Definition

a contrivance, i.e. (concretely) a texture, machine, or (abstractly) intention, plan (whether bad, a plot; or good, advice)

Etymology

or מַחֲשֶׁבֶת; from H2803 (חָשַׁב);

Where the KJV renders it

• cunning (work)
• curious work
• device(-sed)
• imagination
• invented
• means
• purpose
• thought

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.