The Design of Scripture

The Number Six - Natural Man, Sin, and Slavery

Six is the number that clearly represents man, satan, sin, and slavery. The 6th word in scripture is the 'vav' conjunction, which is the 6th letter of the Aleph-Bet. The 6th word ties together the creation of the heavens and the earth. The 'vav' conjunction is dominantly translated as the word 'and'. Although there are only two Hebrew words that begin with this letter, it is the letter that appears the most times in scripture because of it's use as a conjuntion.

Man was created on the 6th day and was to labor, because of his disobedience, for 6 days. Hebrew slaves were to serve for 6 years (Sh'mot 21:2). The land was to serve 6 years, as well (Sh'mot 23:10). The image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream picturing the rule of man's kingdoms was in multiples of 6 and, of course, we are all familiar with the number of the beast in Hitgalut 13 as 666. Six is one short of completeness. Two sixes will total the number of the tribes of Israel and the apostles. The Levites were given 48 cities (6x7) for their possession, and of those cities, six cities were given for the 'manslayer' to flee to. The most interesting use of the number six for me is the last six commandments of the Ten Commandments. Messiah divides the commandments up into two that all the commandments hang, or that are summed up. The first four commandments are haggadic by nature and are given to speak of our relationship with God. The last six commandments are halakhic in nature and are given to instruct our relationship with man and with ourselves.

The number six is the Hebrew word shesh. The etymology of this word is to 'annihilate' or 'plunder'. Does that surprise you? Do you think for a moment that when YHVH said to man that he is to have dominion over the earth and to subdue it that He meant that we should plunder and destroy all that our Creator had provided for us? The corruption of this earth in all of it's manifestations is, of course, the result of sin. In the prophets we read of the result of hasatans presence here on earth.

Yesha'yahu 14:16-17
"They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the MAN who made the earth to tremble, and who did shake kingdoms. Who, made the world like a WILDERNESS, and DESTROYED it's cities, who opened not the house of his prisoners?"

Using the English in this verse I could make a good case against the Sierra Club, who desire to destroy the cities and make the world like a wilderness. Aha! I've stumbled onto the identity of the beast. Well, maybe another day. There are dozens of words that have interesting ties to the number six and it's multiples. I would like to address a few. There are only a handful of words that have a total gematria of six. The word for 'separation' and being 'alone' for example, is bad, which is an interesting play on words itself.

This word is used to describe Ephraim and their association with sin and disregard for Torah in Hoshea 8:9-12:

"For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass ALONE by HIMSELF, Ephraim hath hired lovers. Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to SIN, altars shall be unto him to SIN. I have written to him the great things of my Torah, but they were counted as a strange thing."

The word for 'enemy' is 'eyvah, which has a gematria of 18 (3x6). The same is true of the Hebrew word for 'sin' - chatta', which also has a gematria of 18. When YHVH blew into Adam's nostrils and he became a 'living' soul, the word used here for man's life is chay, which again has a gematria of 18.

The 6th letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet is vav. This word means a hook or a nail. There are only two Hebrew words that begin with a vav, but this letter appears the most times in scripture. It is not just coincidence that the other Hebrew word is vazar, which means to be guilty, or to bear a burden. It is only used one time in scripture.

Mishlei 21:8
"The way of a GUILTY MAN is devious and strange, but as for the pure, his work is right."

The reason for the numerous appearances of the 'vav' is due to it's use as the conjunction (and, but, now, so, etc). This word is used quite extensively to tie things together or to bind them. This places the two meanings of 'binding together' and a 'nail' into a provocative relationship. It is not happenstance that the Messiah was 'nailed' to a tree for our SINS, and that He DESTROYED the works of the DEVIL. It is the 'vav' or the nail that connects two things together. We know that when the Messiah was nailed to the tree, that He became SIN for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Sin was literally joined together with Messiah that He might bear our burden and take our place. All these concepts are tied (pun intended) together with the number six. The nails left prints in His hands and in His feet. In the Greek language and gematria, a form of the letter 's' is inserted as the 6th letter. It is called the stigma. To explain this I will quote from E.W. Bullinger's popular book on numbers entitled "Number in Scripture":

"This letter 's' (called stigma) is used for the number 6. Why this letter and number should be thus associated we cannot tell, except that both are intimately connected with the ancient Egyptian 'mysteries'. The three letters SSS were the symbol of ISIS, which is thus connected with 666 ..."

It also might be of interest to know that the verbal root of the word stigma is to brand with a hot iron, which has always been one of several ways of putting a mark on someone. Ouch! As a last note of interest before I provide a list of several uses of the number six, I would like to remind anyone who will listen that the 'beast' of Hitgalut 13, will be a physical manifestation of a 'spirit' of antichrist, that has been in the world all along (1 Yochanan 4:3). When attempting to calculate the 'number' of his name, it might be remembered that his nature, as described by Sha’ul in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, is that of lawlessness or Torahlessness. This is the nature of the spirit of his followers as well, for it is my opinion that his number is intimately tied to man's ways over God's ways.

  • The serpent is the 6th character revealed in B'reshith.
  • Satan is mentioned 6 times in the wilderness experience with Messiah.
  • Goliath has 6 pieces of armor: Sh'mu'el Aleph 17.
  • The great Pyramid is built in multiples of 6. (Compared to the Tabernacle with multiples of 5.)
  • Cain's descendants are given to the 6th generation.
  • There are six words used for 'man' in scripture: 4 Hebrew, 2 Greek.
  • 6 cities of refuge.
  • 'A thousand years' is mentioned 6 times in Hitgalut.
  • Messiah had 6 trials.
  • The kingdoms of this world are to last 6 thousand years.

Shalom Alecheim!