What Does Jeremiah 18:12 Mean in the King James?
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
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
Despair does not leave them directionless: their own designs become the path they choose to walk.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the moment when hopelessness becomes permission to follow your own plans and the stubborn desire of your heart. What begins as inner counsel becomes a chosen course of action. The word rendered “imagination” carries the sense of stubbornness, a heart set on its own way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is: “If a path comes from my own heart, it must be trustworthy.” The verse shows that inner conviction can be stubbornly fixed even when it says there is no hope.
THE ROOT
שְׁרִירוּת
shrirut
GROWS FROM
שרר
sh-r-r
To be firm, hard, or stubborn; the noun carries the sense of obstinacy.
The Hebrew word beneath “imagination” names stubbornness: a heart fixed on its own course. The phrase points beyond a passing thought to a settled insistence that acts as though its chosen way must be followed.
ALSO GROWS
sharar: to be stubborn or obstinate
שָׁרַר
The verbal form shows the fixed quality carried by the noun in this verse.
shrirut: stubbornness, obstinacy
שְׁרִירוּת
This is the word translated “imagination”; it makes the heart’s insistence part of the action, not merely a private thought.
מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵינוּ
machshevotenu
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-sh-b
To think, reckon, or devise; to form a plan.
“Devices” belongs to the Hebrew family of thinking, reckoning, and planning, so the word carries the shape of a considered design. The “our” marks that design as their own, and the next verb turns it into a path they walk.
ALSO GROWS
chashav: to think, reckon, or devise
חָשַׁב
The verb shows that the “devices” are formed through thought and calculation.
machashavah: a thought or plan
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This singular form shares the seed of “devices” and makes clear that the word can hold both thought and intention.
נֵלֵךְ
nelekh
GROWS FROM
הלך
h-l-k
To walk or go; movement along a course.
The sentence gives their plans a direction: they do not only think according to their devices; they walk after them. In this word family, movement and a way of conducting oneself remain joined, so the inner design becomes the path taken.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: to walk or go
הָלַךְ
This is the basic movement named by the verb “walk” in the verse.
hithallekh: to walk about or conduct oneself
הִתְהַלֵּךְ
This related form joins movement with a pattern of conduct, echoing how the verse makes thought into a lived course.
THE PATTERN
What the heart takes as counsel becomes a path, and that path carries its own consequences.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.THE THREAD
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.“Devices” here and “thoughts” there come from the same Hebrew root, חשב (chashav), meaning to think, reckon, or plan. The shared root opens a contrast in direction: thought can become a self-chosen course, while the LORD’s thoughts toward you carry wholeness and a future.
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