manifest,' also to convince, to confute, to reprove, or re buke ; ' by these last two words the word is ren dered in nearly every passage of A. V., including the ten instances of the Hiphil participle n+z1n. It is not easy to conjecture why in Job ix. 33 alone the translators resorted to the not then common word Daysnian. The marginal rendering umpire seems to best convey the meaning of Job in the passage, some one to compose our differences, and command silence when either of us exceeds our bounds' (Patrick, in loc.) Fiirst's term, Schiedsmann (H. worterb. i. 5o9), very well ex presses this idea of authoritative arbitration. As to the old English noun Daysman, Johnson's definition, surety, is hardly borne out by his soli tary quotation from Spenser, Faerie Queene, ' To whom Cymochles said ; For what art thou, That mak'st thyself his dayesman, to prolong The vengeance prest ;' arbitrator or umpire would better express the sense. In Holland's old translation of Livius (p. 137), Dayesnwn and Umpiers are used as synony mes. In the Bible of 155r, I Sam. ii. 25 is thus translated ; If one man synne agaynst another, dayseman (A. V. `the judge ') may make hys peace ; but yf a man sinne agaynst the Lord, who can be hys dayseman (A. V., who shall intreat for him ')? The Hebrew here comes from the verb $$n ; in the first instance occurs its Piet, which has elsewhere the signification of executing judgment, and in the second instance its Hithpael, which has (throughout its numerous occurrences), the sense of praying or intreating. A comparison
of the use of the word in this older translation with its obvious meaning in our A. V. seems to shew that in the interval it had shifted its earlier meaning of mediator or advocate, to the stronger sense of arbiter, umpire, or judge. Dr. Richard son (Dictionary [1st ed.], p. 488) accounts (after Minshew) for the origin of the word Daysman by attributing to the first element of it the technical sense of a set or appointed time (for appearing be fore court, etc.), like the Latin phrases Status dies; dictus dies ; diem constituere, etc. (See Dic tionary of G. and L. Antiqq., s.v. Dies, or White and Riddle's Latin Dictionary, p. 506, c. 3). In German, Tag is sometimes similarly used ; and so is Tagen, as a legal phrase, to appoint a day for trial ; eine Tache tagen = to institute legal proceed ings (Hilpert's Lex. s.v.) Exactly similar is the Dutch phrase, Dagh va,rden =diem dicere ; and the verb Daghen citare, to summon. ' And thus,' says Richardson, Dayesman means he who fixes the day, and is present, or else sits as judge, arbiter, or umpire, on the day appointed.' He adds, ' In St. Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 3, Wyclif's transla tion of nanny's dai' [A. V. nzan's judgment], is literal from the Latin Vulgate, ab human die.' The Greek is inro d&pcorins ; and this Mr. Parkhurst observes [and most commentators be sides] is spoken in opposition to the coming of the Lord in verse 5, and also to 7) iglpa, the day, i.e., the day ol the Lord, in the preceding ch., ver. 15, where the Vulgate renders 1) iragpa, ' dies Domini.' See Stanley and Alford, on 1 Cor. iv. 3.—P. H.