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). InIsa 26:3yetser is translated "mind" (King James Version margin "thought" or "imagination"), "whose mind is stayed on thee" (the Revised Version margin "or imagination"); inPs 103:14it 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); inPs 81:12the 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 1:21the King James Version).
The Revised Version (British and American) gives "stubbornness" in each instance where sheriruth is in the King James Version translated "imagination"; inPr 6:18the 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