The Bible’s writers built patterns into their words: lines that come back, words that mirror each other, poems that run through the alphabet. Once you know what to look for, you can find them yourself.
Seven kinds of pattern, one example each.
In Judges the same sentence opens one story after another. It comes in Judges 2:11, 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1.
“And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim;”
Judges 2:11 (ASV) Open the verse
Find more with Open Scroll. On a chapter page, turn on Match, then tap a word card to see where the same word stands in that chapter. Related verses under a verse lists other verses that share its wording.
Genesis 1 closes each day with the same line, six times: Genesis 1:5, 1:8, 1:13, 1:19, 1:23, 1:31.
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”
Genesis 1:5 (ASV) Open the verse
Amos opens each of eight short messages with the same words: Amos 1:3, 1:6, 1:9, 1:11, 1:13, 2:1, 2:4, 2:6.
“Thus saith Jehovah: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.”
Amos 1:3 (ASV) Open the verse
Find more with Open Scroll. In Genesis 1, turn on Match on the card for “evening” and the six verses light up in the verse numbers.
Psalm 8 begins and ends with the same line. It is in verse 1 and again in verse 9.
“O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth”
Psalm 8:1 (ASV) Open the verse
“O Jehovah, our Lord, How excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
Psalm 8:9 (ASV) Open the verse
Find more with Open Scroll. Read the first and last verse of a psalm or a chapter side by side. Match on a word card shows when the same Hebrew word comes back at the end.
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”
Genesis 9:6 (ASV) Open the verse
The mirror is in the Hebrew. Its first six words run shed, blood, man, and then man, blood, shed. Hebrew reads from right to left; here each half is set out in reading order:
Hebrew from the Westminster Leningrad Codex, copied by machine; Strong’s numbers H8210 (shed), H1818 (blood) and H120 (man).
Find more with Open Scroll. On the chapter page for Genesis 9, the word cards follow the Hebrew order. Match on the card for “blood” lights both places in the verse.
In Proverbs 15:1 the second line says the opposite of the first.
“A soft answer turneth away wrath; But a grievous word stirreth up anger.”
Proverbs 15:1 (ASV) Open the verse
Find more with Open Scroll. Read a verse of Psalms or Proverbs one line at a time. Then compare the word cards of the two lines and see which words match.
Psalm 119 has 176 verses in 22 groups of eight. All eight verses of a group begin with the same letter, and the groups go through the alphabet in order. The American Standard Version prints the name of each letter above its group:
Lamentations 1 to 4 are alphabet poems too. Chapters 1, 2 and 4 have 22 verses, one for each letter. Chapter 3 has 66 verses, three for each letter. In chapters 2, 3 and 4 two letters, Pe and Ayin, come in the other order. Chapter 5 also has 22 verses, but its verses do not follow the alphabet.
Find more with Open Scroll. On a chapter page, the first word card of each verse shows the Hebrew letters. Look at the first letter of each verse to see the alphabet go by.
In Genesis, a new part begins with “These are the generations of” (once, “This is the book of the generations of”). The phrase comes 11 times: Genesis 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:9, 37:2.
“These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven.”
Genesis 2:4 (ASV) Open the verse
Find more with Open Scroll. Read each place in a reading Bible and note who the new part is about. On the chapter page, Match on the card for “generations” shows where the word comes in that chapter.