Bible Hebrew Time Meter Characteristics

Characs 1. Def Of Syllable 2. Speech Elision 3. Meter Sevens 4. Syllable = Solar Yr 5. Meter By Syntax 6. First Sevening Is Dateline 7. Second Meter Dateline 8. Dateline Is Poem Theme 9. Poem Cum Syllables Divisible By Seven 10. Meter Makes Time tracks 11. Time Ellipses 12. Dateline Equidistance 13. Sevening Equidistance 14. Meter Refs Gentile Time 15. Submeters Doctrinally Significant 16. Text & Meter Interact Antiphonally 17. Text Comments On Chronology 18. Text Is Generic 19. Meter Depicts Recurring Cycle 20. Meter Balances To Mill 21. Submeters Palindromic 22. Text Palindromic 23. Submeters’ Text Is Coherent 24. Same-Meter = ‘Talkback’ 25. Same-Meter Is ‘Tagged’ 26. Same-Meter Cumulative Tag 27. Submeter Historical Tag 28. Submeter Historical Other Time Poem Tag 29. Time Poem Order 30. Antiphony Time Meter Troubleshooting

Bible Hebrew meter is a major rhetorical style, vital to hermeneutics and textual criticism. It has gone unrecognized, for centuries. How is it, that despite three centuries of debate among Bible scholars, none have found the pervasive ‘meter’ in Old Testament Hebrew? They impose Western ideas of meter upon Bible text. So, they claim Bible has no meter. If instead they merely counted the syllables, they would find the style this writeup covers. Meter is designed for children and common folk, to test oral memorization. So even a child can learn what the scholar, can't discover?

One must be blunt about a 2000-year lapse in scholarship. Everyone quoting everyone else, no one reading Scripture de novo, everyone in the name of Christian unity playing nice – so a major doctrine like this goes missed for two millennia? When Scripture understanding is a casualty of 'brotherly love', the latter must be censured. But not for long. Fact is they messed up, yet Bible provides a way to correct the problem and move on. So let's move on.

But scholars will dig in their heels, for Bible is a political football. Only interpretations that agree with them, will be admitted. This meter supports Dispensationalists, but tweaks their mistakes. It also vindicates classical scholarship on many Bible dates, and reproves slipshod scholarship. It proves preterism anti-semitic and inept. It proves the Judaic calendar, apostate. Yet it vindicates the 'Ages' which Jews (but not Dispensationalists) recognize, correcting mistakes in Jewish doctrine. Most of all, it vindicates the timeline of Messiah as a 1500-year Biblical tradition from Moses to John. Thus it vindicates some sects among the Messianics, and chides Jews who despise them.

This meter style is the Bible's, not brainout's. So when you see it yourself, you own it, and never have to name me, k?

This same style persists in the New Testament Greek. It thus becomes invaluable to textual criticism and Bible interpretation, deciphering Bible’s own dates, and its prophecy. Millions of dollars wasted can instead be saved or put to better use, if one but counts syllables and audits passages for the meter, as explained below.

So this writeup will summarize Bible meter characteristics. Test these characteristics on whatever Bible text you wish, thus eliminating the usual cry for ‘expert’ sanction; for Bible meter is designed for the Joe Schmoe to learn and memorize, for best grasp and retention. Bible scrolls were heavy. Memorization was and remains, a convenience anyone of any age, can learn.

A full display of the meter (using BibleWorks) is in my ‘brainouty’ videos on Youtube, and in Ephesians1REPARSED. Additionally, the Magnificat and Zecharias’ speech, both in Luke 1, are metered, the Greek following the same Hebrew meter pattern as Moses established in Psalm 90. Those videos demonstrate more simply, how to spot Bible meter, and how to test it.

Purpose of Bible meter is to supply a timeline. It is thus a Time Accounting Meter of doctrinal value, not Bible codes or similar nonsense. A ‘time poem’ is created. The reader is expected to count the syllables, then interactively use the text with the meter, to know where he is on God’s ‘time map’, so to better orient and use Bible Doctrine. This ‘time map’ employs a years-to-Millennium dating system, often as part of the ‘dateline’ segment of the time poem (covered below).

Bible meter balances, so you approach it with a mindset similar to balancing your checkbook. The meters form ‘transactions’ which must make sense. That is how I learned what is written below. Audit Bible meter by the text, not by what someone says about the text. So variants will matter much, here. You should be able to prove which variants ‘belong’ in a text by this auditing, i.e., Isaiah 53 has no words missing in Hebrew; the BHS text we have, perfectly balances.

The sophisticated characteristics listed below, are the result of observing the meter patterns in Old Testament and New. Since I’m still learning their nature from the text, the listing below is neither complete nor completely accurate. The distinctive feature of Bible meter is its self-auditing quality. So mistakes, stick out. Hence continual auditing of the characteristics is ongoing.

To comprehend the examples listed below, some facts regarding how God Orchestrates Time, must be absorbed (or assumed, if you want to grasp what follows). Bible meter is designed to remind the reader about the Rules For Time. It is a basic doctrine learned on mother’s knee which survives in Judaism, in garbled form; but the doctrine is completely unknown, to Christendom.

