TheCodeBreakers
occasional scribes converted their names into numbers. The
encipherment—if such it be—may have been only for amusement or to
show off.
The Holy Scriptures themselves have not escaped a touch of
cryptography—or protocryptography, to be precise, for the element of
secrecy is lacking.
Hebrew tradition offers at least two such conversions in the Old
Testament (none are recorded for the New). In Jeremiah 25:26 and 51:41,
the form SHESHACH appears in place of Babel ("Babylon"). The second
occurrence strikingly demonstrates the lack of a secrecy motive, since
the phrase with SHESHACH is immediately followed by one using
"Babylon":
How is Sheshach taken! And the praise of the whole earth seized! How
is Babylon become an astonishment Among the nations!
Confirmation that SHESHACH is really a substitute for Babel and not a
wholly separate place comes from the Septuagint and the Targums, the
annaabi.ee 
