How many times is Medes mentioned in the Bible?
The word Medes appears 14 times in the King James Version, in 14 verses. It is found in 7 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Medes 13 times.
Medes in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Medes counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Medes | 14 | 13 |
| Total | 14 | 13 |
First and last mention of Medes
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
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.
Ezra 6:2: counted in the KJV only
And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written:
A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record:
Verses with Medes on our topic pages
1 verse that uses Medes in the World English Bible is in our topic collections.
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,
On: What Does the Bible Say About Speaking in Tongues? 22 Verses
Common questions
How many times is Medes in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 13 of the 14 uses are in the Old Testament and 1 in the New Testament. Medes appears in 7 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Daniel has the most (5), then Jeremiah (3) and 2 Kings (2).
Where is Medes first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is 2 Kings 17:6: "In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." The last is Acts 2:9.
More word counts: Gibeah, Kedar, Gerar, Joash, fruit, charity, pestilence, Dathan, or all 635 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 2026-10-24.