  1. God designs Time itself to run as follows: 490 + 70 + 490 = 1050 year 'civilization' unit. It is the basic housing unit of Time. Each segment must be ‘qualified’ to exist via someone super-maturing spiritually during each 490, and via enough believers mass voting to learn God, during the 70. Else, Time ends. This is the basic doctrine behind the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, The Exodus, Temple Down, Rapture and Tribulation: too few votes. Time is on loan. You have only x-amount of time to vote for being saved, vote to learn God.
  1. Overlaying that structure, is a 1000 + 50. This is a Civilization Time structure, including unbelievers, an allotment for them to live. The last 50 years are a crisis mass voting period for unbelievers to believe in God, or mass death follows. A believer must super-mature enough during a 1000, for it to be granted. Else, Time ends.
  1. Two units of 1050 were allotted to the Gentiles, and two units to the Jews. At the end of which, Messiah was to come and pay for sins and then Return, Inaugurate the Millennium during which Israel would be Queen of the Nations. Then Time was supposed to end, and Eternity would begin.
  1. However, Abraham super-matured 53.5 years prior to the Gentile allotment's end; so 'Age of the Jews' began early. Hence Jewish Time must end with a ‘credit’ for the Gentiles, of the same amount.
  1. This debit/credit for Abraham, gave rise to the Jubilee and Pentecost doctrines in the Mosaic Law, plus the Tribulation (paying back Passion Week, so to speak). Total was 50 + 7 = 57 years; 56, is the time between. It was represented in the Jewish calendar (which ran 30 days per month excepting Adar which ran 35-36 days, per Bible). The start of Passover to Pentecost, was 57 days; from Pentecost to 9th Av, another 57 days. The extra 3.5 days are related to the Temple starting late, 3.5 years after David’s age 77 death in 1 Kings 6:1; so Time books still balance, despite that lateness. (Scholars eschew Bible and instead go with the errant Josephus, assuming David died at age 70.)
  1. Messiah, therefore, must be born by the 1000th anniversary of David’s United Kingship, must die by the 1000th anniversary of David's death; and, must die 57 years before the scheduled Millennium. All these dates converge, as David died at age 77. Thus Christ is given 40 years to live, equaling David’s rule. Christ’s death is to be followed by 50 years to Harvest the Gentiles; the last 7, is the Tribulation. It 'reimburses' 3.5 years to Gentiles (first half), and 3.5 years to Jews (second half). Hence the last half is called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.
  1. For all Time revolves around Israel, since all Time revolves around Christ, Deuteronomy 32:8 and Hebrews 1:2 (Greek, it’s mistranslated). So Bible meters are designed to demonstrate this orbiting around The Singularity.

Hebrews 1:2 ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ, ὃν ἔθηκεν κληρονόμον πάντων, δι᾽ οὗ καὶ ἐποίησεν τοὺς αἰῶνας·

Bible meter references and reinforces the above Time structure, so Jews can always know their mo’eds (appointments) with Destiny. Because, they were required to memorize Bible orally (Deuteronomy 6-30), so the syllable counts were often organized as time poems, to remind them of the Meaning of Time, interacting with the text. Further, all date verses in Bible (i.e., the Genesis 5 begats) are hubbed to these timeline rules. They are mapped in GeneYrs.xls.

There are many time poems in the Bible, but I’ve only had time 😏 to demonstrate a few major ones. Not included (because not yet parsed), are Genesis 49, sections of Job, other passages in Moses like Deuteronomy 32, probably 1 Kings 8-9 sections on the contract regarding the Temple, Messianic Psalms like Psalm 22, Psalm 89, probably Psalm 110, and large sections of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and probably the minor prophets. You will be able to ‘smoke out’ a time poem by testing a passage using the characteristics below. Key: If the text seems timeless and repetitive, has a rhythm, has tinges of sarcasm and/or is syrupy in translation, it is likely a time poem. This is especially true, for prophetic passages.

Bible text references these rules axiomatically; so unless you know the rules first, the text might go unrecognized. The begats, all dates regarding the patriarchs, Temple, kings, Daniel 9:24-27, Acts 13 (Paul’s recounting of Egyptian slavery until David), Christ’s use of the 70 × 7 rule for forgiveness, Matthew 1 and Luke 3’s use of 42 and 77 respectively, Galatians 4:4 and even Lamech’s boast about being avenged in Genesis 4, are examples of these rules in explicit text.


Characteristics

Note: characteristics which you should test early on to save analysis time, are highlighted in teal.

  1. Definition of ‘syllable’: 1 consonantal sound (with 1-3 consecutive consonants) + 1 vowel sound (with 1-3 consecutive vowels). Accentuation is not relevant; neither is speed of pronunciation (i.e., elongating or truncating a syllable for dramatic effect), excepting elision (defined below). Diphthongs with vowel endings generally count as one vowel sound, just as multiple consecutive consonants count as one sound. For Hebrew, it may matter whether the shewa is silent or voiced. You will know, as you parse for meter.
  1. Elision: in Hebrew, the waw is often elided. So too, when a word ends with a vowel sound but the next word begins with a vowel sound, or consonant like aleph, ayin, waw. However, never assume elision. First parse the text as if no elision. When you see a pattern, then you will know where elision is employed. It is generally quite sparse.

In Greek, the usual practice of elision or crasis for that period's speech pattern, pertains; but again, first parse the text assuming no elision, and let the emerging pattern, ‘show’ you where to elide. Elision increases where Attic style is engaged, despite koine words; for in Attic and Greek of Mary's day, elision and crasis were deemed elegant. Expect more elision where Attic styles are employed, i.e., verbs are converted to participles or verbal nouns or dropped, case endings are used in lieu of prepositions, heroic accusative is used, etc. [I did not yet test LXX for Hebrew meter patterns, but the New Testament exhibits them. This meter is in addition to whatever Greek meter styles might be used. New Testament authors employ Greek meters also, often layering them with the Hebrew metric style, i.e., in Hebrews 11:1, Philippians 3:14.]

