Ask two people to open to Psalm 23 and they may not land on the same psalm. One holds a King James Version. The other holds a Douay-Rheims, the classic Catholic English Bible. In the first, Psalm 23 begins like this:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
King James Version, Psalm 23:1
In the second, the same psalm is Psalm 22, and its first verse reads:
A psalm for David. The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing.
Douay-Rheims, Psalm 22:1
Neither Bible is wrong. They follow two old numbering systems for the Psalms, and the difference matters for anyone building a Bible study product, including us. AccelaStudy® AI Bible is coming soon, and what follows is a plan for how it will handle the problem.
Two numberings
The King James Version follows the Hebrew numbering. The Douay-Rheims follows the Greek and Latin numbering. The two agree for Psalms 1 through 8, and again for Psalms 148 through 150. In between they drift apart by one.
The drift comes from four joins and splits:
- Hebrew Psalms 9 and 10 are joined into one psalm, Psalm 9, in the Greek and Latin numbering.
- Hebrew Psalms 114 and 115 are joined into one psalm, Psalm 113.
- Hebrew Psalm 116 is split in two, which become Psalms 114 and 115.
- Hebrew Psalm 147 is split in two, which become Psalms 146 and 147.
So for most psalms from Psalm 10 through Psalm 147 in the Hebrew numbering, the Greek and Latin number is one lower; around the joins and splits it can be two lower, or the same. That is why a reader who learned a psalm in one Bible can spend a minute lost in the other.
The title counts as a verse
There is a second wrinkle inside the psalm. Many psalms open with a title, such as a note that the psalm is for David. The Douay-Rheims counts that title in its verse numbers, usually as part of verse 1 (a long title can take two verses). The King James Version prints it above the psalm and starts counting at the first line of the psalm itself. In our two examples, the shepherd psalm is verse 1 in the King James Version, while in the Douay-Rheims verse 1 begins with the title and runs on into the psalm’s first line.
Why a reference has to be resolved per edition
A study tool that says “Psalm 23:1” and prints the same words for everyone has already made a choice for the reader, and for half of them it is the wrong one. A tool that lets a model write the verse from memory can make it worse, because the model may blend two editions into a line neither one prints.
The approach we are planning is simple to state. A lesson will cite a verse by a standard reference, one numbering behind the scenes. When you read, the reference is resolved for your edition: its book name, its psalm number, its verse number, and its words. Memory questions will be built from your edition’s own text, so a question about the shepherd psalm in the Douay-Rheims will say Psalm 22.
All of this is planned. AccelaStudy AI Bible is coming soon, and we are not announcing a date. If you would like to know when it opens, join the waitlist on the home page.