[short_sells_poo]

I think parent just means that "backwards" is a relative term. Your backwards is someone else's "forward". For someone who is used to reading Hebrew, they would be used to reading right to left and this would seem completely natural, no?

Basically, the numbers 1234 and 4321 are identical assuming one is written left to right and the other is right to left. Then it's just a convention which way you are used to reading.

I know nothing of Old (or New) Hebrew unfortunately so I may be completely off base.

[gowld]

No, because Hebrew words are read right-to-left in Hebrew letters, but numbers are read left-to-right in Arabaic numerals. The direction of reading switches mid-sentence, but typewriters only type in one direction.

[cubefox]

Arguably Arabic numbers must always be read right-to-left, even in English, because the least significant digits can be read in order, while the value of the most significant digit depends on the number of less significant digits to the right. So in Hebrew the general reading direction actually fits Arabic numbers better.

[dotancohen]

And the Arabs actually say the numbers from right to left. It's "one and fifty", not "fifty one".

[cubefox]

It's also written right to left. And in general, natural language is "little-endian": Less significant information tends to be mentioned first.[1]

1: https://www.thoughtco.com/given-before-new-principle-linguis...