How many times is Mizpah mentioned in the Bible?
The word Mizpah appears 23 times in the King James Version, in 21 verses. Counting every form (Mizpah, Mizpeh), it appears 46 times in 42 verses across 10 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Mizpah 44 times (46 with every form).
The KJV spells it Mizpah in 23 uses and Mizpeh in 23 more; the World English Bible writes Mizpah almost everywhere. Both spellings name more than one place, from the stone heap of Genesis 31:49 to the town where Israel gathered in 1 Samuel 7:5. Every use of either name on its own is counted.
Not counted: Mizpah inside the hyphenated name of a different person or place, 1 time in the KJV: Ramath-mizpeh (1). The World English Bible has 1 such use.
Mizpah in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Mizpah counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Mizpah | 23 | 44 |
| Mizpeh | 23 | 2 |
| Total | 46 | 46 |
What the name Mizpah means
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary glosses Mizpah as "a watch-tower; speculation".
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 2026-10-24.
First and last mention of Mizpah
And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.
Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
The verse that uses it most is Judges 11:29, 2 times (tied with 1 Samuel 7:6, Jeremiah 41:1, Jeremiah 41:10):
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.
Verses with Mizpah on our topic pages
1 verse that uses Mizpah in the World English Bible is in our topic collections.
They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against Yahweh.” Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.
On: Fasting
Common questions
How many times is Mizpah in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 46 of the 46 uses are in the Old Testament and 0 in the New Testament. Mizpah appears in 10 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Jeremiah has the most (14), then Judges (10) and 1 Samuel (9).
Where is Mizpah first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 31:49: "And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another." The last is Hosea 5:1.
What does the name Mizpah mean in the Bible?
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary glosses Mizpah as "a watch-tower; speculation".
More word counts: Elihu, Onan, Nazarite, Kidron, Gilboa, Belteshazzar, Shunammite, Mamre, 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.