What Does 1 Chronicles 29:18 Mean in the King James?
O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The “imagination” here is the heart’s formed design, and the prayer asks God to guard that design and make the heart firm toward him.
THE MEANING
The verse places your inward design under God’s keeping now: what shapes your thoughts is something God can guard. It asks for your heart to be made firm toward God, joining what it holds to the direction it faces.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the heart’s direction is yours alone to secure: the prayer asks God to guard its inward design and make it firm toward him.
THE ROOT
יֵצֶר
yetzer
GROWS FROM
י־צ־ר
y-ts-r
To form or fashion; to shape.
“imagination” in this verse is yetzer. The word carries the sense of a formed design or inclination, not only a passing mental image. The prayer asks that the heart’s shaping intention be kept.
ALSO GROWS
yatsar: To form or fashion.
יָצַר
The verb makes the shaping inside the heart audible in the word rendered imagination.
yotser: One who forms; a potter.
יוֹצֵר
This branch shows that the word’s root concerns something shaped, giving the heart’s thoughts the sense of an inward design.
שָׁמְרָה
shamrah
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ר
sh-m-r
To watch, guard, or preserve.
“keep” in this verse is shamrah. The request is for watchful keeping of what has been formed within the people. The root connects keeping with guarding over time.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Watcher; keeper.
שֹׁמֵר
This branch brings out the watchfulness carried by the request to keep the heart’s design.
mishmeret: Guard, charge, or watch-duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
It shows keeping as an entrusted responsibility that remains under watch.
וְהָכֵן
ve-hākhēn
GROWS FROM
כ־ו־ן
k-w-n
To be firm or established; to make firm or prepare.
“prepare” in this verse is ve-hākhēn. The request is not only to preserve the heart’s inward design, but to establish its direction toward God. The same root can describe something made firm and ready.
ALSO GROWS
hēkhīn: To prepare or establish.
הֵכִין
This verbal form gives the heart’s preparation the sense of being made ready and firm.
nākhōn: Firm; established.
נָכוֹן
This branch reveals the steadiness implied when the heart is prepared toward God.
THE PATTERN
A heart’s formed intention is guarded and made firm toward God.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.THE THREAD
My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.The word rendered fixed in the psalm shares the Hebrew root כון (kun, to be firm or establish) with prepare here. Both verses picture the heart as made firm; this one asks for that firmness to be directed toward God.
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