How many times is Joab mentioned in the Bible?
The word Joab appears 137 times in the King James Version, in 120 verses. Counting every form (Joab, Joab's), it appears 145 times in 124 verses across 6 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Joab 138 times (145 with every form).
Joab in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Joab counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Joab | 137 | 138 |
| Joab's | 8 | 7 |
| Total | 145 | 145 |
What the name Joab means
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary glosses Joab as "paternity; voluntary".
This is the 1869 traditional meaning; modern scholars often read names differently.
See every name and place with its meaning and count on Bible names and their meanings.
Source: Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (1869), checked 2026-10-22.
First and last mention of Joab
Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.
The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand and eight hundred and eighteen.
The verse that uses it most is 2 Samuel 20:11, 3 times (tied with 1 Kings 2:28):
And one of Joab’s men stood by him, and said, He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.
Common questions
How many times is Joab in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 145 of the 145 uses are in the Old Testament and 0 in the New Testament. Joab appears in 6 books of the 66 in the King James Version. 2 Samuel has the most (101), then 1 Chronicles (25) and 1 Kings (15).
Where is Joab first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is 1 Samuel 26:6: "Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee." The last is Nehemiah 7:11.
What does the name Joab mean in the Bible?
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary glosses Joab as "paternity; voluntary".
More word counts: Hezekiah, Jonathan, Absalom, Jeroboam, Ahab, Jehoshaphat, Eleazar, Abimelech, 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.