How many times is twelve mentioned in the Bible?
The word twelve appears 188 times in the King James Version, in 164 verses. Counting every form (twelve, twelfth), it appears 211 times in 182 verses across 26 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses twelve 188 times (211 with every form).
Twelve in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of twelve counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| twelve | 188 | 188 |
| twelfth | 23 | 23 |
| Total | 211 | 211 |
Which books mention twelve most
Twelve appears in 26 books of the 66 in the King James Version. 1 Chronicles has the most (30), then Revelation (23) and Numbers (18).
Also in: 2 Kings (5), Acts (5), 2 Samuel (4), Jeremiah (3), Judges (2), Nehemiah (2), Leviticus (1), Deuteronomy (1), Daniel (1), 1 Corinthians (1), James (1).
First and last mention of twelve
And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The verse that uses it most is Numbers 7:87, 4 times:
All the oxen for the burnt offering were twelve bullocks, the rams twelve, the lambs of the first year twelve, with their meat offering: and the kids of the goats for sin offering twelve.
Where the two translations differ
2 verses match 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.
Numbers 31:33: counted in the KJV only
And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,
and seventy-two thousand head of cattle,
Numbers 31:38: counted in the KJV only
And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which the LORD’S tribute was threescore and twelve.
The cattle were thirty-six thousand; of which Yahweh’s tribute was seventy-two.
Verses with twelve on our topic pages
6 verses that use twelve in the World English Bible are in our topic collections.
Or do you think that I couldn’t ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?
On: Angels, Self Control, Revenge
Behold, a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment;
On: Healing
He called to himself his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.
On: Demons
Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests,
On: Betrayal
He sat down, and called the twelve; and he said to them, “If any man wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all.”
On: Humility
in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
On: Healing
Common questions
How many times is twelve in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 135 of the 211 uses are in the Old Testament and 76 in the New Testament. Twelve appears in 26 books of the 66 in the King James Version. 1 Chronicles has the most (30), then Revelation (23) and Numbers (18).
Where is twelve first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Genesis 5:8: "And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died." The last is Revelation 22:2.
More word counts: wine, drunk, dragon, unicorn, woman, wisdom, trust, death, or all 107 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 2026-10-02.