ḥashav

At its root this word is about the work the mind does when it turns something over. A person stops, takes account of what is in front of them, and reaches a conclusion. The same act can be quiet reflection on one's own life or a quick read of someone else.

The verdict the mind settles on can be honest pondering, a guess that turns out wrong, or a judgment passed on another person. In every case the action is internal: a settled estimate, not yet an outward deed.

This bare consider sense shades naturally into the others. Once the mind forms a verdict it can credit a value, aim at a plan, or work out a design. The line between thinking and the rest is whether the conclusion stays a private opinion or moves toward an outcome.

This is the bookkeeping use, and it is the most important one for the Bible's theology. To reckon is to enter something on the ledger: to count a thing as belonging in a certain column and to treat it accordingly. It can be a literal tally of money or property, or a figurative crediting of worth, guilt, or standing.

What makes this sense distinct is that the value assigned may not be the thing's own. A person can be counted as a foreigner, an animal counted as nothing, a payment figured to the exact year. The verdict of the one who keeps the account is what stands.

The high point is the account of Abraham, who believed and had it credited to him as righteousness. The word does not say his faith was righteousness in itself; it says God entered it on the account as righteousness. The New Testament builds its teaching on being counted right with God directly on this verse and this verb.

Here the mind is not just weighing but aiming. The person works out a course of action and sets themselves toward it. The word itself is neutral about the goal: the same verb covers God planning peace for his people and an enemy plotting their ruin.

In practice the harmful side dominates the usage. Again and again people are described as devising evil, scheming against the innocent, or hatching mischief on their beds. The verb fits both because in each case a deliberate plan is being formed and pointed at a target.

The contrast is part of the point. When God says his thoughts toward his people are thoughts of peace, the same planning energy that humans turn to harm is shown turned to good in him.

A narrower, concrete use of the planning idea. Here the mind that works things out is the mind of a craftsman, and what it produces is a design: woven patterns, engraved metal, engineering for war. The active form gives the standard title for the master artisan, the skilled designer who plans the work of the sanctuary.

This sense sits very close to devising a plan, but the product is an artifact rather than a scheme, and the tone is admiring rather than suspicious. It is the creative end of the same mental work: imagining a thing and figuring out how to make it real.