  1. Meter pattern is Sevened. Doctrine of Prophecy Fulfilled, ‘promise time’. So a time poem will utilize ‘paragraphs’ in factors of seven. Parse syllables both cumulatively, and syntactically per clause (see #5, below). Ignore modern verse endings. A good example is Psalm 90, where the modern verse endings happen to follow the Hebrew (see below).

Psalm 90's palindromes

Isaiah 53's palindromes

  1. One syllable equals one solar year. Bible never uses lunar or soli-lunar years; it only measures years based on anniversaries, i.e., birthdays. Only solar accounting can ‘match’ an anniversary. Moreover, Years-from-Adam is the ‘absolute’ backdrop calendar, measured from the ‘birthday’ of Adam’s Fall (joke using min preposition in Genesis 3:22). So 130 solar years after Adam’s fall, Seth = Appointed to Carry the Name, was born. It is not years from Creation; Bible never defines when the Earth ‘began’. Thus you must first construct the Genesis 5 calendar, to get a correct Anno Mundi (versus the incorrect am calendar scholars use); at which point, the 490-year Time Grant system God invented at Adam’s fall, becomes obvious (i.e., Enoch born 490 years after Seth, Isaac 490 years after Shem, Abraham received his covenant 490 years after Noah got his, etc).

To avoid confusion with the Anno Mundi convention, maybe we should call the Bible’s grand history calendar ‘FAF’, meaning ‘From Adam’s Fall’. Solar years elapsed, since the date of his fall.

Bible meter accounting is precise. When you expect the value to be higher or lower, ask what month is referenced. Bible will add 1 if accounting from the start of a year, and subtract 1 if accounting from the end of the year. But it also measures actual time between both events. So in years where two events overlap which are accounted on separate tracks, to ‘balance’ the timeline, you might have +2 or –2. As you work with the meter, you’ll know what and why you must add or subtract, to balance. Entries you must adjust are often stressed, and the adjustment serves as a mnemonic for that event.

  1. Meter divides naturally and syntactically. Never break syllables in the middle of a word; never break between prefix and noun or verb (i.e., don’t break syllables between HaShem, b’dato, or w’asher) or the middle of a phrase. So the sevening occurs at the end of a phrase, as a complete syntactical unit. Again, meter is designed for oral memorization, and to adjunctively interact with the text, to teach the student about God's Rules for Time. So it never breaks artificially, and is not like the modern Sephardic practice of Bible recitation. (Bible Hebrew recitation downloads from the internet, are awful. The reciter breaks the text in the middle of a word, and his pronunciation is more like Arabic, very harsh and stilted.)
  1. The first divisible by 7 paragraph in a time poem is a dateline. The first time cumulative syllables are divisible by 7, tells you when the author writes. The when is measurable backward to a significant prior date in Bible history which doctrinally ties to the subject of the time poem. For example, Psalm 90 first sevens, at syllable 63. That represents 63 sevens backwards from when Moses writes, 441 years (beginning of that year). He measures from when Israel went into slavery under Amenhotep II, just after Joseph retired (see Case Study in Flawed Dating of Exodus or GeneYrs.xls for details). It is also – if you did your Genesis 5 through 11 begetting math – the start of the 1051st year after the Flood. Future Bible writers (here Isaiah, Daniel, Paul) will play on this dateline.

Dateline meters also stand alone, usually at the start of Bible books, i.e., Isaiah 1:1 and Revelation 1:1-3, are metered datelines. John uses the dual dateline (#7 below), but Isaiah used only one. Isaiah commences his ministry in the 42nd year of Uzziah; John writes 58 years after Christ dies, which is also 84 years after Israel became a province of Rome. So you must know the underlying history, to ‘read’ the metered datelines. This was no problem for those getting the messages fresh, at the time. For us moderns, it will require more analysis, since our BC/AD system is a mess.

  1. The second divisible by 7 paragraph in a time poem might also be a Dateline. Sometimes it needn’t be divisible by 7. Although Psalm 90's second such paragraph totals 84 syllables, it isn't a second dateline. It is instead, a decree to explain why the last paragraph (in Psalm 90:16-17) is 14 syllables short. Isaiah then plays on this balancing short by splitting the 84 syllables into two sets of 42, to bookend Isaiah 53 (which actually begins at Isaiah 52:13, in Hebrew). So Isaiah uses 42 (his first sevened paragraph) to point the reader back to Isaiah 1:1 (his call to ministry, 42nd year under Uzziah), as his own dateline in Isaiah 53 (he writes the latter, in 42nd year of his ministry).

Matthew 1 and Luke 3, play off the Isaiah bookends. Matthew 1 uses the 42 and hence three 14’s, to craft his honor roster of progenitors; Luke 3 uses the first 77 syllables in Isaiah 53 (representing David’s age at death), to make his roster of 'Christ as 77th Son'. It’s wry humor: Isaiah 52:13-14 covered Messiah and the Jews, but verse 15 is about the Gentiles (totalling 77 syllables at verse end). It’s tempting to speculate that Isaiah was 77 years old when he wrote Isaiah 53, but I don’t know any way to prove that idea. Isaiah 53’s metrical theme is First David’s Birth to Last David’s Death.

