Angelic Numerical Revelations on Psalm 32

In the 18th century, Emanuel Swedenborg was given many detailed revelations on heaven, hell, the unity of God in one person, and how and why certain books of the Bible are Divinely inspired.  In one particular case, he saw in a waking vision how the Bible is even inspired not only by word but by even each Hebrew letter:

"There was once sent down to me from heaven a little paper inscribed with Hebrew letters, but written as with the ancients, by whom those letters which at this day are in some part of straight lines, were inflected with little curves turning upward. And the angels who were then with me said that they learned entire meanings from the letters themselves, and that they knew them especially from the bendings of the lines and of the terminations of the letter; and they explained what they signified separately and what conjointly; saying that the H, which was added to the names of Abram and Sarai, signified the infinite and eternal. They also explained to me the meaning of the Word in the second verse of the thirty-second Psalm, from the letters or syllables alone; and the meaning of them in sum was, that the Lord is also merciful to those who do evil." (True Christian Religion, n. 278)

So, exactly how did the angels do that? Swedenborg does not say. At first one might think one would have to know the symbolic individual meaning of each letter as it appears in each word. But there is a key phrase here, Swedenborg mentions "the meaning of them in sum." To "sum" is to simply add them up. I have been re-editing my work on the numerical poetry of the Psalms, in which I explain in detail the numeric significance of each Psalm number, verse count, word count, and even letter count. Initially I was going to make a minor translation update, but I discovered quite a few new significant word and letter counts I had missed. So its going to be an extensive update.  As I was editing Psalm 32, to my surprise a numerical pattern came up that confirms what Swedenborg said the angels had told him.

A more literal translation of Psalm 32:1-2 from the original Hebrew is as follows:

Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven,

Whose sin is covered.

Happy is the Man to whom Jehovah reckons not iniquity,

And in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Ps. 32:1-2)

This translation also restores the parallelism in the Hebrew poetry, in which each line of a verse tends to repeat in the form of a bicolon or sometimes a tricolon; this translation is published in the three volume work The Symbolism of the Psalms, The Mistranslations of the Psalms, and The Secret Code of the Psalms.

The latter e-book is the one I am editing and its off market now; I may rename it to The Numerical Poetry of the Psalms so the subject matter is a bit more clear. Once one knows the numerical pattern of each Psalm, one can uncover surprising hidden meanings through a hidden system of cross references. And this is done through the sum of word and letter counts.  So when I saw that word "sum" of letters or syllables being used in the angelic interpretation of Psalm 32:2, that caught my attention. Psalm 32:2, as one can seen from above, cant be read in isolation from Psalm 32:1. Moreover Psalm 32 is divided into several larger sections which for purpose of discussion I will call a "stanza" although other scholars prefer to use the word "strophe." Stanzas are generally defined by a switch in overall subject, however in Psalm 32 its been made easier for us: the first and second stanzas are demarcated by the word Selah. Thus Psalm 32 can be divided into three stanzas as follows: vv. 1-4, vv. 5-7 and vv.8-11.

The word and letter counts of each Psalm are significant, and not random.  So for example, if we count the number of Hebrew words in the first stanza, it is 32.  The 32 words is a self reference to Psalm 32.  The numerical structure thus influenced the placement of the Psalm so that it would be the 32nd Psalm. And there are many, many more examples of this numerical symbolism. 

The majority of stanzas in the Psalms do not have a word count related to the Psalm number. It took me a while to realize this, but the majority of the stanzas reference other Psalm numbers. It is a hidden cross reference system.  Sometimes the reference is to Psalm numbers, other times it is to similar word, letter or verse count. Many Bibles have cross-references in the middle column, but in this case, it is a Divinely inspired set of cross-references and quite a few of them are rather interesting. One has to follow the numbers by knowing the word and letter counts. And this may have led to the Jewish practice of counting words and letters when transcribing scripture.

This numerical significance extends even to letter counts, which in the first edition of the work was incomplete. So, returning back to Psalm 32, the total sum of Hebrew letters in the first stanza is 122. Now, this number as well as many others at first had no meaning to me, but I am now using several computer programs that I wrote to analyze them. So what does the number 122 mean? It is a reference. I plugged it in, and there are exactly 122 poetic verses from Psalm 25 to Psalm 32. In order to see this one has to first restore the poetic verses of each Psalm which does not necessarily match the verse numbers as given in modern Bibles (which I have done, and it was tedious). The number 122 is acting as a reference pointing us to Psalm 25.

The ultimate authority in all this is the text itself, and Psalm 25 contains several similar passages to Psalm 32. For example, compare Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered (Ps. 32:1) with forgive all my sins (Ps. 25:18). And here is the passage from Psalm 25 where the angels had derived their meaning, that the Lord is merciful even to those who do evil:

Remember Your compassion, Jehovah, and Your mercies,

For they have been from of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions:

According to Your mercy remember me for Your goodness' sake, Jehovah.

Good and upright is Jehovah,

Therefore He will instruct sinners in the way. (Ps. 25:6-8)

Swedenborg had no knowledge of this numerical symbolism, and this is probably the method the angels used to derive this meaning from Psalm 32:2 by using the sum of the letters. It is a confirmation that indeed Swedenborg did receive angelic revelations concerning true Christianity, which has become corrupted over the period of several centuries. And its a confirmation of this truth: the Lord is indeed merciful, loving and compassionate, even to those who are evil. All one has to do is learn the truth, ask help from the Lord and turn away from one's evil, and it will be forgiven.

The Divine Signature of Pi in the Bible

Today is pi day (March 14) and to celebrate this day I decided to share a chapter from the book The Numerical Poetry of the Psalms explaining my discovery of precise ratios of pi in the numerical Hebrew structure of the Psalms in the Bible.  This was an accidental discovery as a result of restoring the poetic structure of the Psalms which is hidden in all published versions of the Bible; my original intent was to properly display the poetry to the common reader in the three volume work, The Symbolism of the Psalms (published here in vol 1, vol 2, vol 3). Once the poetry was restored, it became obvious that the Hebrew scriptures were arranged according to numerical counts of verses, words and even letters.  Later these counts were used by the Masorites to ensure the accuracy of the text.

With that introduction, here is the full text of one of the chapters to the book The Secret Code of the Psalms:, the entire works explains the mysterious arrangement and hidden numerical structure of all 150 Psalms:

The number pi (π) is an irrational number that represents the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle. It is also a transcendental number, which is a number that is not a root of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients. In the ancient Middle East the Divine was often represented as the sun or a circle, thus it is a likely that the mathematical concept of pi was considered to be a "Divine signature" that was considered sacred and holy. In documenting and analyzing the numerical structure of the Psalms, it was discovered that the design of the Psalms contain several ratios of pi, many to a high degree of accuracy. As the Hebrews were not likely to have known about these accurate ratios for pi, they provide evidence of Divine inspiration in scripture. There is strong evidence that these ratios of pi are directly related to the holiness of the numbers three and seven, the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the sacred names of God in Hebrew scripture. As pi is a transcendental number that is typically represented by infinite series of numbers, it is thus a fitting number to represent the infinite Divine.

