How many times is cherubim mentioned in the Bible?
The word cherubim (spelled cherubims in the KJV) appears 63 times in the King James Version, in 56 verses. Counting every form (cherubims, cherubim, cherub), it appears 95 times in 69 verses across 15 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses cherubim 64 times (93 with every form).
The KJV prints the plural as cherubims, an English plural added to the Hebrew cherubim. Every form is counted.
Cherubim in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of cherubim counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| cherubims | 63 | not counted |
| cherubim | 2 | 64 |
| cherub | 30 | 29 |
| Total | 95 | 93 |
First and last mention of cherubim
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
The verse that uses it most is Ezekiel 41:18, 4 times:
And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces;
Where the two translations differ
1 verse matches in the KJV but not in the World English Bible, and 0 verses match only in the World English Bible, usually because the other translation chose a different word there.
1 Kings 8:6: counted in the KJV only
And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims.
The priests brought in the ark of Yahweh’s covenant to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, even under the cherubim’s wings.
Common questions
How many times is cherubim in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 94 of the 95 uses are in the Old Testament and 1 in the New Testament. Cherubim appears in 15 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Ezekiel has the most (31), then 1 Kings (20) and Exodus (17).
Where is cherubim first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 3:24: "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." The last is Hebrews 9:5.
More word counts: frankincense, myrrh, hyssop, cedar, scorpion, fox, raven, owl, or all 484 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 2026-10-22.