By contrast, both Daniel 9 and the Magnificat, employ dual datelines: Daniel’s first dateline is a 49 (years elapsed since Temple Down), in Daniel 9:4; his second dateline is not sevened (cleverly saying Time is out of sync), in Daniel 9:5, 73 syllables total (representing 73 sevens from Psalm 90’s endpoint). Mary’s Magnificat similarly employs a first dateline at 35 syllables, and a second dateline at 42 syllables, to craft a back-and-forth timeline: all time centers on messiah.

  1. So the Dateline(s) will set the theme of the Time poem, starting with its doctrinally related time characteristic. Thus Dateline, is the second-most important trait to vet. The Dateline governs how to interpret the text both doctrinally and prophetically. Often you can’t ‘see’ the dateline meaning until you have parsed the entire time poem and it has passed almost all other tests. So there is much trial-and-error. Yet when you get the right meter, the dateline will jump out at you; suddenly both meter and text will form a cohesive, doctrinal whole. Examples:
  1. The time poem’s cumulative syllables end, at a value divisible by 7. This value sets the scope of the time poem’s interpretation, and is the most important characteristic to vet. If the passage in question is not divisible by seven at its ending, then it is either not a time poem, or you made a mistake in parsing. So to save time, first count the total syllables, because: a) it is poetic in meaning or vocabulary, b) the text seems gnomic, timeless (always applicable), and c) the text seems prophetic in some key way. Meter-count mistakes within paragraphs might still occur, but if the total ends as a factor of seven, it should become obvious, quickly. Use 1 John 1:9 while parsing, or you’ll make mistakes and waste time.

Psalm 90 ends at 350 syllables; Isaiah 53, 462 syllables; Daniel 9:4-19, 742 syllables; Daniel 9:24-27, 231 syllables; Magnificat, 217 syllables; Ephesians 1:3-14, 434 syllables. It was easy to find these sevened totals, but a nightmare to parse the submeters. So this #9 step helps you prioritize what to vet.

  1. Moreover, the ending cumulative syllable count may operate on two time tracks, one of which is a straight annual chronology forward from the Dateline. This style's complexity helps you audit the time poem’s ending syllable count. If there are two time tracks, both will tie doctrinally to the Dateline Theme; both will balance to what we now know, as past history per the Bible’s own dates (and often outside Bible, too). See page 4 of Daniel 9:4-19, Hebrew with Meter Parsing and Notes, for a detailed example of how Daniel metrically created two time tracks. Simplest two-track version, is Psalm 90.
  1. The author will create years in ellipsis which are not explicitly part of the syllable count, but are part of the timeline set by the Dateline Theme; these ellipses always make sense. Ellipsis might be accomplished by further sevening, or by ‘tagging’ another time poem’s syllable count or ellipses. Purpose of bifurcated time tracks, is to Balance juridical issues which link the two tracks together, as covered by the text.

Examples:

In ellipsis, are 73 years after Daniel’s endpoint on his Time Track 2 (bringing the timeline forward to the first Chanukah where her discourse begins), and another ellipsis of 40 years atop the 217, to ‘reimburse’ for Time Messiah was then scheduled to live; timeline ends at the start of then-scheduled Millennium. Her larger time track is accessed by clever math sevenings via the 35 and 42 datelines; see pages 11ff of Luke 1:46-55, 'Magnificat' Meter of Time.

  1. Equidistance clarifies the Dateline. It ‘brackets’ the time poem. It will express as the same number of years before and after the year/date of the time poem’s terminus, via some doctrinally significant formula. Often there are multiple equidistances both fore and aft, the former serving as a macro-spiritual GPS, God's Prophetic Schedule reminder. For example, Psalm 90’s written 1050 years after the Flood; when its annual chronology of 350 years = syllables ends, there were 1050 years left until Messiah’s deadline for Birth. (Deadline is cut 3.5 years, owing to late Temple construction, 1 Kings 6:1.)

Equidistance examples for Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1 were charted side-by-side, see page 3 of God's Play of History: Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1:3-14. Magnificat equidistance is even more sophisticated, as shown in Luke 1:46-55, 'Magnificat' Meter of Time and following.

  1. Total syllables with equidistance, must also divide by 7. This helps audit the dateline, as there will be more than one doctrinally-meaningful date in Israel’s pregnant history, which seems to ‘fit’. Examples:
  1. The sum of ellipses (i.e., equidistance) and time poem syllables, include Gentile time. For promises relate to Gentiles, too; Messiah is the Savior of all. You’ve seen that, in #11-13. Isaiah 53 doesn’t seem to encompass Gentile time, until you recognize his equidistant years-to-Temple-Fall when he writes Isaiah 53:1 (712 BC), 126 years; Temple falls 126 years short of its own allotment (950 BC dedication in 1 Kings 9 – 490 years, to 460 BC, six years within the historical voting window). So equidistance formulae counting Gentile time, can be creatively expressed. (Temple Down means Israel not a nation, so treated as Gentile Time for purposes of reimbursement due, the 70 years from 516-446 BC, ‘repaying’ the 70 years from 586-516 BC. Total? 140 years, 14 greater than allotted! God’s Reimbursing Time in Daniel 9:26, is based on the 126 plus the 364 years the Temple stood.)
  1. Each divisible by 7 paragraph within a time poem, must be doctrinally significant to the text. The meter itself has a doctrinal value: it is a title. We all know ‘seven’ = ‘promise’, 40 = Testing, 120 = judging AKA four generation curse, 1000 = Millennium proper (without the appended 50-year voting period for unbelievers). So audit meter by how its metaphorical value, ties to the text. Meter always interacts with the text to elucidate, make text memorable; analogous to a free verse poem on world history, parsed at noteworthy years in world history. Text associated with those syllables = years, would be easier to grasp and recall.