In Babylonian mathematics the number pi was approximated as the number 3, which was good enough for the architecture of the time. This approximation is also found in the dimensions of the temple of Solomon (1 Kings 7:23). The Babylonians knew that the number 3 was an approximation - an Old Babylonian tablet from the 19th-17th century B.C. approximated pi more accurately as 25/8. The Egyptain Rhind Mathematical papyrus which dates to about the same time period approximated pi as 256/81 by approximating the circle with an octagon. In the third century B.C. Archimedes approximated pi as somewhere betweeen 223/71 and 22/7. In the second century B.C. Ptolemy approximated pi as 377/120, which is the first known approximation that is accurate to three decimal places. In the fifth century A.D. the Chinese mathematician Zu Chongzhi calculated pi to an accuracy of seven decimal places, and gave two other approximations for pi: 22/7 and 355/113. The latter is the best rational approximation of pi using less than 5 digits in the numerator and denominator. This approximation was not improved upon until about a thousand years later in by Indian and Persian mathematicians. This was improved upon in the succeeding centuries with increasing levels of accuracy, with many approximations of pi calculated from infinite series. With the advent of computers pi is now calculated with accuracies to trillions of digits.

In modern times pi is represented in decimal form, but any decimal can be represented as a continued fraction of whole numbers. A continued fraction is an iterative process that represents a number as the sum of its integer part and the reciprocal of another number. The continued fraction expansion of a number indicates which rational numbers or fractions are the best approximations. These best approximations are known as convergents, where there is no better approximation with a smaller denominator of the convergent number. The number pi is 3.14159... The first best convergent of pi is the number 3. By taking the reciprocal of the remainder, the remainder can be best approximated as 1/7. Thus the next best convergent ratio for pi is 3 plus 1/7 or 22/7. By taking the remainder and converting it to a fraction, adding it to the previous result, a continued fraction for pi can be created as follows:

This continued fraction is developed by first starting from an accurate decimal representation of pi. In this series, the first few convergent ratios that best represent pi are 3, 22/7, 333/106, 355/113, 103993/33102, 104438/33215, and 208341/66317. Each succeeding convergent ratio is more accurate than the former, as the value converges to the value of pi at infinite. The convergent ratio of 355/113 for pi was derived by Zu Chongzhi in the 5th century A.D. using a different method.

DISK ICONOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST

There are figures of speech in the Psalms which are related to the iconography of the Divine in the Middle East, which is associated with a circle. Given this fact the ratio of pi would have been considered sacred. Several Psalms mention Jehovah as having wings:

Keep me as the apple, the daughter of the eye, hide me under the shadow of Your wings (Ps. 17:8).

The Hebrew word for "apple" literally means the black pupil of the eye, thus it is a hidden reference to a circle. The phrase "shadow of Your wings" is next mentioned in Psalm 36:

Jehovah, how precious is Your mercy, God, and the sons of Man in the shadow of Your wings (Ps. 36:7).

From Ps. 17:8 to the end of Psalm 36 there are exactly 355 verses. This is followed by 113 verses in Psalms 37-41, where 355/113 is a convergent ratio for pi, indicating that there was knowledge of this ratio long before its rediscovery in the 5th century A.D. The numeric word count of Psalm 17 references Psalm 61, which contains a similar statement:

I will seek refuge under the cover of Your wings (Ps. 61:4).

Similar statements can be seen in Ps. 57:1 and 63:7. Wings are also associated with the sun (a circle) in Malachi:

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings (Mal. 4:2).

The Hebrew word for "wing" is used to refer to a border as well as the four quarters of the earth (see Deut. 22:12, Isa. 11:12), thus two lines dividing a circle into four quarters would have been called "wings." The image of a winged disk to represent God was common throughout the ancient Near East. Below is the winged sun of Thebes of Egypt:

The winged disk was also adopted in the religion of Zoroastrianism in ancient Persia:

RING AND ROD ICONOGRAPHY OF THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST

In the above diagram the Divine figure is holding a ring in his hand. In the iconography of the Middle East, a god, goddess or king was often shown holding a ring and rod. This was an ancient symbol, first found on a cylinder seal in Mesopotamia. On a cylinder seal from the Uruk period (ca. 3500-3000 B.C.), a female worshipper is shown bowing down before a rod and ring (from D.J. Wiseman and Werner Forman, Cylinder Seals of Western Asia, London: Batchworth Press, p. 4):

In later depictions, deities from the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100 B.C.) as well as Old Babylon (ca. 1800 B.C.) and Assyria (ca. 700 B.C.) are shown with a ring and rod in their hand. In other cases, the deity is shown holding a solitary ring. Yet the meaning of these symbols has remained a mystery among scholars. The ring and rod have been associated with the circular shen symbol of Egypt which was often depicted with a staff (James Hall, Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art, London: John Murray, 1994, pp. 79-80):

In hieroglyphs the Shen ring is depicted as a stylized loop of rope. A more clear association between the rod and ring can be seen in a depiction of the falcon god Horus which is similar to the winged disk, and also holds two Shen rings in its claws:

The shen symbol means to encircle, and signified eternal protection. It was often elongated to contain a royal name, which is known as a cartouche. It was also often associated with a staff. As for the rod and ring symbols in Mesopotamia, it has been surmised that they have literal and metaphorical meanings related to measurement (Henri Frankfurt, Cylinder Seals, London: Macmillan, 1939, p. 179). This can be seen on the Stele of Ur-Nammu, who built the Ziggurat of Ur. On the stele a variety of building projects are shown, as well as a deity who holds a rope arranged in a circle with a rod:

The rod is thus a unit of measurement that was used in building activities, whose measure was considered Divine. In the Sumerian tale Descent of Inanna Inanna descends into the netherworld but must strip herself of her regalia and clothing as she passes through each gate. Among the items she held was a "gold ring over her wrist, and a lapis measuring rod and line in her hand." In another version of the story the gold ring is gripped in her hand, which resembles the iconography of the rod and ring. In scripture there an angel appeared to the prophet Ezekiel in the same manner to provide measurements for a future temple:

When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway (Ez. 40:3).

The ring and rod could be representations of the circle and its diameter, as a measuring line was coiled in a rope that was a multiple of the length of the measuring rod. As the rod was likely a standard of measurement it was most likely a measure of the cubit, which was typically determined by measuring the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. That the cubit was associated with the diameter of a circle can be seen in the Egyptian cubit, which was divided into seven equal portions known as "palms." If the cubit was used as the diameter of a circle it would represent the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi when measured in palms, with the circumference measured as 3 cubits plus 1 palm. Three cubits would be considered as an approximate representation of the eternal Divine. That this is the case can be seen in the representation of pi in the molten sea of the temple of Solomon, which had a circumference of 30 cubits (as was the height of the temple of Solomon as well as Noah's ark), an exact multiple of 3:

Then he made the sea of cast metal. It was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. Under its brim were gourds, for ten cubits, compassing the sea all around. The gourds were in two rows, cast with it when it was cast (1 Kings 7:23-24).

