99 Fun Facts About Bible Numbers

According to 1 Peter, how many people in all were saved through water in Noah's ark?

8 people were saved: Noah, his wife, their three sons and the sons' wives. Peter calls them 'a few people, eight in all' and reads the long wait as God's patience.

Peter answers scoffers who doubt Christ's return: with the Lord, a day is like how many years?

1,000 years, a line borrowed from Psalm 90, where a thousand years in God's sight are like a day just gone by. Peter's point is that the delay is patience, not slowness.

After Jesus fed a crowd with five loaves and two fish, how many basketfuls of scraps were gathered?

12 basketfuls were gathered, and Jesus later quizzed the disciples on that very number when they fretted about having brought no bread.

Jesus's second feeding miracle began with seven loaves and a few small fish; about how many people ate?

About 4,000 people ate, a crowd that had stayed with Jesus three days and that he refused to send home hungry in case they collapsed on the way.

When the demons called Legion entered a herd of pigs, about how many animals stampeded and drowned?

About 2,000 pigs rushed down the steep bank and drowned, and the frightened townspeople pleaded with Jesus to leave their region.

How many foxes did Samson tie tail to tail with torches to burn the Philistines' grain?

300 foxes, tied in pairs with a torch between each pair of tails, burned the grain, vineyards and olive groves. It was Samson's revenge for his father-in-law giving his wife to another man.

How many stone jars, each holding twenty to thirty gallons, did Jesus have filled at the wedding in Cana?

6 stone jars, kept for Jewish ceremonial washing, were filled to the brim; the master of the banquet tasted the wine with no idea where it had come from.

God's last words to Jonah count more than how many people who 'cannot tell their right hand from their left'?

120,000 people, 'and also many animals', is God's reason for sparing Nineveh, and that unanswered question is the last line of the book.

When Elijah complained he alone was left, God said how many in Israel had never bowed to Baal?

7,000 in Israel had never bowed to Baal or kissed him, God told the despairing prophet. Paul quotes the line in Romans as proof that a faithful remnant survives.

Joshua's tally of kings beaten west of the Jordan ends with the king of Tirzah; how many kings in all?

31 kings in all, each entered with the tally 'one' like a ledger; yet the next chapter opens with God telling an aged Joshua that large areas were still to be taken.

How old was Caleb when he asked Joshua for the hill country of Hebron as his inheritance?

85 years old, Caleb said he was as strong as on the day Moses sent him to spy out the land at 40, and he asked for hill country still held by the Anakites in fortified cities.

Which chief tax collector vowed to give half his goods to the poor and repay his victims four times over?

Zacchaeus promised fourfold repayment, the penalty Exodus sets for a stolen sheep, and Jesus answered that salvation had come to his house that day.

Over how many provinces, stretching from India to Cush, did the king in the Book of Esther rule?

127 provinces made up the empire, so the decree that saved the Jews had to go out to every one of them in its own script and language.

About how many believers were present when Peter proposed choosing a replacement for Judas?

About 120 believers were there; they put forward two candidates, Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias, then cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias.

Leviticus names what numbered year as the jubilee, when land returns to its family and liberty is proclaimed?

50th year: it followed seven cycles of seven sabbath years, and its command to proclaim liberty throughout the land is the verse cast on the Liberty Bell.

Genesis 5 gives the first man, Adam, a lifespan of how many years?

930 years, and then he died: that refrain closes each patriarch's entry from Adam to Lamech except Enoch's, because God took him away.

Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is arranged in three blocks of how many generations each?

14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 to the exile and 14 to the Messiah, yet the middle list skips three kings that Chronicles names after Jehoram.

How long do Jesus and James both say the sky was shut in the drought of Elijah's time?

3.5 years is the figure Jesus gives and James repeats, though 1 Kings says only that the rain returned 'in the third year'.

The man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda had been an invalid for how many years?

38 years an invalid, he was told to pick up his mat and walk; because it was the Sabbath, carrying the mat brought a rebuke from the Jewish leaders.

Genesis 5 says God took Enoch away instead of letting him die; how many years had he lived?

365 years, one for every day of a year, is Enoch's total; Hebrews later lists him among the heroes of faith as one who 'did not experience death'.

