Joshua — the number of the name, the Torah page and the verse
The name Joshua in Hebrew letters is יהושע. Below: how its number adds up, which page of the Torah it falls on and what verse stands there. Everything is computed, nothing is guessed.
יהושע
In short
Your name in Hebrew letters is יהושע. “The Lord is salvation.” Moses’ disciple who led the people into the Land; Moses himself gave him this name instead of Hoshea (Numbers 13:16). Adding up the numbers of its letters gives 391 — the same as the Torah word ישועה, “something saved, i.e.”. That number points to Torah page 37 of 354 — in the portion Chayei Sarah. What that portion is about: Sarah's death and the purchase of the cave of Machpelah; the servant seeks a wife for Isaac; Rebecca at the well; Abraham's death. The verse that begins with the first letter of your name and ends with the last is Genesis 31:29. Each of these steps is laid out below with its sources. There are no predictions or judgments here — only the text of the Torah and arithmetic you can check.
Adding up the letters of the name יהושע gives 391.
391
The number 391 is the Torah word ישועה — «something saved, i.e.» (Genesis 49:18).
The number 391, as the remainder modulo 354, points to Torah page 37 in the book of Bereshit (Genesis). These are its opening words:
תבן ומספוא לגמלים ומים לרחץ רגליו ורגלי האנשים …
The verse this place falls on is Bereshit (Genesis) 24:32:
וַיָּבֹא הָאִישׁ הַבַּיְתָה וַיְפַתַּח הַגְּמַלִּים וַיִּתֵּן תֶּבֶן וּמִסְפּוֹא לַגְּמַלִּים וּמַיִם לִרְחֹץ רַגְלָיו וְרַגְלֵי הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ
And the man came into the house, and he ungirded the camels; and he gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men that were with him.
This is from the portion Chayei Sarah. What it is about: Sarah's death and the purchase of the cave of Machpelah; the servant seeks a wife for Isaac; Rebecca at the well; Abraham's death.
The same number, 391, is given by these biblical names:
יהושע · שלמיהו · שכניהו · ישימאל
Nine ways of counting
The tradition counts the same name in several ways. The main one is above: each letter is its number. The other eight are old and checkable too; each gives its own number, and many of them have a Torah word with the same number.
Final letters as 500–900 (mispar gadol) — 391. A Torah word with the same number is ישועה — “something saved, i.e.” (Genesis 49:18).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 22. A Torah word with the same number is יחד — “a unit, i.e.” (Genesis 13:6).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 58. A Torah word with the same number is נח — “Noach, the patriarch of the flood” (Genesis 5:29).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1511.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 95061.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 758. A Torah word with the same number is נחשת — “copper, hence, something made of that metal,…” (Genesis 4:22).
The word that comes out is מצפבז. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 219. A Torah word with the same number is טהרה — “ceremonial purification” (Leviticus 12:4).
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 528.
The number 391 appears in the classical books 7 times across 5 works. The earliest mention is בעל הטורים על התורה (~1300).
The full message
Every letter of the name explained, the words and namesakes with references, the Hebrew date, the letter and tribe of the month, the day 861 of your life, the psalm by age, the attestations from 834 works — a PDF built the moment you pay.
The name יהושע appears in the Torah as a word 16 times. The first time is Exodus 17:9. Another 10 times it stands with prefixes — “and”, “in”, “the”.
The verse of your name
There is a custom: at the end of the prayer one says a Torah verse that begins with the first letter of one's name and ends with its last. For יהושע these are י and ע. The Pentateuch has 2 such verses. The first of them is Genesis 31:29:
יש לאל ידי לעשות עמכם רע ואלהי אביכם אמש אמר אלי לאמר השמר לך מדבר עם יעקב מטוב עד רע
This is from the portion Vayetzei. What it is about: The dream of the ladder to heaven; Jacob with Laban: Leah and Rachel; eleven sons are born; the return.
Nine ways of counting
The tradition counts the same name in several ways. The main one is above: each letter is its number. The other eight are old and checkable too; each gives its own number, and many of them have a Torah word with the same number.
Final letters as 500–900 (mispar gadol) — 391. A Torah word with the same number is ישועה — “something saved, i.e.” (Genesis 49:18).
Reduced, each letter to one digit (mispar katan) — 22. A Torah word with the same number is יחד — “a unit, i.e.” (Genesis 13:6).
Ordinal: alef 1, bet 2 … tav 22 (mispar siduri) — 58. A Torah word with the same number is נח — “Noach, the patriarch of the flood” (Genesis 5:29).
Cumulative: a letter plus all letters before it (mispar kidmi) — 1511.
Squares of the letter values (mispar perati) — 95061.
Building: the sum grows with each letter (mispar bone’eh) — 758. A Torah word with the same number is נחשת — “copper, hence, something made of that metal,…” (Genesis 4:22).
The word that comes out is מצפבז. Atbash: letters mirrored, alef for tav, bet for shin, and the number of the resulting word — 219. A Torah word with the same number is טהרה — “ceremonial purification” (Leviticus 12:4).
Filling: the names of the letters are counted — alef, bet, gimel… (milui) — 528.
Add a date of birth and the verse of meeting from that week's portion is added to the reading.
Compute with a date of birth The whole Torah page 37
Other names
Joel · John · Jonah · Jonathan · Jose · Joseph · Josiah · Joze · Juan · Judah · Judith · Julia · All names
How it is counted
Each Hebrew letter has a number; a word's number is their sum (alef 1 … tav 400). The page is the remainder modulo 354: the Torah divided into 354 pages of 861 letters, as the lunar year has 354 days. Everything can be checked by hand.
Биньямин Пичхадзе, «Хумаш 354» (חומש 354), Бней-Брак, 2002 / התשס״ג · A calculation, not a prediction.
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (WLC), CC BY 4.0