This is the only direct reference to a measurement of pi in scripture, which uses an approximate value of 3 for pi.

If a cubit represented the diameter of a circle then 3 cubits would be seen as a perfect representation of the circumference. An exact measure of 3 cubits is specified for the altar of the tabernacle of Moses: the altar of burnt offering was 5 cubits wide, 5 cubits long and 3 cubits high (see Ex. 27:1, 38:1). The altar is associated with a circle in the Psalms:

I will wash my hands in innocence, and I will compass Your altar, Jehovah (Ps. 26:6)

The word for "compass" is the same as the word for circle in Hebrew. As the altar was 5 cubits square, the diagonal or diameter of such as circle would almost be exactly 7 cubits. Thus the circumference of a circle that circumscribes the altar would be 22 cubits, representing the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi. Related to this passage the numerical design of Psalm is based on the convergent ratio 355/113 for pi:

Psalm #	Verses
4-26	339 = 3 x 113
4-27	355

Psalm 26 was chosen to represent the end of a multiple of 113 for a verse count since 26 is 2 x 13. Also it follows Psalm 25 which is 5 x 5, which is the dimension in cubits of the length and width of the altar. Psalm 27 begins with a reference to light:

Jehovah is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? (Ps. 27:1)

This is related to the altar mentioned in Psalm 26, since upon the altar there was a perpetual fire (Lev. 6:13). The altar is associated with the light of the Lord in Psalm 43:

Send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me... and I will go to the altar of God (Ps. 43:3,4)

The number 27 was chosen to represent the circumference of a circle since it is 3 x 3 x 3, where 3 is the simplest ratio for pi.

CONVERGENT RATIOS OF PI IN SCRIPTURE

The number 318 is 3 x 106, and as 106 is part of the convergent ratio 333/106 for pi this number was regarded as important in the story of Abraham:

And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he drew out his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan (Gen. 14:14)

This particular passage is quoted in the Talmud in one of the examples where the Jewish Rabbis made use of Hebrew gematria, which assigned particular numeric values to each Hebrew letter. They noted that the gematria value of Eliezer, Abraham's servant, is 318. From this they explained that Abraham did not call forth 318 servants, but rather just his servant Eliezer. However the number 318 is significant as it is related to the convergent ratio for pi. Evidence of knowledge of this can be seen in Psalms 33-34 which have a total word count of 318, and these two Psalms are related to a series of 333 verses. Psalm 34 also contains a hidden reference to the priest of Melchizedek, who is mentioned in Gen. 14:18 after the victory of Abram and his 318 servants over the enemy.

A more accurate convergent ratio for pi is 355/113. The number 355 is implicitly mentioned in scripture in the book of Exodus, in the description of the construction of the tabernacle:

The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary: a beka a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men. (Ex. 38:25-26)

The number 1775 is 5 x 355. One can readily see that 603,550 is 600,000 + 3,550, where 3,550 is 10 x 355. That this is by design can be seen in other passages, where the Israelite males are numbered elsewhere as 600,000 (see Ex. 12:37, Num. 11:21), and in other places as 603,550 (see Num. 1:46, 2:32). Elsewhere, the number of firstborn Levites are numbered as exactly 22,000 (Num. 3:46) which corresponds to the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi. In the Psalms, there are 1775 or 5 x 355 verses in Psalms 42-142. The number 142 is 2 x 71 similar to how 355 is 5 x 71. To indicate the relationship between Psalms 42 and 142, Psalms 42-141 contain  1764 verses which is 42 x 42. The number for the 603,550 men in Exodus and Numbers is represented in the Psalms in the following verse structure:

Psalm #	Verses
66-95	600
96-112	355

Psalm 112 is followed by Psalm 113 which thus represents the convergent ratio 355/113 for pi. As discussed previously in the chapter The Hidden Chronology of the Psalms these 600 verses also represents the 600 years of Noah and Psalm 95 corresponds with both the flood of Noah and the Exodus out of Egypt.

That the 1,775 shekels for the extra 3,550 men represent the circumference of a circle is shown by the fact that these 1,775 shekels of silver were used for the hooks of the pillars that were used to create the external boundary of the tabernacle. This relationship is confirmed by the amount of gold collected for constructing the tabernacle:

All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary (Ex. 38:24)

The number 29 is 22 + 7 which are the two numbers for the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi. The number 730 is 2 x 365, where 365 is the number of days in the solar year. The number 355 is a close approximation for the number of 354.37 days for the lunar year. Thus the gold represents the Sun and the silver represents the moon, and the cycle of a year would correspond to the circumference of a circle. Also for a circle with a circumference of 365 the diameter would be 116 which is 4 x 29, a multiple of the number of talents of gold.

THE CONVERGENT RATIO OF PI AND THE HEBREW ALPHABET

A more obvious connection can be seen between the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi. The denominator is seven, and thus the number 7 is considered holy throughout scripture, especially the Sabbath of the seven day week. As the 22 letters are consonants, the number 7 may be a representation of Hebrew vowels. Vowels are not recorded in scripture, and notations were added later by the Masorites to indicate how the Hebrew words should be vocalized. In Greek there are 7 specific vowels, and in later Greek and Gnostic traditions the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet were said to correspond with the seven heavens, to which was assigned one of the seven known planets. As the heavens were worshipped as idols in the ancient world, the Jews completely divorced themselves from such symbolic associations, but in place of the seven planets the law instituted the seven branched menorah candlestick. This association is mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus in describing the table of shew-bread in the temple:

"Now, the seven lamps signified the seven planets... the twelve loaves that were upon the table signified the circle of the Zodiac and the year..." (Antiquities, v. 5; 5)

Here the number 7 is associated with a circle, in this case the circle of the zodiac or the year. This provides indirect confirmation that the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet can be arranged in a circle to represent the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi. The seven candlesticks of the menorah are also represented as seven pillars:

Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars (Prov. 9:1)

The same word for pillars are mentioned in Psalm 75: The earth and all who dwell in her are dissolved, I balance the pillars of it (Ps. 75:3). The "earth" was probably represented as a circle of the known world. Verse 3 demarcates the first and second stanzas of Psalm 75, which each contain exactly 22 words. Psalm 75 is the exact middle of the 150 Psalms, and 2 x 150 is 300 which a multiple of 3, the simplest convergent ratio for pi.

