In the Bible, “threescore” refers to the number sixty, as it is an old term derived from counting in scores (where a score equals twenty). It is commonly used in passages like Psalm 90:10 to express the lifespan of humans.
Scripture
26 Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Meaning of Threescore in the Bible
In the Bible, the term “threescore,” which equates to sixty, often represents completeness or fulfillment in the context of human life and divine providence. For example, Psalm 90:10 notes, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten,” suggesting that the normal lifespan of a person is seventy years. This verse not only reflects an understanding of life’s transience but also serves as a reminder of the importance of living a life full of purpose within the time available. The use of “threescore” here serves to highlight the finite nature of human existence and encourages readers to reflect on their lives in light of eternity.
Additionally, the number sixty holds significance in biblical numerology, often associated with the fullness of time or the completion of a cycle. In broader biblical contexts, multiples of ten and twenty are significant; for instance, there are multiple instances in Scripture where numbers are used to express completeness or divine order. One such example can be found in Ezekiel 4:10, where the attributes of ration and measurement are illustrated through food rationing connected to the number twenty. Thus, “threescore” embodies more than just a numerical value; it symbolizes the divine framework of lifespan and reflects on the broader spiritual lessons of growth, mortality, and theologically understanding God’s plan through time.
The use of “threescore” in the Bible can also be viewed through the lens of covenantal themes and communal responsibilities. For example, in passages that address the establishment of leadership or the organization of the Israelite community, formidable numbers like threescore often emerge. These numbers delineate groups and families within the larger context of God’s covenantal promises, emphasizing the significance of unity among the people of Israel. This pattern points to a divine order where each segment of society has its role to play, and the collective outcome correlates with the fulfillment of God’s promises as articulated in the Scriptures.
Moreover, throughout biblical history, the repetition of the tens and multiples—particularly in relation to worship practices and offerings—also underscores the profound elements of giving and gratitude towards God. For instance, communities would often allocate threescore units of specific produce or animals for offerings as part of their worship, symbolizing not just obedience but a recognition of God’s provision and mercy. Thus, the number sixty transcends mere arithmetic; it represents a purposeful measure of devotion, a structure of societal function, and an invitation for believers to commit themselves fully to their faith and community. It reflects a call to honor God within the equitable proportions prescribed in Scripture, calling believers to recognize the role of collective faith and responsibility within the divine narrative.
The Significance of Numbers in Biblical Texts
In biblical literature, numbers often carry symbolic meanings that extend beyond their literal value. The term “threescore,” which refers to sixty, can be seen as a representation of completeness or a significant period of time. In various contexts, the number sixty may symbolize a full cycle or a time of preparation, reflecting the idea that certain events or divine actions unfold over a designated period.
The Concept of Age and Wisdom
Threescore can also relate to the themes of age and wisdom in the Bible. In many instances, a person’s age is associated with their experience and understanding. The number sixty may signify a mature stage in life, where individuals are expected to possess wisdom and insight. This connection emphasizes the value of life experience and the lessons learned over time, which are often highlighted in biblical teachings.
The Role of Threescore in Covenant and Promise
In the context of God’s covenants and promises, threescore can represent a significant milestone in the fulfillment of divine plans. The number sixty may indicate a period of waiting or testing before the realization of God’s promises. This concept underscores the importance of faith and patience in the believer’s journey, as they await the manifestation of God’s will in their lives.
How to Understand Biblical Numerology for Spiritual Growth
Understanding biblical numerology can be a fascinating journey that deepens your spiritual growth and enhances your connection to Scripture. Numbers in the Bible often carry symbolic meanings that can reveal deeper truths about God’s character and His plans for humanity. For instance, the number seven frequently represents completion and perfection, as seen in the creation story where God rested on the seventh day. By reflecting on these numbers and their significance, you can gain insights into your own life and faith journey. As you study, consider keeping a journal to note how certain numbers resonate with your experiences or prayers. This practice not only enriches your understanding but also invites the Holy Spirit to guide you in applying these lessons to your daily walk with Christ. Remember, the goal is not to become obsessed with numbers but to see them as a tool that can illuminate your path and draw you closer to God.
Bible References to the Meaning of Threescore:
Genesis 46:26-27: 26 All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not including Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all.
27 And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.
Exodus 15:27-28: 27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
28 There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,
Leviticus 12:1-5: 1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.
3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
4 Then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying. She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are completed.
5 But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation. And she shall continue for sixty-six days in the blood of her purifying.
Numbers 1:1-3: 1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying:
2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head.”
3 from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company.
Numbers 3:46-48: 46 And for the redemption of the 273 of the firstborn of the people of Israel, who are more than the firstborn of the Egyptians,
47 you shall take five shekels per head; according to the shekel of the sanctuary shall you take, the shekel of twenty gerahs.
