How many times is dove mentioned in the Bible?
The word dove appears 18 times in the King James Version, in 18 verses. Counting every form (dove, doves), it appears 30 times in 30 verses across 12 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses dove 19 times (31 with every form).
Dove in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of dove counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| dove | 18 | 19 |
| doves | 12 | 12 |
| Total | 30 | 31 |
First and last mention of dove
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
Where the two translations differ
0 verses match in the KJV but not in the World English Bible, and 1 verse matches only in the World English Bible, usually because the other translation chose a different word there.
Psalm 74:19: counted in the World English Bible only
O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
Verses with dove on our topic pages
2 verses that use dove in the World English Bible are in our topic collections.
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.
On: Baptism
and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.”
On: Baptism
Common questions
How many times is dove in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 21 of the 30 uses are in the Old Testament and 9 in the New Testament. Dove appears in 12 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Song of Solomon has the most (6), then Genesis (5) and Isaiah (3).
Where is dove first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 8:8: "Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;" The last is John 2:16.
More word counts: locust, soul, bride, widow, poor, riches, sun, moon, or all 253 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 2026-10-05.