Imagination

i-maj-i-na'-shun (yetser, sheriruth; dianoia): "Imagination" is the translation of yetser, properly "a shaping," hence, "a thought" (Ge 6:5; 8:21; De 31:21; 1Ch 28:9; 29:18). In Isa 26:3 yetser is translated "mind" (King James Version margin "thought" or "imagination"), "whose mind is stayed on thee" (the Revised Version margin "or imagination"); in Ps 103:14 it is "frame"; of sheriruth, "obstinacy," "stubbornness" (De 29:19; Jer 3:17; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 16:12; 18:12; 23:17); in Ps 81:12 the King James Version it is, "lust," margin "hardness or imaginations"; 3 times of machashebheth, "thought" or "purpose" in the King James Version (Pr 6:18; La 3:60,61); once of dianoia, "mind," "understanding" (Lu 1:51); of logismos, "reasoning" (2Co 10:5); and of dialogismos, "reasoning through" (Ro 1:21 the King James Version).

The Revised Version (British and American) gives "stubbornness" in each instance where sheriruth is in the King James Version translated "imagination"; in Pr 6:18 the American Standard Revised Version has "purposes"; the Revised Version (British and American) has "devices" (La 3:60,61) and "reasonings" (Ro 1:21), "imagination" for "conceit" (Pr 18:11), and (English Revised Version) for "device" (La 3:62).

"Imagination" is frequent in Apocrypha, e.g. Ecclesiasticus 22:18 (dianoema); 37:3 (enthumema, "wicked imagination"); 40:2 (dialogismos, the Revised Version (British and American) "expectation").

W. L. Walker