In the work Sefer Yetzirah, an early work of Jewish esotericism perhaps dating to the first century A.D., the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are arranged into a circle as follows:

In the system of the Sefer Yetzirah, the 22 letters or divided into three "mother" letters (aleph, mem and shin), seven "doubles" (bet, gimel, daleth, kaph, pe, resh, tau) and twelve "elementals" (he, vav, zayin, cheth, teth, yod, lamed, nun, samekh, ayin, tsade, qoph). This division is probably a later invention, and is based on the three letters in the name of Jehovah, the seven planets, and the 12 signs of the zodiac. By the time it was written knowledge of the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi was lost, but in place of it a different system was invented attempting to associate the circle with the zodiac. Instead of recognizing the number 7 as representing the diameter, a separate category of 7 letters were created. Scriptural support for arranging the letters in a circle can be found in the book of Revelation, where the Lord declares Himself to be the Alpha and Omega, which are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In Hebrew the letters are aleph and tau, which are adjacent to each other on the circle:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty (Rev. 1:8)
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last (Rev. 1:11)

In the Old Testament, it is Jehovah who declares Himself to be the first and the last:

I, Jehovah, the first, and with the last; I am he (Isa. 41:4)
Thus says Jehovah, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god (Isa. 44:6)
Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last (Isa. 48:12).

THE HEBREW LETTER CIRCLE AND THE NAMES OF GOD

In the diagram of the Hebrew letter circle as described in the Sefir Yetzirah the 22 letters are on the edge of a circle, with 231 lines drawn between every possible letter combination. It is described as follows:

"These twenty-two letters, the foundations, He arranged as on a sphere, with two hundred and thirty-one modes of entrance. If the sphere be rotated forward, good is implied, if in a retrograde manner evil is intended. For He indeed showed the mode of combination of the letters, each with each, Aleph with all, and all with Aleph. Thus in combining all together in pairs are produced these two hundred and thirty-one gates of knowledge. And from Nothingness did He make something, and all forms of speech and every created thing, and from the empty void He made the solid earth, and from the non-existent He brought forth Life."

Of the 231 lines between the letters, the one of most interest is the one between the first letter aleph (א) and the letter lamed (ל) which bisects the circle. These two letters form the word "God" (Heb. El). The name "God" is thus represented by the diameter of a circle. The letter aleph (א) is derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph that depicts the head of an ox and the name of the letter comes from a western Semitic word that means "ox." Thus for the molten sea of the temple of Solomon was placed on top of 12 oxen:

It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on them, and all their rear parts were inward (1 Kings 7:25).

Each opposing pair of oxen bisect the circle. In the convergent ratio 333/106 for pi, the number 106 would represent the length of the diameter of a circle which would divide the sea of the temple of Solomon into two halves. Psalm 106 ends the fourth book of the Psalms, and it mentions the parting of the Red Sea:

He rebuked the Red sea and it was dried up, and He made them to walk through the depths as through the wilderness (Ps. 106:9)

This is followed by the false worship of a calf:

They made a calf in Horeb, and bowed down to the molten image. And they changed their glory, into the pattern of an ox that eats herbs (Ps. 106:19-20).

The sacred bull was worshipped throughout the ancient Middle East. In ancient Egypt the bull god was known as Apis, and before that the cow goddess Hathor was worshipped. Both of these gods were portrayed with the horns of a bull that supported a sun disk. As Psalm 106 mentions both the parting of the Red Sea along with the calf of Horeb, this indicates an ancient knowledge that the name "God" (Heb. El) was a symbolic depiction of a diameter of a circle. There are 999 or 3 x 333 verses in Psalms 54-106, which indicates that the number for Psalm 106 numerically represents the convergent ratio of 333/106 for pi.

The Hebrew name for God - El - is composed of aleph and lamed which bisects the Hebrew letter circle in half. In terms of ordinal values, the letter aleph has a value of 1 and lamed has a value of 12, for a total of 13. Also the majestic plural form of God - Elohim - has a total ordinal value of 41 which is the 13th prime number. This was perhaps based on the convergent ratio 355/113 for pi, where 13 represents the number 113. The Hebrew word agol means "round" or "circular" (Heb. agol) begins with aleph and ends with lamed and is mentioned in the description of the measurements of the temple of Solomon (see 1 Kings 7:23,31,35, 10:19). A close word using similar letters is the word for "calf" (Heb. egel or eglah) which is significant as the word for God (Heb. El) represents the diameter or a circle. The letter aleph which is the first letter of these words originated from the head of a bull, thus there were 12 bulls surrounding the molten sea of the temple of Solomon.

Just as the name "God" or Hebrew El is can be represented as the diameter of a Hebrew letter circle, so the name Jehovah can be represented by the circumference. The name Jehovah originates from a root word meaning "to be" (Heb. hawah) which is composed of the letters he (ה) and vav (ו). The letter yod was originally a prefix for the third person, thus the name Jehovah means "He is." On the Hebrew letter circle the letters he and vav are adjacent to each other, and if one proceeds from the letter he to the letter vav and then all the way round back to the letter he, one would have proceeded round the entire circumference of the circle. This is implied by the meaning of the letter vav, which in Hebrew conjoins words together with the meaning of "and." Two letters of vav spells the word "hook" in Hebrew and the hooks of the pillars of the tabernacle were made from the 1,775 or 5 x 355 shekels of silver. Just as the name "God" can be represented by the diameter of a circle, so the name "Jehovah" can be represented by the circumference of a circle. Moreover the letter he is the fifth letter and the letter vav is the sixth letter and 5 + 6 is 11 which is half of 22. If the letter vav is doubled, as in the Hebrew word for "hook," then the Hebrew word "to be" would add up to 22. In scripture the name of Jehovah and the title of God are are often combined as "Jehovah God," and this title could be thus represented by a circle with its diameter.

In the convergent ratio 355/113 for pi the number 113 is 100 + 13. As stated earlier, in the Hebrew letter circle the letters aleph (א) and the letter lamed (ל) form the word "God" (Heb. El) which bisects the circle. These two letters have ordinal values of 1 and 12 which total 13. Similarly, the circumference of the circle which is 355 is 300 + 55. The circumference is represented by the name Jehovah. The name Jehovah has two letters he which have an ordinal value of 5, which were perhaps used to represent the number 55. The name Jehovah begins with the letter yod which has an ordinal value of 10 and the following letter is he which has a value of 5. The letter vav can be treated as the word "and" which is then followed by the final letter he. The name Jehovah can thus be rendered as "(10 x 5) and 5" which is 55. Thus the name "Jehovah God" can be symbolically represented by the ratio 355/113 for pi. In a similar manner, the verse structure of Psalms 1-71 were modeled after the numeric values of the letters in the name of Jehovah; Psalm 71 was chosen to end the series since 5 x 71 is 355 (see the chapter, The Verse Structure of the Psalms).