The rain fell for forty days, but Genesis says the waters flooded the earth for how many days?

150 days the waters held, and only then did they recede enough for the ark to come to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

How old was Abram when he left Harran for Canaan at God's command, taking Lot with him?

75 years old when he set out, Abram would wait another quarter of a century for the promised son: Isaac was born when he was a hundred.

How many trained men born in his household did Abram muster to rescue Lot from the raiding kings?

318 trained men routed the kings in a night attack and brought Lot home; Abram then refused any spoils, so the king of Sodom could never say he had made him rich.

Numbers opens with a census of men twenty and older able to fight; about what total did it reach?

About 600,000: the exact count was 603,550, and it left out the Levites, who were set apart to carry and guard the tabernacle instead of fighting.

At Gideon's first cut, when anyone who trembled with fear could go home, how many men left?

22,000 men went home, because God said the army was too big: Israel would boast that its own strength had saved it.

Sisera's Canaanite army, routed at the River Kishon, had how many chariots fitted with iron?

900 iron chariots had let Sisera oppress Israel for twenty years, yet Barak's men routed them and the general fled on foot.

Goliath's bronze coat of scale armor weighed 5,000 shekels, which is about how many pounds?

About 125 pounds of bronze, before his helmet, greaves and spear; David, offered Saul's own armor for the fight, took it off because he was not used to it.

How many Philistine foreskins did David bring Saul as the bride price for Michal, double what was asked?

200 foreskins, twice the hundred Saul had named in the hope that David would be killed collecting them; instead Saul grew still more afraid of him.

After seven and a half years ruling from Hebron, David reigned in Jerusalem for how many years?

33 years in Jerusalem brought his whole reign to forty; he took the city from Jebusites who jeered that even the blind and the lame could keep him out.

Alongside thousands of proverbs, 1 Kings says Solomon's songs numbered how many?

1,005 songs, beside 3,000 proverbs, and his learning drew visitors sent by kings from every nation to hear him.

After finishing the temple, Solomon spent how many years building his own palace?

13 years went into the palace, nearly twice the seven he had spent on the temple.

How many men did Elisha feed with twenty barley loaves, with bread still left over afterward?

100 men ate and had some left over, though Elisha's servant had asked how so little could be set before so many.

Haman offered to pay how much silver into the royal treasury to fund the destruction of the Jews?

10,000 talents of silver was Haman's offer, and the king answered by handing him the royal signet ring to seal the decree.

After his fortunes were restored, Job owned how many camels, double the herd he had lost?

6,000 camels, twice his old 3,000; Job also had three new daughters, each named in the text, and gave them an inheritance alongside their brothers.

How tall was the gold image Nebuchadnezzar set up on the plain of Dura for everyone to worship?

60 cubits high yet only six wide, the image towered over the plain; three officials who refused to bow to it were thrown into a blazing furnace.

In Jesus's parable, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper how much, promising to cover any extra expense?

2 denarii, with a promise to repay any extra on his return; a priest and a Levite had already passed the beaten man by on the other side.

When Jesus spoke of raising the temple in three days, his hearers said it had taken how many years to build?

46 years, they objected, against his three days; John adds that the temple Jesus meant was his own body.

Lamech, ninth in Genesis 5's line from Adam, lived how many years?

777 years, and sevens cling to the name: a different Lamech in Genesis 4 boasts that he will be avenged seventy-seven times.

How many community leaders offering incense in the revolt against Moses and Aaron died by fire?

250 leaders were consumed by fire, and their bronze censers were hammered into a covering for the altar as a warning to Israel.

Each Philistine ruler offered Delilah how many pieces of silver to learn the secret of Samson's strength?

1,100 pieces from each ruler bought Samson's secret: once he had told Delilah everything, the rulers came back with the silver in their hands.

1 Kings places the start of Solomon's temple in what numbered year after the Israelites left Egypt?

480th year after the exodus in the Hebrew text, though the Greek Septuagint says 440th; the stone was dressed at the quarry, so no hammer or iron tool was heard at the site.

Joshua son of Nun, buried at Timnath Serah after leading the conquest of Canaan, died at what age?

110 years old, the same age Genesis gives Joseph; his farewell speech left the line 'as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord'.

