The fourth book in the Bible is the book of Numbers. It comes after Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. The Greek word for “Numbers” is “Arithmoi.” As you can guess that word is somehow related to arithmetic. The Hebrew word for “Numbers” on the other hand is “Bamidbar.” It means “in the desert of.” The book was compiled when the Israelites were in the Sinai desert. In fact the name of the book comes from two censuses of the Israelites. Numbers is essentially census results. That’s why it can be numbing to read. But it’s a historical document, the equivalence of a data base. […]