REFORM

re-form' (yacar): The word in the Revised Version (British and American) is found only in Leviticus 26:23, in the phrase "ye will not be reformed." The meaning is, "to be instructed," or, more fully, "to let one's self be chastened," i.e. by God's discipline to learn the lessons of this chastening.

The Hebrew word is the same in a similar connection in Jeremiah 6:8, where it is rendered, "Be thou instructed," and in Jeremiah 31:18, "I was chastised." Psalms 2:10 ("instructed"); Proverbs 29:19 ("corrected") use the Hebrew term of admonition by the words of man.

The King James Version also has "reform" in 2 Esdras 8:12; The Wisdom of Solomon 9:18.

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.