Examples: 35 is ½ of 70; the latter = sabbatical years in 490. So 35 means ½ of a vote: God’s. Paul plays on this in Galatians 3:20, presaging his witty Galatians 4:4 use of Χρόνος. 56 = days between Passover start and Pentecost. (Judaic calendar does not follow Bible. Modern Judaic Counting of the Omer is incorrect; Bible's count begins piggybacked on the last day of Passover week.) Also, 56 = days between Pentecost and Tish b’Av. Bible months are each 30 days, excepting Adar, see the priestly courses in 1 Chronicles 24. (David keyed to a 24-hour day, so all priests equally serve at Temple, 365.25 hours annually) More numerical metaphor examples are catalogued on page 68 of Ephesians 1:3-14 (with Meter-Matching Translation).

  1. Text and meter interaction are antiphonal. Bible antiphonal couplets are well recognized, but scholars don't know meter is antiphonal. A sevened paragraph belongs to an ‘actor’; text = actor’s ‘lines’; the ‘play’ occurs during the depicted segment in the timeline. Example: Psalm 90:5-8 epitomizes humans during Adam’s time. The text is their testimony. It is ‘answered’ by the next metered segment from Noah’s time, Psalm 90:9-11; its ‘actor’ repeats similar sentiments, so you know why the Flood was needed. Psalm 90:12-15 are autobiographical. In Psalm 90:1-4, Moses spoke for God; in Psalm 90:12-15 he recounts what he asked of God while in the wilderness, before God appointed him to speak to Pharaoh.

Similarly, Isaiah 53 is a series of actors. In Isaiah 52:13-14, Isaiah recites God's decree; then plays actor witnessing fulfillment of prophecy to the Gentiles, Isaiah 53:15; Isaiah 53:1 is autobiographical, but Isaiah 53:2 he narrates what happens to Christ in childhood, then how negative Jews despise Him in adulthood, quoting them: No Incarnation, Him! Etc.

Daniel 9 portrays a lawyer representing his client to The Judge, a closing statement, today known as summary of the case; so every syllable he utters is tagged to a particular year, beginning at Daniel 9:6 with David at Hebron.

Mary blocks text antiphonally, first playing Hanna (same keywords), then weaving other testimonies in Old Testament, notably Psalms and God's words in Haggai 2, Zechariah 4. She thus reconciles Doctrine of His Birth to Time, so ends with a parade of Abraham and the patriarchs. Zecharias mimics both her keywords (i.e., Hanna's prayer in other sections) and meter, through syllable 217. He uses antiphony by linking related verses (which Luke quotes, as they deftly wrap to Matthew 1 and Matthew 2).

Paul of course, makes each metered clause represent an 'actor' giving a 'testimony', first of past and then future Church periods, like Daniel did for Israel; but Paul wraps his meter to Mary's, stressing generational metaphors like: 7, 14, 21, 28, 42. And of course, 56 + 35 = 91.

  1. Meter and text, therefore, serve to ‘comment’ on the period referenced by the meter. This is usually satirical, whether historical (as in Daniel, from 9:6-9:13), or prophetical (Daniel 9:15-19, Isaiah 53:2 onward, Ephesians 1:4b onward). The text alone has its own significance; the same text serves as a past or future commentary on history. Which history, is determined by the meter 'attached'. For details per passage, refer to the URLs in the bottom menu (or Poetic Meter Index above). Syllable-by-syllable details are provided for Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1. The other passages are explained in their respective video playlists (for Psalm 90: in each Isaiah 53 Meter Hypothesis and Yapping Most High for Isaiah, then Magnificat).

Subtle textual nuances distinguish the time, i.e., ‘flood’ in Psalm 90:5, ‘seth’ sound play in Psalm 90:8. So now read Psalm 90:5-8, as if spoken by a ‘chorus’ from Adam’s day, first voting period, 490-560 years post-Fall.

Isaiah 53:2's ya'al, is Manasseh's childhood; he grew up well, at first. Then came to despise God, as the text relates. See: on the surface, the text is about Christ; but it also depicts attitudes of Israel's kings, syllable-by-year. When he gets to Isaiah 53:4a, it's Josiah's attitude; end of Isaiah 53:4, Temple goes down; so text reads God, Violated! Christ on Cross pays for us, end of Isaiah 53:6; that's also when Cyrus dies, 530 BC; Israel was secularly healed due to him, just as promised, back in Isaiah 45. 14 syllables = years later, mid-Isaiah 53:7: despite oppression, Israel no longer complained but rebuilt the Temple, Haggai and Zechariah doing the talking.

Daniel 9:11-12's meter is also timed to Manasseh, since he was juridical impetus for Temple Down (1 Kings 21:10ff). So Daniel 9:11 reads: "all Israel passed over (literally, hebrewed) Your Law", just as 2 Chronicles 33:11-17, says (Jeremiah wrote Chronicles).

Mary looks back at the first 12 years after initial Chanukah, when Maccabees sold both priesthood and Royal family to the Greeks, fulfilling Jewish anti-Christ role Daniel warned against in Daniel 11. It's not a little ironic that she, now pregnant with the Rightful Heir, would exclaim at that juncture, my soul magnifies by multiplying the Lord!

