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( àִèְáִּç ) is not a real word, but a factitious cabalistic term denoting by its very letters the mode of changing one word into another by a peculiar eommutation of letters. The system on which it is founded is this: as all the letters have a numerical value, they are divided into three classes, in the first of which every pair makes the number ten; in the second, a hundred; and in the third, a thousand. Thus:
ãå , âæ , áç , àè , every pair making ten.
îñ , ìò , ëô , éö , “a hundred.
úí , ùï , ø , ÷åֹ , “a thousand.
Three letters only cannot enter into any of these numerical combinations, ä , ð and êְ . The first two are nevertheless coupled together; and the last is suffered to stand without commutation. The commutation then takes place between the two letters of every pair; and the term Atbach thus expresses that à is taken for è , and á f or ç , and conversely. To illustrate its application, the obscure word îðåï , in Pro_29:21, may be turned by Atbach into ñäãä , testimony (Buxtorf, De Abbreviaturis, s.v.).