Imagination

From BibleEncyclopedia.Net

i-maj-i-nā´shun (יצר, yēcer, שׁרירוּת, sherīrūth; διάνοια, diánoia):

“Imagination” is the translation of yēcer, properly “a shaping,” hence, “a thought” (Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21; Deu_31:21; 1Ch_28:9; 1Ch_29:18). In Isa_26:3 yēcer is translated “mind” (King James Version margin “thought” or “imagination”), “whose mind is stayed on thee” (the Revised Version margin “or imagination”); in Psa_103:14 it is “frame”; of sherīrūth, “obstinacy,” “stubbornness” (Deu_29:19; Jer_3:17; Jer_7:24; Jer_9:14; Jer_11:8; Jer_13:10; Jer_16:12; Jer_18:12; Jer_23:17); in Psa_81:12 the King James Version it is, “lust,” margin “hardness or imaginations”; 3 times of maḥăshebheth, “thought” or “purpose” in the King James Version (Pro_6:18; Lam_3:60, Lam_3:61); once of dianoia, “mind,” “understanding” (Luk_1:51); of logismós, “reasoning” (2Co_10:5); and of dialogismós, “reasoning through” (Rom_1:21 the King James Version).

The Revised Version (British and American) gives “stubbornness” in each instance where sherīrūth is in the King James Version translated “imagination”; in Pro_6:18 the American Standard Revised Version has “purposes”; the Revised Version (British and American) has “devices” (Lam_3:60, Lam_3:61) and “reasonings” (Rom_1:21), “imagination” for “conceit” (Pro_18:11), and (English Revised Version) for “device” (Lam_3:62).

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