Paul peppers Ephesians 1:3-14 with sublime doxology-turned-sarcasm, when he uses meter to benchmark past and future Roman history, for Church. Like, keying 'Father' to the year Augustus dies; poor Caligula is only ἐν τοῖς ἐπου- when he dies, not quite οὐράνιος (ἐπουρανίοις) 🤣. The θεμελιωτός anaphora stops at the eta (η) each time, to Mark a dying emperor whose newly-appointed heir, undoes what the deceased intended; or, himself dies, too. Paul's wit is droll, like Euripides; for Ephesians is rhetorically based on that playwright's Ion, to show God's Superior Begetting. A syllable-by-year future accounting of Church history and Paul's wry commentary on it, begins in the 'ChronoChart' section.

  1. Since text interacts with meter, and meter spans long periods; since text has standalone meaning: the text itself on the surface, will be generic, even syrupy, ironic or satirical. Idea of circle, recurrent pattern, back to where it started, Everything returns to God, Psalm 90:3. You won’t get the satire lesson if you don’t know the meter. History repeats itself, mankind doesn’t learn past lessons, but God’s policy is the same; so as each year depicted plays ‘onstage’, it often repeats the same themes.
  1. In keeping with #18, the meter will cycle. From the dateline, the meter will either: a) function as a circle, going back in time, thence to present, and end at the beginning or end of then-scheduled Millennium; or b) the dateline will overlay a straight chronology; with the dateline itself, circling to a future point in the text.

Examples:

  1. Because (#19) the meter cycles, it must balance to the future endpoint. In Israel’s day, ‘end’ was the Millennium. The Gentiles were allotted 2100 years, the Jews were allotted 2100 years; Messiah was then to inaugurate the Millennium, the last 1050 years of history. We call it ‘Second Advent’, today. So Bible meter always accounts from that endpoint; even when its schedule changed due to the insertion of Church. For Church is itself a cycle of the 62nd week, no prophecy governing except the terminus, which is undateable (Rapture).

So Bible meter balances to the Millennium, but via the fact Abraham super-matured 53.5 years early, in year 2046 FAF, rather than year 2100. For Noah had a 490-year time grant which ran out; so Abraham had to super-mature by the end of Noah's grant. So now, a 53.5-year credit exists which must be paid. So when Abraham matured, the world had 2154 years on its clock, to Millennium. So all time poems reconcile at 4200 FAF, minus 53.5. Examples:

  1. Because (#19) the meter cycles, its submeters must be palindromic. That is, the submeters will mirror each other. This is a type of chiasmus, bookending text; so you know how paragraphs relate in combination. To see this, you must ‘map’ the text meter patterns. There must be at least one palindrome pair in the time poem. Palindromes easily attest to correct parsing, and speed meter detection.

Examples:

56 + 21+ 7 + 21 + 28 + 14 + 28 + 56 + 7 + 14 + 49 + 7 + 35 + 91 (nested 91's)
56 77 84 105 133 147 175 231 238 252 301 308 343 434

  1. Since the submeters are palindromic, so too the text. Time poem text has a timeless, recurrent quality. You could read the end as if a start, backwards to the start as if an end. So take the last line of Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, the Magnificat or Ephesians 1:3-14, and try reading the text in reverse order.
  1. Submetered sevened text is coherent, standing alone. Like, a paragraph. Even if the text is part of a larger unit, even if the sevening doesn’t end the sentence — if the metered section is read alone, it makes sense alone; as if a full sentence, paragraph, or verse. Often you find the text reads like couplets in the Psalms. Grammatically, you know that sections tie to text before and after the sevened submeter; yet if you ignore that fact, the text itself has coherence by itself. This test is important, because we versify Bible post-production. To see how a native reader might have noticed text patterns, requires ignoring our own versification (which is often competent).

A good example, is the Magnificat. Under "Zecharias' Soliloquy, Luke 1:68-79" read only the ‘blue’ highlighted sections. Then read only the ‘boxed’ sections. Then, only the ‘yellow’ sections. Notice how each section forms a coherent conceptual unit, with a related but larger meaning, than if you viewed the Magnificat at its lowest level, merely a woman praising God. Surely Mary praises God; but the meter helps us see she ties what she says, to all history.

  1. Submetered sevened text of the same meter, ‘talks back’ to other text of the same meter. The topics are the same. For example, Isaiah 52:15 and Isaiah 53:10 each are metered at 35 syllables; 35 signifies God's Vote. So, each talks about atonement. Isaiah 52:15’s yazzeh, plays on the Hebrew sound for atone and shock, how apt. His shock in paying, we cannot imagine. The contract to pay, is Isaiah 53:10. God-Father pleased to crush Him, He substitutes His Soul for Sin, and God-Son thus agrees to take on Hands in order to pay and thus succeed. So now compare Psalm 90:10 with Psalm 90:17, which are each metered at 35 syllables. Cute tie, huh: what we do with our own hands, only ends up in trouble; we die futile, like sparks fly upward. Yep, you got it; Isaiah matched his own meter to those verses in Psalm 90.
  1. Submetered text ‘tags’ other verses of the same individual meter. Every time poem metrically tags its related time poems, this way. This helps you interpret or decipher, both meter and context for a passage. Here the ‘tag’ is metrical, but often keyword tags will also be present; as we just saw in #24, with respect to ‘hands’ in Psalm 90:17, and working of trouble, shock of sudden ending, in Psalm 90:10.
  1. Submetered text ‘tags’ other related verses of the same cumulative sevened meter. Isaiah tagged Moses’ 84, and then created two 42-syllable ‘bookends’, from it. Daniel, Mary, Paul played on them. So did Matthew 1. Hence the 42’s, are decree-related, since Psalm 90:1-4, is a decree. Isaiah’s own text is ‘tagged’ at syllable 133, 203 and 252 by Daniel, to make his second time track. Mary also cleverly tagged Isaiah’s syllable 133: it’s about how we despised Him (Isaiah 53:2’s end). Mary’s syllable 133 is on how those who think too highly of themselves, are made low. She quotes and alludes, to Haggai 1-2 and Zechariah 4 when she speaks, but also ties to Isaiah, metrically.

