Daysman

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Daysman . A daysman is an arbiter. The compound arose from the use of the word ‘day’ in a technical sense, to signify a day for dispensing justice. The same use is found in Gr.; thus   1 Corinthians 4:3 ‘man’s judgment’ is literally ‘man’s day.’ The word occurs in   Job 9:33 ‘Neither is there any daysman betwixt us’ (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] margin ‘umpire’). Tindale translates   Exodus 21:22 , ‘he shall paye as the dayesmen appoynte him’ (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘as the judges determine’).

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Derived from" day" in the sense of a day of trial ( 1 Corinthians 4:3 margin). An arbitrator.  Job 9:33; "neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both." The umpire in the East lays his hand on both parties to mark his power to adjudicate between them. An arbitrator could have been found on a level with Job; but none on a level with Jehovah, the other Party with whom Job was at issue. We know a Mediator on a level with God, and also on a level with us, the God-man Jesus ( 1 Timothy 2:5).

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 Job 9:33 (a) This name is given to our Lord Jesus who is the only mediator between GOD and man, the only intercessor, and the only advocate. Job sought to know such a person. Having come, Christ is that to us.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The word signifies 'mediator,' or 'umpire,' as in the margin  : one "that might lay his hand upon us both,"  Job 9:33 : as the Lord Jesus is mediator between God and men.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Daysman. An old English term meaning Umpire or Arbitrator .  Job 9:33.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Job 9:33 1 Timothy 2:5

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Job 9:33

King James Dictionary

DA'YSMAN, n. An umpire or arbiter a mediator.

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) An umpire or arbiter; a mediator.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( מוֹכַיחִ , Moki'Ach , an Adjudicator ), "an old English term meaning Umpire or Arbitrator ( Job 9:33). It is derived from day, in the specific sense of a day fixed for a trial (comp.  1 Corinthians 4:3, where Άνθρωπίνη Ἡμέρα — lit. Man'S Day , and so given in Wycliffe's translation — is rendered ‘ man's judgment' in the A. V.). Similar expressions occur in German (eine Sache tagen = to bring a matter before a court of justice) and other Teutonic languages." "The primitive meaning of the verb יָנִח (according to Gesenius, Thes. p. 592) is ‘ to be clear or manifest;' and in Hiphil ‘ to make manifest;' also ‘ to convince, to confute, to reprove or rebuke;' by these last two words the word is rendered in nearly every passage of the A. V., including the ten instances of the Hiphil participle מוֹכַיחִ . It is not easy to conjecture why in  Job 9:33 alone the translators resorted to the not then common word Daysman . The marginal rendering umpire seems to convey best 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.). F Ü rst's term, Schiedsmann, (Handwirterb. p. 309), very well expresses this idea of authoritative arbitration. As to the old English noun daysman, Johnson's definition, surety, is hardly borne out by his solitary quotation from Spenser (Faerie Queene, 2:8); arbitrator or umpire would better express the sense. In Holland's old translation of Livius (p. 137), Dayesmen and Umpiers are used as synonymes. In the Bible of 1551,  1 Samuel 2:25 is thus employed." In primitive times such a person appears to have been appointed to prescribe just limits to such as were immoderate in their demands, and interpose his authority with those who exceeded the assigned bounds of their cause. The laying the hand on both may allude to some particular ceremony; but it evidently also refers to the power of coercion which the daysman could exercise over both parties. (See Mediator).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

dāz´man ( יכח , yākhaḥ , "to argue, decide, convince," the Revised Version (British and American) Umpire ): The use of this word appears to have been more common in the 16th century than at the later date of the translation of the King James Version, when its adoption was infrequent. The oldest instance of the term given in the Oxford English Dictionary is Plumpton Corresp . (1489), p. 82: "Sir, the dayesmen cannot agre us." It appears also in the 1551 edition of the Old Testament in  1 Samuel 2:25 , where the English Versions of the Bible "judge" is translated "dayes-man." Tyndale's translation has for  Exodus 21:22 , "He shall paye as the dayesmen appoynte him" (EV as the "judges determine"). See also Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene , ii, c. 8, published in 1590. As used in the King James Version ( Job 9:33 ) the word means an arbitrator, umpire, referee; one who stands in a judicial capacity between two parties, and decides upon the merits of their arguments or case at law. "Neither is there-any daysman (the Revised Version (British and American) "umpire") betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both" (compare  Genesis 31:37 ). It was the eastern custom for a judge to lay his hands upon the heads of the two parties in disagreement, Thus emphasizing his adjudicatory capacity and his desire to render an unbiased verdict. Job might consider a human judge as capable of acting as an umpire upon his own claims, but no man was worthy to question the purposes of Yahweh, or metaphorically , to "lay his hands upon" Him.

In the New Testament ( 1 Corinthians 4:3 , ἀνθρωπίνη , anthrōpı́nē , ἡμέρα , hēméra ) "man's judgment" is literally, "man's day," in the sense of a day fixed for the trial of a case. Both Tyndale and Coverdale so translate. See also  1 Timothy 2:5 , where the Saviour is termed the "one mediator ... between God and men." Here the word understands a pleader, an advocate before an umpire, rather than the adjudicator himself (see  Job 19:25-27 ).