Hebrew word · H6250

עֶשְׁתֹּנָה

'eshtonotav

thought

Thought, purpose, plan, intention. This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. BDB glosses it 'thought'; HALOT 'thought, plan'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

thought

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 146:4

Range of meaning

Thought, purpose, plan, intention. This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Its meaning comes from related words: Aramaic 'ashit, 'the king planned/intended to set him over the whole kingdom' (Dan 6:4 [Eng 6:3]); the Hebrew verb in Jonah 1:6, 'perhaps God will give thought to us'; and 'ashtût, 'thought', in Job 12:5. BDB glosses it 'thought'; HALOT 'thought, plan'.

Against the English

KJV, WEB, YLT and NASB: 'thoughts'. BSB, ESV, NIV, NLT: 'plans'. 'Thoughts' is not wrong, but modern English hears it as all mental activity or consciousness. 'Plans' is closer to the forward-looking, purposeful sense the related words point to.

How it drifted

In 1611 'thoughts' commonly meant 'designs, intentions' (compare KJV Jer 29:11, 'thoughts of peace', meaning plans). Today it more often means the stream of consciousness, which invites the reading that the verse is about the mind switching off.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has dialogismoi ('reasonings, deliberations, schemes'). The Vulgate has cogitationes. 1 Maccabees 2:63 echoes this verse: 'his plan (dialogismos) will perish.' Second-century BC readers clearly took it to mean a ruler's designs.

Similar words

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 146:4 עֶשְׁתֹּנֹתָֽיו׃ plans his

    When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

    Here: 'His plans': what he had in mind to do, his schemes and intentions. This exact word appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Related words in Hebrew and Aramaic mean 'to plan, intend', so the focus is on purposeful designs, which suits the 'princes' of verse 3.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.