You’d miss that, if you didn’t know Isaiah's meter. And you would know, if you had to memorize it. Paul does the same thing in Ephesians 1:6, so Paul links the glorification of Christ, to the humiliation of Him by man. Which is of course, what Isaiah 53:10-12, says. So meter tagging is never divorced from the text, but rather enhances one’s ability to rightly interpret the text. Like, a concordance or cross-reference system. This tagging feature is extensively documented in the poetic meter pages. Since each time poem has a unique meter-and-text sequence, it becomes easy to tell which among them, is 'tagged'.

  1. Submetered text ties historically to the timeline it references. #6 - #8 covered the dateline criteria, in order to establish when the time poem is written, and when it measures time either sabbatically, or annually (or both). Thus the Theme of the time poem can be established. Next, since (#4) one syllable equals one year, when the text (#5) subdivides syntactically, that ‘benchmark’ year (or period) must be historically significant. Sometimes the benchmark year is one or two more or less than you’d expect, i.e., Isaiah 53:9’s syllable 343 represents 446 BC, tagging Nehemiah’s return (text reads with the rich man). It’s not at the end of the clause; rather, the clause ends 443 BC, so with the rich man in His Deaths. Dispensational scholars deem Nehemiah’s return as 444 BC. The '49' in Daniel 9:25, begins in 446 BC.

This feature is of enormous help when deciphering elision or troubleshooting syllable counts. Since the text subdivides syntactically, the end of a clause, will tie to a significant date. So if you've been tying to dates but suddenly cannot, then you know to revisit your parsing for the clause which seems out of kilter. Since, ideally, you first learned your sevened total (#9), you have a rough idea of the histo-prophetical period the author covers; the text will help you decide what events would be tagged. The right event should pop out at you; then you know where to revise your meter.

This was exactly how I learned to revise Isaiah 53's meter. Those orange dots, represent the revisions. The Isaiah 53 Meter Hypothesis records my 'journey' in learning the meter from the text. Once I had the right meter, all the clauses obviously represented important historical benchmarks, beginning in Isaiah 53:1. (I'm still not sure what they represent in the first 77 syllables.)

  1. Submetered text ties historically to other time poems’ timelines via metrical tags, to explain prophecy. Daniel tagged Isaiah 53:2’s end; in Isaiah’s chronology, that was Manasseh’s repentance. So Daniel benchmarked it, to set up his second time track; Daniel next tags Isaiah syllable 203 at the end of Isaiah 53:4 = 586 BC; finally, Daniel comes full circle to his date of prayer, tagging Isaiah's syllable 252 in Isaiah 53:6 = 538 BC. Isaiah's text there reads, and God threw on Him. Cute, huh. So Daniel identifies what God threw on him, with what will happen to Christ. Seven years later, end of Isaiah 53:6, Cyrus will die.

Daniel tagged Isaiah's timeline to show its fulfillment, and to create his legal basis for petition. In essence, Daniel claimed the promise of Isaiah 53, to justify asking God to Rebuild the Temple. As he says at the end, it's not due to our righteousness that we ask. When Mary tags Daniel's end, she creates an equidistance from his dateline (the 73 in Daniel), treating it as an opening ellipsis (so treating Daniel as 73 + 742 + 73, but counting the ending historical date as his Time Track 2 with + 73 years later, not based on the meter itself). So this tagging can be quite creative.

  1. A time poem’s meter interlinks with its fellows, so you know how to read the time poems in what order. As with the Gospels, you can tell which is written in what order – namely, Matthew Luke Mark then John – by how the text of each Gospel ‘wraps around’ what Gospels went before. Luke wraps Matthew, Mark wraps both Luke and Matthew, and John wraps the prior three. Keywords accomplish this ‘incorporation by reference’, so you can know the published ‘rollout’ order of those books. Similarly, a time poem will dateline itself in terms of a predecessor, if there is one, and move forward from that. Thus when you have enough time poems assembled and parsed, you can tell in what order to read them. Just as with the Gospels, knowing proper order and precedence, greatly aids interpretation.

This tagging helps you learn that Psalm 90, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9 and Ephesians 1 together form a Four-Act Play of History. John then metrically tags Ephesians 1, to show the Apocalypse AKA Revelation, updates Ephesians 1:3-14. Since the latter charted successive what-if-Raptured scenarios, and how Church history would fare so poorly, Rapture wouldn't happen as expected, the Greek reader of Revelation knows – since John tags Ephesians 1 – how to read Revelation. Ephesians' theme: Rapture depends on Church maturing like Christ, Ephesians 4:12-13. So, Paul's Ephesians 1 meter tagged backwards and then wryly commented on history forward, to show why Church would not mature as expected; and what Church history would become, due to its retardation.

When testing this Four-Act fit, I kept having trouble with Paul's '91'. Why did he use it?

Mary uses an undivided 84 to close her time poem. But she debited the 14 (217 + 14 = 231, the number of syllables in God's Reply of Daniel 9:24-27). So Paul credits the seven which plays out during Church. Moreover, he plays on Noah's four quarters in the Ark (using LXX text of Genesis 7-8, not Hebrew). Daniel had done that, too. So now I know Paul plays off both Daniel and Mary; ergo, the Four-Act link above, should be called 'Five'. Or at least, Four Plus intermezzo. Will have to revise!