48 And you shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons.”
Numbers 7:85-87: 85 Each silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels and each basin seventy, all the silver of the vessels two thousand four hundred shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary,
86 The golden dishes weighed 130 shekels, and the silver dishes 70, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering;
87 All the livestock for the burnt offering were twelve bulls, the rams twelve, the male lambs a year old twelve, with their grain offering.
Numbers 26:62-64: 62 Those listed were 23,000, every male from a month old and upward, for they were not listed among the people of Israel, because there was no inheritance given to them among the people of Israel.
63 These were those listed by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who listed the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
64 But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
Deuteronomy 3:3-5: 3 So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left.
4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not a city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages.
Joshua 13:30-32: 30 With the other half of the tribe of Manasseh the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, as Moses the servant of the Lord gave them:
31 and in the half-tribe of Manasseh,
32 These are the inheritances that Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan east of Jericho.
Judges 3:29-31: 29 And they killed at that time about ten thousand of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men; not a man escaped.
30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.
Judges 9:1-3: 1 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family,
2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”
3 And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.”
1 Samuel 6:18-20: 18 and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both fortified cities and unwalled villages. The great stone beside which they set down the ark of the Lord is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.
19 And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.
20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”
2 Samuel 2:30-32: 30 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. And as the sun was going down they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.
31 But the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin 360 of Abner’s men.
32 And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. And Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.
2 Samuel 19:35-37: 35 I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
36 Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward?
37 Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king, and do for him whatever seems good to you.
1 Kings 4:22-24: 22 The food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
23 ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.
24 For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him.
1 Kings 9:23-25: 23 These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work.
24 But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.
25 Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the Lord, making offerings with it before the Lord. So he finished the house.
1 Chronicles 2:21-23: 21 Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he married when he was sixty years old, and she bore him Segub.
22 Segub fathered Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.
23 Yet Heber the Kenite had separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
1 Chronicles 5:18-20: 18 The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had valiant men who carried shield and sword, and drew the bow, expert in war, 44,760, able to go to war.
19 They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab.
20 And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him.
1 Chronicles 9:13-15: 13 and their kinsmen, heads of their fathers’ houses, 1,760, mighty men for the work of the service of the house of God.
14 and some of the sons of the priests prepared the mixing of the spices.
15 and Shallum the son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah, and his kinsmen of his fathers’ house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent, as their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the Lord, keepers of the entrance.
1 Chronicles 16:38-40: 38 And Obed-edom with their brothers, sixty-eight, Obed-edom also the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah were to be gatekeepers.
39 And Zadok the priest and his brothers the priests before the tabernacle of the Lord in the high place that was at Gibeon
40 to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly morning and evening, to do all that is written in the Law of the Lord that he commanded Israel.
1 Chronicles 26:8-10: 8 All these were the sons of Obed-edom with their sons and brothers, able men qualified for the service, sixty-two of Obed-edom.
9 And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,
10 Also Hosah, of the sons of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (for though he was not the firstborn, his father made him chief),
2 Chronicles 11:21-23: 21 Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
22 Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, for he intended to make him king.
23 He dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities, and he gave them abundant provisions and took many wives, for his son Rehoboam had many wives.
2 Chronicles 12:2-4: 2 When Rehoboam humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction. Moreover, conditions were good in Judah.
3 With 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. And the people were without number who came with him from Egypt—the Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians.
4 And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 22:1-3: 1 And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.
2 Forty-two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri.
3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly.
Ezra 2:64-66: 64 The whole assembly together was 42,360,
65 besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337, and they had 200 male and female singers.
66 Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six, their mules two hundred forty-five,
Nehemiah 7:66-68: 66 The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty,
67 besides their male and female servants, of whom there were 7,337. And they had 245 singers, male and female.
68 Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six, their mules two hundred forty-five,
Psalm 90:9-11: 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?
Song of Solomon 3:7-9: 7 Behold, it is the litter of Solomon! Around it are sixty mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel.
8 Keep me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.
9 King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon.
Isaiah 7:7-9: 7 Thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.
Isaiah 23:15-17: 15 At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the lifetime of one king. After the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
16 “Take a harp; go about the city, O forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be remembered.”
17 At the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
Daniel 9:24-26: 24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.”
25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.
26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
Luke 24:13-15: 13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,
14 And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.
John 2:20-22: 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Reverend Michael Johnson is an experienced Church Minister with a profound expertise in spirituality and guidance. With a serene presence and a compassionate heart, he has faithfully served his congregation for over 20 years, leading them on a spiritual journey towards inner peace and enlightenment. Reverend Johnson’s extensive knowledge of religious philosophies and profound understanding of human nature have made him a trusted confidant and mentor to many, as he seamlessly weaves his profound wisdom into life teachings. Reverend Johnson’s calming demeanor and empathetic nature continue to uplift and heal souls, nurturing a sense of unity and tranquility within his community.