THE NAME OF JEHOVAH IN THE PSALMS

The relationship between the name of Jehovah and pi is indicated not only in the ordinal values of the letters in the name of Jehovah but also in the number of instances the name of Jehovah appears in the Psalms. In the first 22 Psalms there is a direct relationship between the number of the Psalm and the number of instances of the name of Jehovah, as follows:

Psalm #	Names of Jehovah
1-3	11 = 10 + 1
3	6 = 2 x 3
4	4
5	5
6	6
7	7
8-10	16 = 2 x 8
9	9
10-11	10
11-13	13
13	3
14	4
15-16	6
17-18	18
19-22	22
TOTAL	112

In most cases the number of times that the name of Jehovah is mentioned matches the last digit of the Psalm number; in a few instances the number of times Jehovah is mentioned matches the Psalm number exactly. This pattern ends at Psalm 22 which matches the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. However there is another pattern which indicates the names of Jehovah are arranged after the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi as follows:

Psalm #	Names of Jehovah
1-3	11
4-7	22
7	7
8-9	11
10-14	22
13-14	7
15	(2)
16-18	22
19	7
19-22	22

Before Psalm 15, there are two series where the names of Jehovah follow the pattern of 11, 22 and 7. Psalm 7 and 14 are used in the group of 7 since their numbers are a multiple of 7. Following Psalm 15, there are two groups of 22 with a group of 7 in the middle. Psalm 15 demarcates two groups that have equal verse counts:

Psalm #	Verses
1-14	159
15-22	159

The total number of verses is 318 which is 3 x 106 where 106 is part of the convergent ratio 333/106 for pi. Similar to the name of Jehovah in Psalms 1-22, the title Most High (Heb. Elyown) appears in the Psalms 22 times. Its first occurrence is in Ps. 7:17 and the last occurence is in Ps. 107:11, where the Psalm numbers correspond with the number 7 in the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi.

After the convergent ratio 22/7 the next best convergent ratio for pi is 333/106. The title Lord (Heb. Adonai) is mentioned a total of 53 times in the Psalms and 2 x 53 is 106. The name Jehovah is mentioned for a total of 678 times in the Psalms and 678 is 6 x 113, indicating that it is arranged after the convergent ratio 355/113 for pi. Following the 112 names of Jehovah in Psalms 1-22 the names of Jehovah can be arranged in the following pattern:

Psalm #	Names of Jehovah
23-34	113
35-127	355
128-149	98 = 2 x 49

This is the only instance in the Psalms where 113 names of Jehovah are directly followed by 355 names of Jehovah. The 355 names of Jehovah begin with Psalm 35 which is a digital permutation of 355. It ends with Psalm 127 which is the middle Psalm in the 15 Songs of Ascent in Psalms 120-134.

The number 7 is considered holy in scripture as it is part of the convergent ratio 22/7 for pi. After the 355 verses there are 98 or 2 x 49 names of Jehovah which corresponds to Psalm 149 since 149 is 100 + 49. The name "Jehovih", where the vowels for Elohim are used instead of the vowels for Adonai, is mentioned only 8 times and if combined with the name "Jehovah" there would be a total of 686 which is 2 x 7 x 7 x 7.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE CIRCLE AND THE DIVINE NAME

The circumference of a circle is a representation of the name of Jehovah, and the diameter is a representation of God which in Hebrew is El or Elohim. The spiritual significance of this is explained in the writings of Swedenborg, where the name Jehovah represents the Divine good or mercy, but the title God represents the Divine truth:

"In the Word the Lord is sometimes named Jehovah, sometimes Jehovah God, also the Lord Jehovah, and sometimes God, and this always for a hidden reason in the internal sense. Where love or good and the celestial church are treated of, He is called Jehovah, but when faith or truth and the spiritual church are treated of, He is called God, and this constantly" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2001).

In terms of geometric symbolism, in his heavenly visions Swedenborg saw that truth is represented by angles, but good is represented by round forms:

"When truths and goods are presented in visible form, as they are in the other life manifestly to the eyes of spirits and angels, then truth is presented in definite quantity, consequently as much or as little, according to the quality of the truth; truth is also presented as angular in various forms, and it is also presented as white. But good is there presented in continuous quantity, thus not as much or as little; good is also presented as round, which is continuous in form, and in color as blue, yellow, and red..." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8458).

In modern math, angles are expressed in terms of radians, which is the length of the radius on the circumference of a circle; twice the radius is the diameter which is represented by God (Heb. El or Elohim) as God is the title used when Divine truth is the subject in scripture. In another passage Swedenborg explains that internal spiritual good is represented by round forms, external good by a square, and truth by the forms of triangles as triangles are a geometric form of an angle:

"That foursquare means what is just originates in the representatives in the other life. In these representatives goods are presented as round, and the goods of the external man, which are called just, are presented as foursquare; truths however and things that are right are presented there as linear and triangular" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9717.2).

The evidence suggests that the ratios of pi were considered to be a Divine signature, a mathematical representation of the name of Jehovah. This is confirmed by the iconography of the rod and ring in the ancient Middle East, which were symbols always associated with the deity, and were perhaps representations of a circle with its diameter. These symbols are also associated with measurement, especially that of the cubit. As this measurement was considered sacred, so the ratios of pi were used in the numerical design of the verses, words and sometimes even letters of the Psalms. The geometric representation of the name Jehovah God as the circumference and diameter of a circle is confirmed by the insights offered in the writings of Swedenborg, and the truth of some of revelations given to Swedenborg is confirmed by the analysis of the numeric values of Hebrew letters of the name of God relative to the circle. As shown here as well as the next chapter, much of the numerical structure of the Psalms is based on the convergent ratios of pi for this spiritual reason.

The Symbolism of the Psalms and a Review of the Psalms by Robert Alter

I recently purchased the book The Hebrew Bible by Robert Alter, a professor of Hebrew at U.C. Berkeley. I compared Alter's translation of the Psalms with my own translation of the Psalms, which are published in a three volume work with a full commentary from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. I surprisingly found that while Alter has some rather good insights into the Hebrew language he makes some very basic fundamental mistakes, and many are quite unforgivable. Even in terms of dividing the verse into their proper poetic lines he makes mistakes. For my own work I had consulted the massive three volume work Cantos and Strophes in Biblical Hebrew Poetry by Pieter Van der Lugt. That latter work costs $1000 in itself, however the best of the research is embedded in the work of my translation, where one can see not only the poetic structure of each line but also the large stanzas in each Psalm.

Below are embedded links to my three volume work, where one can preview them in this blog. I compared Alter's translation with volumes 2 and 3 with Robert Alter and made some minor updates, which is now available on Amazon. Below the links I will leave readers with some initial findings after I looked over Alter's translation of Psalms 42-150.

AN INITIAL REVIEW OF ALTER'S TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS

For Alter's translation I focused on Psalms 42-150, which are the Psalms of volumes 2 and 3. First thing that became obvious: the second verse of Psalm 42 is divided into two bicolons (it is actually one bicolon). Alter is perhaps paying attention to the number of syllables in the original Hebrew, or perhaps wants to make it look good in English, but the odd thing about poetry in Hebrew is that each poetic line is not determined by syllable or word count. It is determined by parallelism: a poetic line will contain a parallel thought to the parallel line. Swedenborg discusses at length the spiritual reason behind this: one line will focus on love and the parallel line will focus on truth. Together they form a unified whole, as love and truth correspond to the will and thought of the mind.

