On the Number 39

1) Product of the 2nd & 6th prime numbers = 3 x 13 = 39
2) Sum of the 1st & 12th prime numbers = 2 + 37 = 39
3) Sum of 10th odd & 10th even numbers = 19 + 20 = 39
4) Sum of numbers 4 through 9 = 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 = 39
5) Sum of the 6th, 7th, & 8th odd numbers = 11 + 13 + 15 = 39
6) The 43rd & 44th digits of pi = 39
7) The 6th & 7th digits of phi = 39
8) Atomic Number of Yttrium (Y) = 39
9) Atomic Weight of Potassium (K) = 39.0983
10) The 39th day of the year = February 8
(Jewish philosopher Martin Buber (1878-1965) was born in Vienna on February 8, 1878.)
11) Number of Books in the Bible's Old Testament = 39
12) 39th hexagram of the I Ching: Chien / Obstruction
THE IMAGE
Water on the mountain:
The image of OBSTRUCTION.
Thus the superior man turns his attention to himself
And molds his character.
13) Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film The 39 Steps (starring Robert Donat & Madeleine Carroll)
was based on John Buchan's spy story The Thirty-Nine Steps.
14) St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians mentions his 39 beatings received from the Jews:
"five times forty blows less one" (II Corinthians XI.24) since according
to Jewish tradition, 40 blows were the upper limit of punishment.
15) The 39 Articles are the Church of England's constitution approved by Queen Elizabeth I (1563).
16) Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution?
I suppose the “39” who signed the original instrument
may be fairly called our fathers who framed that part
of the present Government... I take these “39” for the present,
as being “our fathers who framed the Government under which we live.”

— Abraham Lincoln, Address at Cooper Institute, New York, Feb. 27, 1860

17) “39 appears to be the first uninteresting number, which of course
makes it an especially interesting number... It is therefore the first
number to be simultaneously interesting and uninteresting.”

— David Wells, Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers (1998)

18) visionary quote from the 39th Book of Enoch:

And in those days a whirlwind carried me off from the earth,
And set me down at the end of the heavens.
And there I saw another vision, the dwelling-places of the holy,
And the resting-places of the righteous.
Here mine eyes saw their dwellings with His righteous angels,
And their resting-places with the holy.
And they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men,
And righteousness flowed before them as water,
And mercy like dew upon the earth:
Thus it is amongst them for ever and ever.

— Book of Enoch XXXIX.3-5 (circa 105 B.C.-64 B.C.)
translated by R. H. Charles, S.P.C.K., London, 1917, pp. 57-58

19) 39th word of the King James Version of the Bible's Old Testament Genesis = waters

1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2: And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
    And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

— Genesis I.1-2 (1611)

20) Dante describes the sun's path linking 4 circles with 3 crosses in Paradiso Canto I, Line 39:
Surge ai mortali per diverse foci
la lucerna del mondo; ma da quella
che quattro cerchi giugne con tre croci,
 		The lantern of the world approaches mortals
by varied paths; but on that way which links
four circles with three crosses, it emerges
Paradiso I.37-39 (Allen Mandelbaum translation, 1984)
21) POEM AT THIRTY-NINE

How I miss my father.
I wish he had not been
so tired
when I was
born...

How I miss my father!
He cooked like a person
dancing
in a yoga meditation
and craved the voluptuous
sharing
of good food...

He would have grown
to admire
the woman I've become:
cooking, writing, chopping wood,
staring into the fire.

— Alice Walker, Horses Make A Landscape Look More Beautiful (1986)

22) On May 16, 2002, University of Hawaii astronomers announced
the discovery of 11 new satellites of Jupiter, bringing its total to 39.
Jupiter now has more known satellites than any other planet.
23) Hebrew Numerology: "morning dew" = 39

For morning prayers (Shahrit) and other services in the synagogue, Jew wear a prayer-shawl (talit) adorned with fringes (tsitsit). Now, the four corner-threads of the fringe are always tied into a quite precise number of knots: 26 amongst "Eastern" (Sephardic) Jews, and 39 amongst "Western" (Ashkenazi) Jews. the number 26 corresponds to the numerical value of the Hebrew letters which make up the name of God, YHWH, and 39 is the total of the number-values of the letters in the expression "God is One", YHWH EHD. 39 is also the "value" of the Hebrew word meaning "morning dew" (tal), and rabbis have often commented that at prayer the religious Jew is able to hear the word of God "which falls from his mouth as morning dew falls on the grass".

YHWH
Yahwe, "the Lord": 5 + 6 + 5 + 10 = 26

YHWH EHD
Yahwe ehad, "the Lord is One": 4 + 8 + 1 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 10 = 39

TL
tal, "morning dew": 30 + 9 = 39

— Georges Ifrah, The Universal History of Numbers
John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2000, page 71

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P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039
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