How many times is cattle mentioned in the Bible?
The word cattle appears 153 times in the King James Version, in 133 verses. It is found in 25 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses cattle 71 times.
The KJV says cattle for livestock in general. The World English Bible says livestock in most of those verses (Genesis 1:24), so its count is about half.
Cattle in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of cattle counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| cattle | 153 | 71 |
| Total | 153 | 71 |
Which books mention cattle most
Cattle appears in 25 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Genesis has the most (53), then Exodus (15) and Numbers (14).
Also in: Nehemiah (2), Jeremiah (2), Zechariah (2), Job (1), Ecclesiastes (1), Joel (1), Jonah (1), Haggai (1), Luke (1), John (1).
First and last mention of cattle
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
The verse that uses it most is Genesis 47:17, 3 times:
And they brought their cattle unto Joseph: and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year.
Where the two translations differ
128 verses match in the KJV but not in the World English Bible, and 62 verses match only in the World English Bible, usually because the other translation chose a different word there.
Genesis 1:24: counted in the KJV only
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
Genesis 1:25: counted in the KJV only
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
Genesis 12:16: counted in the World English Bible only
And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
Genesis 20:14: counted in the World English Bible only
And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.
Verses with cattle on our topic pages
1 verse that uses cattle in the World English Bible is in our topic collections.
and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
Common questions
How many times is cattle in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 151 of the 153 uses are in the Old Testament and 2 in the New Testament. Cattle appears in 25 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Genesis has the most (53), then Exodus (15) and Numbers (14).
Where is cattle first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 1:24: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." The last is John 4:12.
More word counts: sheep, voice, Micaiah, Eliakim, Hoshea, Jabesh, Perizzites, Sihon, or all 680 words.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-26.