How many times is Sarah mentioned in the Bible?
The word Sarah appears 39 times in the King James Version, in 33 verses. Counting every form (Sarah, Sarah's, Sarai, Sarai's), it appears 59 times in 48 verses across 5 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses Sarah 38 times (59 with every form).
Sarah is called Sarai until God renames her in Genesis 17:15. Both names are counted.
Sarah in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of Sarah counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| Sarah | 39 | 38 |
| Sarah's | 3 | 4 |
| Sarai | 16 | 16 |
| Sarai's | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 59 | 59 |
First and last mention of Sarah
And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
The verse that uses it most is Genesis 17:15, 3 times:
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
Where the two translations differ
1 verse matches 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.
Numbers 26:46: counted in the KJV only
And the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah.
The name of the daughter of Asher was Serah.
Hebrews 11:11: counted in the World English Bible only
Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
Verses with Sarah on our topic pages
5 verses that use Sarah in the World English Bible are in our topic collections.
Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.”
On: Hospitality
After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah:
Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
On: Faith
By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
On: Faith
Common questions
How many times is Sarah in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 56 of the 59 uses are in the Old Testament and 3 in the New Testament. Sarah appears in 5 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Genesis has the most (54), then Romans (2) and Numbers (1).
Where is Sarah first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 11:29: "And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah." The last is 1 Peter 3:6.
More word counts: Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Samson, Goliath, Gideon, Jonah, Isaiah, 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.