After a vision promised 'no one is going to attack and harm you', how long did Paul stay in Corinth?

18 months, a year and a half of teaching; when opponents then hauled him before the proconsul Gallio, Gallio refused to judge the case and drove them off.

Converts at Ephesus publicly burned their sorcery scrolls, which were valued at how many silver coins?

50,000 silver coins, drachmas in some translations, went up in smoke, and Luke adds that the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

In 2 Corinthians, how often does Paul say he took 'the forty lashes minus one' from the Jews?

5 times, he says, beside three beatings with rods, a stoning and three shipwrecks; each flogging stopped at thirty-nine because the law capped it at forty.

The angel measuring the New Jerusalem 'using human measurement' found its wall to measure how much?

144 cubits, twelve times twelve, suits a city built on twelves: twelve gates, twelve foundations and 12,000 stadia to a side.

Presented to Pharaoh, Jacob gave his age as how many 'few and difficult' years?

130 years, which Jacob called few and difficult beside his fathers' lives; he lived 17 more in Egypt and died at 147.

Before his seven-day banquet in Susa, how long did the king in Esther display 'the vast wealth of his kingdom'?

180 days of display came first, then a week-long banquet with wine in gold goblets, each one different; Queen Vashti's refusal to appear at it cost her the crown.

Israel's first high priest Aaron died on Mount Hor at what age?

123 years old, Aaron climbed the mountain with Moses and Eleazar; Moses took off his priestly garments and put them on Eleazar, and Israel mourned thirty days.

Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah, reached what age, the longest lifespan recorded in Genesis?

969 years, by the arithmetic of Genesis 5, has Methuselah dying in the very year of the flood. His name is still shorthand for extreme old age.

For how many pieces of silver did Judas Iscariot agree to hand Jesus over to the chief priests?

30 pieces of silver was the sum the law in Exodus set for a slave gored by a bull. Judas later brought the money back, and the priests used it to buy a potter's field.

Which number of days links the rain of Noah's flood, Moses's stay on Sinai and Jesus's desert fast?

40 also counts the years Israel spent in the wilderness, on a route Deuteronomy calls an eleven-day journey. Elijah's walk to Horeb lasted 40 days as well.

Revelation tells anyone with understanding to calculate the number of the beast, which is what?

666 may be a name in code: 'Nero Caesar' written in Hebrew letters adds up to it. Some early manuscripts read 616 instead, which fits the Latin spelling of the same emperor.

How many plagues does the Book of Exodus send on Egypt, ending with the death of the firstborn?

10 plagues is the traditional tally, though Exodus itself never states a total. Psalms 78 and 105 retell the story with only seven or eight.

On the final day of the siege of Jericho, how many times did Joshua's army march around the city?

7 circuits on the seventh day followed six days of marching round just once, making 13 laps in all. Seven priests blowing ram's-horn trumpets marched ahead of the ark.

In Jesus's parable of the lost sheep, how many does the shepherd leave behind to seek the stray?

99 stay behind while the shepherd hunts for one, and Jesus says heaven rejoices more over a single sinner who repents. In Luke, the parables of a lost coin and a prodigal son follow at once.

Protestant Bibles, which omit the deuterocanonical books of Catholic editions, hold how many books?

66 books is the Protestant count, while Catholic Bibles include several more. The original King James Version printed the extra books in a separate section called the Apocrypha.

What is the number of the psalm, credited to David, that opens by calling the Lord a shepherd?

23 is often called the Shepherd's Psalm, and it goes on to green pastures and still waters. Greek and Latin Bibles count the psalms differently and number it 22.

Which verse of John's Gospel, on God so loving the world, is called the Gospel in a nutshell?

3:16 is so well known that evangelists write just the reference on signs to send people to the verse. Martin Luther called it the gospel in miniature.

In Revelation 7, how many servants of God from the tribes of Israel are sealed on their foreheads?

144,000 is a round sum: 12,000 from each of twelve tribes. The list is an unusual one, leaving out Dan and counting both Joseph and his son Manasseh.

When Jesus reached Bethany, how long had his friend Lazarus already been lying in the tomb?