In verse 4 of Psalm 42, we see a basic mistake: Alter mistranslates the word "soul" as "heart" - even though Hebrew has a different word for "heart." And this is an explicit decision Alter has made: throughout the entire Bible he has mistranslated the word for "soul" so that it no longer exists, perhaps due to a personal bias. Instead he has replaced with other words such as "being" or sometimes "life." He does make a good case where in certain contexts the word for "soul" has the meaning of "neck." Even so, it is a connotation that should be relegated to a footnote. The Hebrew language does have another word for neck, and if scripture uses the word "soul" there is a reason for it.

This translation choice by Alter has bad consequences. For example, Ps. 66:9 should literally be translated something like this:

Who puts our soul in life

But wait, Alter sometimes uses the word "life" for "soul." So what does he do? He completely omits the word soul:

Who has kept us in life

This was a intentional choice by Alter. In Hebrew the soul is represented by breath and the afterlife is represented by a grave (Heb. sheol), so some Jews believed there was no afterlife, thus there is no soul apart from the physical body. So perhaps he is reflecting that kind of Jewish thought. This way of thinking pervades the modern scientific world and has invaded even the churches, and this was the purpose of the revelations given to Swedenborg: to let people know that indeed there is a life after death, that our souls are eternal.

So, lets move on. There are some basic editorial mistakes where Alter could have used a second pair of eyes. For example, Psalm 53 is a near duplicate of Psalm 14, except that the name Jehovah has been replaced by the word "God" (Heb. Elohim). But in Ps. 53:2 Alter still retained the name Jehovah when in fact it should be God. In Psalm 57, lines in verses 3 and 4 are omitted. There is another online review which also found that Alter had skipped a verse.

Now, beyond that, I can continue with some other mistranslations, but the real advantage of Alter's translation is that the original Hebrew word order shines through. So I found it useful to compare with my own translation. In most cases it leads to an awkward sentence in English so those cases I ignored - I would still prefer good English in the final translation (if its awkward people wont read it). In other cases, the word order is important as it determines what goes in the first and second parallel lines in a verse, so in two or three cases I took note and made a correction to the word order.

There is one interesting case where Alter's knowledge of Hebrew led him to amend the text. The first half of Ps. 55:19 should read something like this:

God shall hear and afflict them,
Even He who dwells of old.

Alter makes a slight emendation to the original text and does this:

Ishmael and Jalam and the dweller in the east,

Which is completely different. The NET Bible is notoriously bad at this: it almost prefers translations that make clever emendations to the original text.

Now, despite the negative feedback here I would like to point out some gems where Alter's knowledge of Hebrew shines through in the text. These are cases of poetic ellipsis, where the original Hebrew implies a word that is not present in the text and are thus easy to miss. One is in Ps. 60:3, which is typically translated like this:

You have made Your people to see hard things,
You have made us drink the wine of reeling.

The Hebrew word for "hard" (Heb. qasheh) is similar to a word for "cup" (Heb. qasah). There is a hidden word in the first line, omitted through poetic ellipsis:

You have made Your people to see a hard cup,
You have made us drink the wine of reeling.

The word is omitted in the original text, but it is implied. Poetic ellipsis is used here because it talks of something God gives but we do not want to ever see: hard punishment for sin. This is a poetic method in the original Hebrew and it took me a while to notice it. I used it for Ps. 20:7, which literally reads like this:

Some in the chariot and some in horses

There is literally a missing verb. Most Bibles supply the word "trust." But the missing word can be restored by poetic ellipsis, where the word is similar to the previous word:

Some swear in the chariot and some swear in horses

This references to the enemies of Israel taking an oath of alliance, to supply horses or chariots in battle. It is viewed as a false oath, an oath against Jehovah, thus it is omitted by poetic ellipsis for stronger effect - words have power, by omitting it that would give the power of breaking the alliance. This is the translation used in volume 1, it is fully documented in another work, The Mistranslations of the Psalms.

There is one other clever use of poetic ellipsis in Ps. 110:6 which literally reads like this:

He shall fill with dead bodies

From poetic ellipsis, we can find the missing word:

He shall fill valleys with dead bodies

The word "valleys" is hidden by poetic ellipsis. Why? For a better effect: once one has filled a valley with dead bodies the valley will disappear.

Now, most corrections from Alter were minor, such as an additional pronoun such as "I" or "as for me" or "You" that was missed. But the most beautiful correction was in Ps. 78:39. I originally had this:

And He remembered that they were but flesh,
A wind that passes away and returns not.

From Alter, I changed it to this:

And He remembered that they were but flesh,
A spirit that passes away and returns not.

The Hebrew word can be translated as both "wind" or "spirit." Both are correct, but spirit is a better parallel word to the word flesh. It also speaks to our temporary nature here on earth, how we depend on our eternity from the Lord alone.

The Complete Symbolism of the Psalms Explained

I have now published all three volumes of the Symbolism of the Psalms, which is a new translation of the Psalms containing a complete commentary of the Psalms based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. Each work is rather large. The first volume is available as paperback or e-book, and volumes 2 and 3 are available as e-books. Here is The Symbolism of the Psalms, Vol. 1 - this covers Psalms 1-41 -

Here is The Symbolism of the Psalms, Vol. 2 - this covers Psalms 42-89 -

Here is The Symbolism of the Psalms, Vol. 3 - this covers Psalms 90-150, and also includes a complete index of the spiritual meaning of the words mentioned in the Psalms:

The Psalms is the largest book of the Bible, and the spiritual interpretation is based upon 27 years of waking visions of heaven by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century. However these interpretations are scattered throughout over 40 volumes of works. One complication that arose is that every Psalm has a mistranslation, and many of these affect the interpretation of the passage. These are documented in another work, The Mistranslations of the Psalms. This work also complete restores the stanzas of each Psalm showing thematic shifts, but are also based on numeric considerations which are documented in The Secret Code of the Psalms. The latter work is more technical, and is useful to demonstrate the veracity and accuracy of the Hebrew text. It also contains a proof that scripture is Divinely inspired, as some of the numeric patterns are based on very accurate estimates on the number of pi.

However if you are looking for a good group study of scripture, The Symbolism of the Psalms will explain how each Psalm is directly applicable to one's life.

The Mistranslations of the Psalms

I have published yet another work, The Mistranslations of the Psalms, in which I took the King James Version, converted it into modern English, and then documented all the mistranslations by creating a hyperlink of each correction which is linked to the original Hebrew definition. This was the prelude to the work The Symbolism of the Psalms. It was necessary because it is very clear in the visions of Swedenborg that each Hebrew word has a distinct spiritual meaning, so every effort here was done to use a distinct English word for each Hebrew word when the context allowed for it. The notes are extensive, and as it was extensive I had to separate this out from the commentary. Here is the book cover:

The poetic structure of the Psalms is restored, and the rationale for the stanza structure of each Psalm is fully documented in The Secret Code of the Psalms. This work has an interesting side story, back in 2014 when I had started it someone had a clairvoyant dream about it, which is described in this blog post: A Clairvoyant Dream of a New Translation of the Psalms.

