How many times is Joshua mentioned in the Bible?
The word Joshua appears 216 times in the King James Version, in 197 verses. It is found in 10 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Joshua 220 times (221 with every form).
The KJV prints Jesus for Joshua in Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8, so those two verses are not counted.
Joshua in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Joshua counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Joshua | 216 | 220 |
| Joshua's | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 216 | 221 |
First and last mention of Joshua
And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest;
The verse that uses it most is Deuteronomy 31:14, 2 times (tied with Joshua 4:8, Joshua 4:10, Joshua 5:13, Joshua 5:15, Joshua 6:25 and 13 more):
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.
Where the two translations differ
0 verses match in the KJV but not in the World English Bible, and 5 verses match only in the World English Bible, usually because the other translation chose a different word there.
Numbers 13:16: counted in the World English Bible only
These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.
These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
Deuteronomy 32:44: counted in the World English Bible only
And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
Verses with Joshua on our topic pages
2 verses that use Joshua in the World English Bible are in our topic collections.
Yahweh your God himself will go over before you. He will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua will go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken.
On: Courage
Achan answered Joshua, and said, “I have truly sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done.
Common questions
How many times is Joshua in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 216 of the 216 uses are in the Old Testament and 0 in the New Testament. Joshua appears in 10 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Joshua has the most (168), then Numbers (10) and Deuteronomy (9).
Where is Joshua first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Exodus 17:9: "And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand." The last is Zechariah 6:11.
Joshua is also the name of a book of the Bible. See its 24 chapters, 658 verses and reading time.
More word counts: Samuel, Saul, Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, John, James, Judas, 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.