4 days in the tomb made Martha warn of the stench when Jesus asked for the stone to be moved. He had stayed where he was for two days after hearing Lazarus was ill.

Jesus healed ten men of leprosy on the road to Jerusalem; how many never came back to thank him?

9 walked on, and Jesus asked aloud where they were. The one man who turned back to give thanks was a Samaritan.

In the young Joseph's second dream, the sun, the moon and how many stars bowed down to him?

11 stars stood for his brothers, and even his father Jacob rebuked him for the dream. Years later the brothers did bow to him, when they came to Egypt to buy grain.

About how many people were baptized and joined the believers after Peter's sermon at Pentecost?

3,000 were added that day, the same number Exodus says died after the golden calf at Sinai. Peter had to begin his sermon by denying that the apostles were drunk.

The New Testament, which runs from Matthew's Gospel to Revelation, is made up of how many books?

27 books make up the collection: four Gospels, Acts, the letters and Revelation. Athanasius of Alexandria listed exactly this set in his Easter letter of 367.

First Kings says King Solomon's foreign marriages turned his heart away; how many wives did he have?

700 wives of royal birth, plus 300 concubines, led Solomon to build shrines to foreign gods. God answered by vowing to tear most of the kingdom from his son.

When God promised Abraham a son by Sarah, Abraham laughed and gave his wife's age as what?

90 was Sarah's age, and Abraham put his own at 100. Sarah laughed in her turn when she overheard the promise repeated outside the tent.

Noah, whose ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, was how old when the flood began?

600 was Noah's age, and Genesis dates the start of the flood to the day: the seventeenth of the second month. He lived another 350 years afterwards.

John's Gospel ends with Peter hauling ashore an unbroken net holding exactly how many large fish?

153 is oddly exact, and Augustine found a pattern in it: the sum of every whole number from 1 to 17. John adds that the net did not tear.

The prophet Jeremiah foretold that Judah would serve the king of Babylon for how many years?

70 years was the term Jeremiah set, with a promise of return once it was over. Daniel was studying that prophecy when he prayed for Jerusalem's desolation to end.

On Mount Carmel, Elijah alone faced how many prophets of Baal in a contest to call down fire?

450 prophets of Baal shouted and cut themselves until evening without an answer. Elijah then had his own altar drenched with four jars of water three times over before the fire fell.

Joseph's brothers sold him to traders bound for Egypt for how many pieces of silver?

20 pieces of silver was the price, after Judah talked his brothers out of killing the boy. They dipped his coat in goat's blood so their father would think him dead.

Genesis introduces Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, tending flocks with his brothers at what age?

17 was Joseph's age when his dreams and his special coat set his brothers against him. He was thirty when Pharaoh put him in charge of Egypt, thirteen years later.

How old was Moses when he and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh to demand Israel's release?

80 was Moses's age, and Aaron was three years older. Deuteronomy has Moses die at 120, so the plagues, the exodus and the wilderness years filled the last third of his life.

Exodus says the Israelites left Egypt after living there exactly how many years, to the very day?

430 years is the figure in Exodus, and Paul repeats it in Galatians. God's earlier warning to Abraham in Genesis had rounded the stay to four hundred.

After youths near Bethel jeered at Elisha's bald head, two bears mauled how many of them?

42 youths were mauled by two she-bears after Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord. He had only just watched his master Elijah go up to heaven in a whirlwind.

An angel struck down how many of King Sennacherib's Assyrian troops in one night, saving Jerusalem?

185,000 lay dead by morning, and Sennacherib went home to Nineveh. He was later cut down with a sword while worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch.

When the dying King Hezekiah wept and prayed, God sent Isaiah to promise him how many more years?

15 years were added to Hezekiah's life, and Isaiah treated him with a cake of figs. As a sign, the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz went backwards ten steps.

In Revelation 4, how many elders robed in white sit on thrones around the throne of God?

24 elders wear crowns of gold, which they throw down before the throne in worship. Beside them stand four living creatures covered in eyes, each with six wings.

Paul tells the Corinthians the risen Jesus appeared at one time to more than how many believers?

500 saw him at once, Paul says, and most were still alive when he wrote. He ranks himself last among the witnesses, calling himself the least of the apostles.