So, unlike all other translations, this translation is fully documented. All the variants with the LXX (the Greek Septuagint) are also covered in the footnotes. You can now take this and compare it with any other Bible translation, to see just how closely the translators followed the Hebrew. There are some modern translations out there that do a rather bad job, as they do not understand the importance of each Hebrew word. If you send me a message (see the bottom left corner of this blog post) I will go ahead and send you a PDF of the entire book for free.

There are mistranslations, or translation inconsistencies, in practically every Psalm. As an example here is what Psalm 23 looks like:

Each blue underlined word is a hyperlink to the original Hebrew definition. Most translations have LORD in place of the name Jehovah, but the word "Lord" is used for the Hebrew word Adonai and the Jews started to use that word in place of Jehovah's name in order to keep God's name sacred. But the name Jehovah and the word Adonai have distinct spiritual meanings: Jehovah is the Lord as to Divine love, and Adonai refers to the Lord in human form.

Also, Psalm 23 never mentions "green pastures" but instead mentions "spring meadows." Pastures, where flocks feed, have reference to learning the truths of faith, but spring meadows have reference to the peace of the good of love. There is one Hebrew word for pasture, and another for meadow.

Most translations have "still waters" but it literally says "waters of rest" - referring to the rest of peace, that one has after conquering the temptations of the falsehoods of evil.

In verse 5 most translations have "enemies" but this is translated as "adversaries." Again, there are two distinct Hebrew words here: "adversaries" are evils that attack what is good, and "enemies" are falsehoods that fight against truths.

In verse 6 most translations have "forever" but in Hebrew it literally says for "length of days." Again there is a very specific meaning for this: width has reference to truth, as the width of the path allows for walking and walking signifies living by truth, and length has reference to good because as one walks in the truth one is led towards good - and this continues forever, even to eternity.

The Numerical Secrets of Psalm 49, Psalm 64, and Psalm 81

While editing the poetry of the Psalms for the book The Symbolism of the Psalms, I discovered that the Hebrew scriptures have an underlying numeric structure that was used in the poetic structure of each Psalm. Other scholars have noted some of these patterns, but unfortunately many have degenerated this study into some false methods invented by Jewish Qabbalists. I have summarized the findings in a new book The Secret Code of the Psalms. It is primarily focused on patterns in verse, word and letter counts. Why did the Jews do this? Because the Hebrew scriptures are Divine, where even the numbers have spiritual meaning. Modern science has shown that the universe is very mathematical, built upon numbers. This corresponds to the belief that God's Word created all things. So lets count the words, shall we?

There are numeric patterns used that reinforce the meaning of the text, and the numeric patterns can validate the Hebrew scriptures themselves against other variants. To demonstrate that this is the case, I thought I would show a couple of examples here on the numeric structure of Psalms 49 and 64.

In Psalm 49 there is one verse that is translated differently by some Bible versions. The Masoretic Hebrew text says this of those who place their trust in material wealth:

Their inward thought was that their houses were forever (Ps. 49:11)

Some modern Bibles translate this verse as follows:

Their graves are their homes forever (Ps. 49:11)

So, why do some translations have "graves" instead of "inward thought"?  And which one is correct? The word for "inward thought" is Hebrew qereb, but the word for grave or sepulchre is qeber. So what some modern translators presume is that the original Hebrew text is in error, and that a copyist transposed two letters.

However the modern translators are incorrect, and this can be proven from the numerical structure of Psalm 49. Most of the Psalms are numerically designed to have a center in terms of word and sometimes even letter count. Psalm 49 has an offset center, which can be determined by examining two near duplicate phrases:

And Man who is in dignity stays not,
He is like the dumb beasts (Ps. 49:12)

Man who is in dignity, and understands not,
He is like the dumb beasts (Ps. 49:20)

Verses 12-13 form a quatrain at the end of a stanza demarcated by the word Selah; the repetition of verse 12 in verse 20 places emphasis of the last quatrain in verses 19-20. This last quatrain has 16 words. Excluding the last 16 words of the Psalm, if the Psalm is divided into 73 + 1 + 73 words, the central 74th word is inward thought, the word in question in Ps. 49:11.

And this is very significant. The word "inward thought" is also the Hebrew word meaning "center".

So the Masoretic text is correct. And this is just one of many proofs showing that the structure of the Psalms is playing quite a few number games. And we know from original Hebrew texts that Jewish scribes would often take particular note of the central word or letter in the scriptures (for examples of this practice, see the article What Is the Midpoint of the Torah?).

Now maybe this example from Psalm 49 is a coincidence? Except when these coincidences keep coming up one can no longer say it is random, but rather it is by design. This can be seen in Psalm 64. Similar to Psalm 49, if the first stanza is treated as an offset, the remainder of Psalm 64 can be divided into 30 + 5 + 30 words. The central phrase becomes the following:

And the inward part of man and the heart is deep (Ps. 64:6)

And here the word for "inward part" is the same Hebrew word qereb, the word meaning "center."

And one will note that 49 is 7 x 7 and 64 is 8 x 8. They are square numbers. So out of curiosity, what is the central phrase of Psalm 81? Psalm 81 can be divided into 44 + 6 + 44 words, where the central phrase is the following:

I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt (Ps. 81:10)

This, of course, is a direct quote from Ex. 20:2, the beginning of the 10 commandments. It is actually the first commandment, which takes on the form of a declaration. That Jehovah is our God should be the center of our life purpose, and this is why its in the center. It is followed by 9 other commandments, and that is why it is placed in Psalm 81 since 81 is 9 x 9.

And the list of these weird numerical findings goes on and on, where it actually supports the meaning of the text.  I forgot to make this particular point connecting these three Psalms together in the book. But one has to publish, the work took forever. It also took me away from this blog. I am sure other readers will find even more patterns.

So what is secret is now no longer secret:

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light (Luke 8:17)

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF CENTER

Several times Swedenborg interpreted the word for "center" in scripture - the word "center" or "in the midst" means what is central or primary, or what is the first principle. Thus Psalm 81 mentions the first commandment which should be the central principle in our life. To be withdrawn out of Egypt is for us to withdraw from the desires of our lower selves which imprison and enslave us into the freedom of a spiritual life of love. Psalm 49 has the opposite center of the wicked - the wicked place their center in their own selfish ego and their material wealth; this selfish center becomes their own hell in the other life.

