IMAGINATION

ISBE

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