See: Bible Hebrew meter is self-auditing. Mistakes or omissions, stick out.

  1. And finally, a time poem’s metered text is antiphonal to other time poems, as well as within itself; and, in a threaded, coordinated way. Just like any other book of Scripture, to prove a time poem's Divine Authenticity, it must weave in previously-known Divine Writ. We just saw an example above, in #29. Pauline 91's are thematically related to Isaiah 53:9-11, and numerically based on Christ's age, so 'tag' Mary's accounting. So, Paul's meter 'talks back' to those other time poems, via the '91'. Of course, the meters and keywords are many, so a comprehensive, threaded 'answer' is woven.

The text, once metrically diagrammed, will internally manifest much as the Psalms, with swatches of text ‘talking back to’ related sections, much like one chorus might sing to another. Like, an anthem. Moreover, with the metrical tags, you know where the ‘lines’ of an actor/chorus begin and end; there is a parallel antiphonal quality ‘answering’ the prior time poems, again marked by the meter so you know which ‘chorus’ is replying to which prior ‘chorus’.


Troubleshooting Time Poem Diagnosis

It can be time-consuming (😏) to parse a time poem. In addition to the teal-highlighted timesavers, here are some tips that saved me a ton of time in auditing.

So then, I had to go through the academic task of proving it out. Like when your math teacher gave you theorems and proofs, so you knew the answer first, but not why it was the answer. So then you had to do a lot of digging. Same thing, here.

Yet instead of asking God, we try to answer things in our own power. Why? It's supposed to be supernatural, for crying out loud. Did you save yourself? No, you were supernaturally saved. So do you live spiritually in your own power? No you need God to do it to you. And He won't do it, if you're in a state of sin, Psalm 32:5, Psalm 66:18, Hebrews 5:11 through Hebrews 6:13 (sarcasm), Philippians 3:18-19, 'carnal' New Testament verses and their kindred, like 1 Corinthians 1. Christian theology is in the playpen, even after 2000 years, just as retarded today as the bilious 'Church Fathers'? Why? We don't ask God and don't use 1 John 1:9. So even a 'brainout' finds stuff scholars haven't seen but debated, for 300 years? Shameful. It's supposed to be scholars who discover big doctrines, not the brainouts — right?

Besides, you need feedback on where and what to search. Pray about it, use 1 John 1:9 or you will waste time. God hits you with insight and thought, never the silly voice stuff. This is post-Christ Adult spirituality, not the babyish Old Testament voice-and-vision stuff. But the communication, is just as real. So take advantage of it, lest you spin your wheels and waste God’s and your, time.

I remember knowing that Isaiah 53's meter was based on Psalm 90 long before I knew how to parse Psalm 90. I'd try to parse it, and come up with a big blur. Then one day while watching a YouTube video which merely quoted Psalm 90:4, I suddenly knew the meter pattern. So then I had to drop everything and make the Psalm 90 videos. The first 21 times I did it, I did it wrong. Even an atheist noticed the videos were wrong, so I had to delete 21 videos and start all over. Yeah, because I wasn't asking God before posting the now-deleted videos! Hopefully you won't be as stubborn as I was.

See the ‘anaphora’ in Ephesians 1:3-14 (with Meter-Matching Translation) to get a comprehensive idea how trebled meters work with the sevening. It’s a meter tandem that serves as a master balance sheet of your entire meter diagnosis. Every Bible writer uses trebled meters in tandem with sevening. In my writeups, trebled meters are in purple, sevened meters are in orange.

Of course, if you don’t know the Bible’s timeline, you won’t know how to balance the Datelines. So here are some time-saving tips on how to properly know the Bible’s timeline, which is surprisingly garbled in Christendom and Judaism.

Never use the Judaic calendar: its months are wrong, and its years cut out 346 years of real time; moreover, it claims to be dated from creation, which is flat untrue. Look up Seder Olam Rabbah on the internet, for details on why the calendar cut out those years.

See, when we care more about 'tradition' AKA being nice to people, than we care about getting Bible right, millennia pass with generation after generation, perpetuating needless error. Then Bible is blamed for our mistakes! Countless numbers have lost faith in Bible, since they can't find the 400 year span of slavery to Exodus, because they think it occurred under Ramesses II. Inept scholarship! And no one fixes it? Instead, that lie is taught to kids in school (my high school textbook says the same lie, not to mention the world-famous repetition of it, in The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston). This is a travesty which only pride preserves. At the expense of seeing Bible brilliance?! Criminal!

As you can see, much angst over Bible dates is due to scholar errors. These errors persist century after century, because people think it 'unchristian' to fess up to the errors of respectable people. Yeah, and it's okay to thus trash the Bible? For the Bible ends up the casualty of our covering up past and ongoing ineptitude. Every day some seminary perpetuates the lie of lunar years, of Eusebius' errors, lie of some 'star' over Bethlehem, etc. Ad nauseam. Millions upon millions of dollars have been wasted! What do you think God will say to those perpetuating the errors... on Judgment Day? If you died, wouldn't you want someone to fix your errors made down here?

It's not about making mistakes, that's normal. It's about not admitting the mistakes, but blaming the Bible as 'inscrutable', etc., instead. But that's what we've done, for 2000 years. There's a time and place, for being soft and nice. This ain't it.