What is center has a very special meaning in the spiritual sense:

"That the midst in the internal sense signifies what is primary or principal, and also inmost, is from representatives in the other life; when any good is represented by spiritual ideas, then what is best is placed in the midst, and what is less and less good is put successively from the middle outward, and lastly at the circumference are those things which are not good; it is from this that in the midst means both what is primary or principal and what is inmost. Thus, likewise, are represented ideas of thought, and also affections, and all changes of state, goods or evils being varied as to their situation in respect to the middle. The origin of this is from the form of spiritual and heavenly things, which is such." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2940)

What one loves the most is one's center. From this spiritual idea of center, many Psalms are designed with a central thought or theme in mind which is revealed in the numerical arithmetic center of the Psalm.

The Numerical Poetry of the Psalms

I am pleased to announce the publication of a new book, The Numerical Poetry of the Psalms, which reveals a hidden numerical design embedded in the Hebrew poetry of the Psalms. This is based on an accidental discovery as a result of editing the poetry of the Psalms for a previous book I published, The Symbolism of the Psalms. Within this work is revealed a numerical design in the Psalms numbers, verse counts, word counts and even the letter counts in the original Masoretic Hebrew text. This numerical design determined the overall arrangement of the Psalms, and explains several odd features in the Hebrew text that has puzzled Biblical scholars, such as why Psalms or phrases are duplicated, why certain acrostic verses are missing, the meaning of the odd word Selah as well as its positioning, why single Psalms were split into two, and much more. The overall numeric design of the Psalms is revealed, and the numerical poetic structure of all 150 Psalms are explained in detail.

The numerical design reveals a hidden system of cross referencing, where disparate passages in the Psalms are connected together to form a connected whole, where the smallest part of scripture is a reflection of the whole. Every letter becomes an important part of this whole, supporting the statement of Jesus that every "jot and tittle" of scripture is significant (Matt. 5:18).

The text of scripture has priority over any numerical considerations, and it is shown how the numerical design reinforces the meaning of the text. For example, consider this passage:

The verse in question states: The speech of Jehovah is pure speech: As silver refined in a furnace of earth, purified seven times (Ps. 12:6). This is the seventh verse of the Psalms (the Bible verse number is inaccurate). Up to the end of this statement the Psalm has 49 words, or 7 x 7. The stanza that contains this verse has 154 letters which is 2 x 77.

Let's choose another simple example where a number is mentioned:

Forty years I loathed that generation,
And said, It is a people who go wandering in their heart,
And they know not my ways.
Unto whom I swore in My anger:
They shall not enter into My rest (Ps. 95:10-11)

What is amazing, is that preceding that verse which mentions the 40 years of wandering is the 1600th verse of the Psalms, where the number 1600 is 40 x 40.

And these are just two examples out of hundreds.  And this is not the way I discovered this, it was accidental, when I was trying to arrange the Psalms back into their original poetic structure according to Hebrew parallelism. The challenge was how to arrange the Psalms into stanzas? I discovered that stanzas were arranged according to word counts, and later, they were arranged with certain letter counts in mind. This is the origin of the Jewish Masoretic practice of counting verses, words and even letters to ensure the accuracy of scripture. But this practice originated from a numerical design.

THE DIVINE SIGNATURE OF PI

What is perhaps the most surprising discovery of all, which again was accidental, is that embedded in the Psalms I saw that there are mathematical ratios that approximate pi to a very high degree of accuracy. The numbers of these ratios were considered sacred, and the numbers were used in the letters for the name of God, Jehovah. The circle was considered to be a symbolic representation of the infinite Divine, which is revealed in the measure of the diameter of the circle.

The knowledge of this can be found in an ancient mystical Jewish text known as the Sefir Yetzirah. In that ancient work, a Hebrew letter circle is presented:

This diagram is explained from a mathematical perspective in the work. To summarize, there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet since 22/7 is a convergent ratio for pi. The diameter is 7, and 7 of course is a holy number throughout scripture. But the Psalms contains within it even more accurate ratios, so accurate they were not improved upon until they were rediscovered in China in the 5th century A.D. and later among Indian and Persian mathematicians in the 14th-15th centuries A.D.

The ratios of pi pervade the entire Psalms, and determined its overall structure. However there are other overlapping numerical structures that are explained in detail in this work. Some of the knowledge contained in scripture is similar to the ancient mathematical knowledge of the Pythagoreans, who believed that numbers ruled all of creation. They placed special emphasis on the musical octave scale, and knowledge of this octave scale can also be found in the numeric structure of the Psalms.

For those of you who have been watching this blog closely, while I was working on this other people would have clairvoyant dreams describing this work, and one dream in particular explained the numbers in the Psalm I was about to analyze before I even knew it. See the post More Clairvoyant Dreams of the Numerical Symbolism of the Psalms. That was back in 2016. This has taken several years and it is finally done, and the evidence is conclusive. The challenge was to demonstrate what was by design as opposed to what was just random, and this is done by following strict methods according to the poetic structure of the text. It is comprehensive, all 150 Psalms are explained.

Another surprising discovery: this work for the first time explains the origin of the Jewish tradition that there are 613 commandments in the Law of Moses. This tradition is very ancient, dating back to the the 3rd century A.D. Jewish rabbis have been at a loss to explain the origin of this oral tradition.

When one takes a step back, and looks at the overall design, one will question could any human author conceived this on their own? The design is elegant and beautiful, where the smallest of parts is related to a larger whole.

WHAT WAS SWEDENBORG'S VIEW OF THIS?

Emanuel Swedenborg was shown many things, but this is one thing he missed. Swedenborg, however, was actually the first one to discover the pattern of Hebrew parallelism in scripture, where one line is repeated in the next. The verse, the simplest numerical unit, forms the foundation of the overall numerical structure. However beyond the verse, there are larger structures that repeat, where entire stanzas are parallel with other stanzas.

An example of how Swedenborg missed this entirely, is although he could explain parallelism in a verse, he could not explain why scripture would duplicate entire passages. For example, in the book of Exodus, chapters 36-39 repeats exactly what was said in chapter 25-28. Swedenborg passes right over it in his commentary on chapter 36:

"What these things signify in the internal sense is evident from what has been explained before in chapter xxvi., for they are the same as are there. Wherefore what is in this chapter is passed over without further explication." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10750).

What the numerical symbolism of the Psalms shows is that duplication of passages have meaning, often related to the underlying numerical structure.  To most readers the repetition in Exodus is useless, however what seems useless does have significant meaning.

So why the extensive design with numbers in the Psalms?  Here Swedenborg does offer an explanation - in a lower plane of heaven, general ideas were represented by particular numbers. Words express these ideas in a more particular manner. What this work shows is that there is a correspondence between the numerical design and the literal text. Thus this work will provide new insights into the meaning of scripture, especially the Psalms.

Again, I am happy this is done. The work is massive, with original discoveries and a new translation and the original Hebrew text is included. It also references Biblical scholarship over the past 200 years concerning the poetic structure of the Psalms. The embedded mathematical knowledge, and its intricate design, comes closer to showing that indeed scripture does have a hidden Divine author.