The Star of David

Here is a Jewish Online Bible. Please let me know if you would like a print version and I can send you an Amazon link to purchase one. http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/63255/jewish/The-Bible-with-Rashi.htm As for your question regarding the Jewish Star. Originally, the Hebrew name Magen David ― literally "Shield of David" ― poetically referred to God. It acknowledges that our military hero, King David, did not win by his own might, but by the support of the Almighty. This is also alluded to in the third blessing after the Haftorah reading on Shabbat: "Blessed are you God, Shield of David." Through the Jewish people's long and often difficult history, we have come to the realization that our only hope is to place our trust in God. The six points of the Star of David symbolize God's rule over the universe in all six directions: north, south, east, west, up and down. Some note that the Star of David is a complicated interlocking figure which has not six (hexogram) but rather 12 (dodecogram) sides. One can consider it as composed of two overlapping triangles or as composed of six smaller triangles emerging from a central hexogram. Like the Jewish people, the star has 12 sides, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. A more practical theory is that during the Bar Kochba rebellion (first century), a new technology was developed for shields using the inherent stability of the triangle. Behind the shield were two interlocking triangles, forming a hexagonal pattern of support points. (Buckminster Fuller showed how strong triangle-based designs are with his geodesics. You are correct that the Magen David or Shield of David was not originally a Jewish symbol. It is found in ancient art, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and it does not seem to have had a particularly Jewish meaning. Only in the last two hundred years, approximately, did it begin to be used as a Jewish symbol. Synagogues featured the symbol on the ark, on the velvet covering on the Torah, and on the Torah reading platform. It was used for Jewish coffins and gravestones. When the founders of the State of Israel were searching for a Jewish symbol, they picked both the Magen David and the menorah: one for the flag, and one for the national seal. The menorah is particularly meaningful to the Jewish people as we can see in Zachariah (4:6). Zachariah was shown a prophetic vision of a menorah. He asked an angel what the vision meant, and the angel replied, "This is the word of G-d to Zerubavel, saying: Not by might, and not by power, but by My spirit, said G-d of Hosts." Thus the menorah is a reminder that the Jews' redemption from exile will come in a miraculous way.