Under Nehemiah, the returned exiles rebuilt the broken wall of Jerusalem in how many days?

52 days was all it took, with every builder working sword at his side in case of attack. Nehemiah had been cupbearer to the Persian king before he asked leave to go.

Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, runs to how many verses?

176 verses fall into 22 stanzas of eight, one stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the original, every verse of a stanza begins with that stanza's letter.

Genesis says the patriarch Abraham, father of Isaac and Ishmael, died at what good old age?

175 years was Abraham's span, and his two sons came together to bury him. He was laid beside Sarah in the cave he had bought from Ephron the Hittite.

Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah as a tomb for Sarah for how many shekels of silver?

400 shekels of silver were weighed out before witnesses at the city gate. Ephron the Hittite had first offered the field as a gift, but Abraham insisted on paying the full price.

After King David ordered a census of his fighting men, a plague killed how many Israelites?

70,000 died before the destroying angel halted at the threshing floor of Araunah. David bought the site and built an altar there, and Solomon later raised the temple on it.

What is the number of the shortest psalm, a two-verse call for all nations to praise the Lord?

117 is the shortest chapter in the whole Bible as well as the shortest psalm. In the King James Version it is also the middle chapter, with as many chapters before it as after.

After his ordeal ended, how many more years did Job live, long enough to see four generations?

140 years followed Job's restoration, in which he was given twice as much as he had before. His three new daughters were named and granted an inheritance alongside their brothers.

How many people were aboard the grain ship carrying Paul to Rome when it was wrecked off Malta?

276 people were on board, and every one reached shore, as Paul had promised them. The crew had thrown the cargo of wheat into the sea after two weeks of storm.

Solomon's bronze Sea, ten cubits across and thirty around, implies a rough value of which constant?

Pi comes out as exactly 3 from those measurements, close enough for a basin of cast bronze. Rabbi Nehemiah argued in the second century that the thickness of the rim explains the gap.

When the Lamb opens the seventh seal in Revelation, heaven falls silent for about how long?

Half an hour of silence follows the breaking of the last seal, a hush after six seals of war, famine and earthquake. Seven angels are then handed seven trumpets.

Manasseh came to the throne at twelve and reigned how many years, the longest of any king of Judah?

55 years on the throne went to a king the Bible paints as one of Judah's worst, who rebuilt the shrines his father Hezekiah had torn down. Chronicles adds a late repentance in Babylon.

As a sign of Israel's guilt, God told the prophet Ezekiel to lie on his left side for how many days?

390 days on his left side stood for Israel's years of guilt, a day for each year, with forty more on his right for Judah. He was bound with cords so that he could not turn over.

How old was the priest Eli when news that the ark was captured made him fall from his seat and die?

98 was Eli's age, and he was blind and heavy, so the backward fall from his seat by the gate broke his neck. He had led Israel for forty years and raised the boy Samuel.

Israel's first attack on Ai failed because of Achan's theft, with about how many men killed?

36 deaths were enough to make the people's hearts melt, and Joshua tore his clothes in grief. Achan had hidden a Babylonian robe, silver and gold from Jericho under his tent.

Having no tribal territory of their own, the Levites were allotted how many cities across Israel?

48 cities went to the Levites, six of them cities of refuge where someone who had killed by accident could flee. Larger tribes had to hand over more cities than smaller ones.

How many Ephraimites died at the Jordan fords for mispronouncing the password 'Shibboleth'?

42,000 fell, Judges says, because their dialect turned the word's first sound into a plain s. A shibboleth now means any custom or phrase that marks one group off from another.

In Esther, the Jews of the Persian provinces defended their lives and killed how many enemies?

75,000 were killed in the provinces, yet the book stresses three times over that the Jews took no plunder. The day of rest that followed is still kept as the festival of Purim.

Of the 150 psalms, how many carry a heading that links them to King David?

73 psalms are headed 'of David', and thirteen of those tie themselves to particular moments in his life. Others are credited to Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and even Moses.

Counting both Testaments, the King James Bible is divided into how many chapters?

1,189 chapters is the count, but none of them goes back to the authors. The divisions used today were devised in the early 13th century by Stephen Langton, and verse numbers followed only in the 1550s.