NUMBER. This Word is sometimes taken to signifie a small Number, such as is easy to reckon, and sometimes it signifies the contrary. We are but few in Number, says Jacob to his Sons, when Gen. they had assaulted Shechem. The Letter xxxiv.
- of the Hebrew is, Ego autem viri numeri, Deut. I being few in Number. And Moses says, iv. 27.
Job. Ye shall be left few in Number among the xvi. 23. Heathen. And Job, when a few Years are Psal. come, or according to the Hebrew Years of cv. 12. Number. And the Psalmist, When they were but a few Men in Number; or literally, Men of Number.
Psal. cxlvii. 4.Number sometimes stands for a great Number, or a Multitude. Thus, He telleth the Number of the Stars, or their Multitude, Eccles. ii. 3.as the Septuagint and Vulgate translate it. Solomon says, Quo facto opus est sub sole, numero dierum vitæ suæ.
Rev. xiii. 17, 18.The Number of the Beast, or the Number of the Name of the Beast, in the Revelations, stands for the numerical Value of the Letters that compose his Name.
In Psalm lxxi, (according to the Hebrew) the Prophet says, that he knows not the Numbers thereof. The Septuagint and Vulgate read, nescio literaturam, or according to the most antient Latin Copies, nescio negotiationes. They read in the Greek, Pragmascius, instead of Grammascius. But this is the Signification of the Hebrew. My Mouth shall daily declare thy Justice, and the Favours that thou hast done me, because I know not the Number thereof, or they are innumerable. Otherwise, I will publish every Day the Salvation thou hast procured for me; and though I am ignorant of Letters, or am not learned, I shall not cease to consider thy Power.