This is a good article responding to a widely shared social media post about how each Hebrew letter has a particular “meaning.” How can we evaluate claims for “deeper” or “secret” meanings like this?

If my wife wrote me a Post-it Note and stuck it on the fridge, with some text saying, “Please take out the trash,” and if I spent fifteen minutes figuring out the secret meaning supposedly invested in every letter instead of taking out the trash, my wife would be mad.

I think God is not pleased by the herculean efforts some people go to look so hard for hidden meanings—whether linguistic or allegorical or what have you—that they miss the simple point of what he said. Bible interpretation is hard enough without layering on top of it all kinds of linguistic silliness. …

God’s word in translation is not hiding essential information, or he would have called us all to learn Hebrew and Greek. If there are layers of meaning in the Hebrew that aren’t available in English, the way to find them is to check multiple English translations. …

My advice: keep reading and reflecting on the English, and if the Hebrew really has something to say that you can’t see in English, it’ll probably be in the notes in a good study Bible.