'Four' in the Bible

Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four [branching] rivers.

against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim and Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five.

The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”

“If a man steals an ox or sheep and kills or sells it, he shall make restitution of five oxen for an ox or four sheep for a sheep.

You shall cast four gold rings for it and attach them to the four feet, two rings on either side.

You shall make four gold rings for it and fasten them at the four corners that are on the table’s four legs.

and in the [center shaft of the] lampstand [you shall make] four cups shaped like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and their flowers.

The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; all of the curtains shall measure the same.

Each curtain shall be thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. The eleven curtains shall all measure the same.

You shall hang it on four pillars (support poles) of acacia wood overlaid with gold, with gold hooks, on four silver sockets.

Make horns (horn-shaped projections) for it on its four corners; the horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze.

Also make a grate for it, a network of bronze; and on the grid you are to make four bronze rings at its four corners.

For the gate of the court there shall be a screen [to provide a covering] of twenty cubits, of blue, purple, and scarlet fabric and finely woven [embroidered] linen, the work of an embroiderer, with four pillars and four [base] sockets.

You shall mount on it four rows of stones: the first row shall be a row of ruby, topaz, and emerald;

Each curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide; all the curtains were one size.

Each curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits wide; the eleven curtains were of equal size.

For the veil (partition curtain) he made four support poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold; their hooks were gold, and he cast for them four silver sockets.

He cast four rings of gold for it on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other side.

He cast four rings of gold for it and fastened the rings to the four corners that were at its four legs.

On the center shaft of the lampstand there were four cups shaped like almond blossoms, with calyxes and flowers [one at the top];

And he made its horns (horn-shaped projections) on the four corners of it; the horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze.

He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating as holders for the carrying poles.

Their four support poles and their four sockets were bronze; their hooks were silver, and silver overlaid their tops and their connecting rings.

And they mounted four rows of stones on it. The first row was a row of ruby, topaz, and emerald;

But all other winged insects which are four footed are detestable to you.

Whatever crawls on its belly, and whatever walks on all fours, and whatever has many feet among all things that swarm on the ground, you shall not eat; for they are detestable.

He gave two carts and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, according to their service [in transporting the tabernacle];

and he gave four carts and eight oxen to the sons of Merari, according to their service [in transporting the tabernacle], under the supervision of Ithamar the son of Aaron, the [high] priest.

(For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the [the giants known as the] Rephaim. Behold, his bed frame was a bed frame of iron; is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? It was nine cubits (12 ft.) long and four cubits (6 ft.) wide, using the cubit of a man [the forearm to the end of the middle finger].)

“You shall make tassels for yourself on the four corners of your outer garment with which you cover yourself.

Ain, Rimmon and Ether and Ashan; four cities with their villages;

Anathoth with its pasture lands and Almon with its pasture lands; four cities.

and Kibzaim with its pasture lands and Beth-horon with its pasture lands; four cities.

Aijalon with its pasture lands, Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands; four cities.

Jarmuth with its pasture lands, and En-gannim with its pasture lands; four cities.

Helkath with its pasture lands and Rehob with its pasture lands; four cities.

Dimnah with its pasture lands and Nahalal with its pasture lands; four cities.

Kedemoth with its pasture lands and Mephaath with its pasture lands; four cities.

Heshbon with its pasture lands and Jazer with its pasture lands; four cities in all.

So Abimelech and all the people who were with him got up during the night, and set up an ambush against Shechem, in four companies.

that the daughters of Israel went yearly to tell the story of the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.

But his concubine was unfaithful to him, and left him and went to her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah, and stayed there for a period of four months.

But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon and stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.

The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

And after four years, Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow which I have made to the Lord at Hebron [my birthplace].

These four [warriors] were descended from the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hands of David and his servants.

He also built the House of the Forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits (150 ft.), its width fifty cubits (75 ft.), and its height thirty cubits (45 ft.), upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars.

The capitals which were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work (design), four cubits.

Then Hiram made ten bronze stands [for smaller basins]; the length of each stand was four cubits, its width was four cubits and its height was three cubits.

Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports [for a basin]. Beneath the basin were cast supports with borders at each side.

Underneath the borders were four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half.

Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; the supports were part of the stand itself.

Then he made ten basins of bronze; each basin held forty baths and was four cubits, and there was one basin on each of the ten stands.

Then he laid out the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood.

Now four men who were lepers were at the entrance of the [city’s] gate; and they said to one another, “Why should we sit here until we die?

These were born to David in Jerusalem: Shimea (Shammua), Shobab, Nathan, Solomon—four by Bath-shua (Bathsheba) daughter of Ammiel (Eliam);

The sons of Issachar were: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron—four in all.

The gatekeepers were stationed on the four sides —on the east, west, north, and south.

for these Levites, the four chief gatekeepers, had an official duty, and were in charge of the chambers and treasuries of the house of God.

Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and he turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.

The sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina (Zizah), Jeush, and Beriah. These were the four sons of Shimei.

The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel—four in all.

On the east were six Levites, on the north four a day, on the south four a day, and two by two at the storehouse.

At the colonnade on the west side [of the outer court of the temple] there were four at the road and two at the colonnade.

They sent word to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same way.

and suddenly, a great wind came from across the desert, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations.

The leech has two daughters,“Give, give!”There are three things that are never satisfied,Four that do not say, “It is enough”:

There are three things which are too astounding and unexpectedly wonderful for me,Four which I do not understand:

Under three things the earth is disquieted and quakes,And under four it cannot bear up:

There are four things that are small on the earth,But they are exceedingly wise:

There are three things which are stately in step,Even four which are stately in their stride:

And He will lift up a signal for the nationsAnd assemble the outcasts of Israel,And will gather the dispersed of JudahFrom the four corners of the earth.

“Yet gleanings will be left in the land [of Israel] like the shaking of the olive tree,Two or three olives on the topmost branch,Four or five on the [outermost] branches of the fruitful tree,”Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

I will appoint four kinds of destroyers over them,” says the Lord, “the sword to slay, the dogs to tear and drag away, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.

And after Jehudi had read three or four columns [of the scroll], King Jehoiakim would cut off that portion with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until the [entire] scroll was consumed by the fire.

“Their camels will become plunder,And their herds of cattle a spoil;And I will scatter to all the [four] winds those who cut the corners of their hair [as evidence of their idolatry],And I will bring their disaster from every side,” says the Lord.

‘And I will bring upon Elam the four windsFrom the four corners of heaven;And I will scatter them toward all those winds,And there will be no nationTo which the outcasts of Elam will not go.

Concerning the pillars, the height of each pillar was eighteen cubits (twenty-seven feet), and a line [an ornamental molding] of twelve cubits (eighteen feet) went around its circumference; it was four fingers thick, and [the pillar was] hollow.

Within it there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance: they had human form.

Each one had four faces and four wings.

Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them,

Regarding the form and appearance of their faces: they [each] had the face of a man [in front], and each had the face of a lion on the right side, and the face of an ox on the left side; all four also had the face of an eagle [at the back of their heads].

Such were their faces. Their wings were stretched out upward; two [wings] of each one were touching another [the wings of the beings on either side of it], and [the remaining] two [wings of each being] were covering their bodies.

Now as I looked at the living beings, I saw one wheel on the ground beside the living beings, for each of the four of them.

Regarding the appearance of the wheels and their construction: they gleamed like chrysolite (beryl, olivine); and the four were made alike. Their appearance and construction were a wheel [set at a right angle] within a wheel.

Whenever they moved, they went in any [one] of their four directions without turning as they moved.

Regarding their rims: they were so high that they were awesome and dreadful, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes all around.

Wherever the spirit went, the beings went in that direction. And the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit or life of the living beings was in the wheels.

“Also, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, ‘An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land.

Then I looked and behold, [there were] four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside each other cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a sparkling Tarshish stone (beryl).

As for their appearance, all four looked alike, as if one wheel were within another wheel.

When they moved, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they followed in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went.

And each one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

Then the cherubim rose upward. They are the [same four] living beings [regarded as one] that I saw by the River Chebar [in Babylonia].

These are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

Each one had four faces and each one had four wings, and beneath their wings was the form of human hands.

For thus says the Lord God, “How much more when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem—sword, famine, predatory beasts, and virulent disease—to cut off man and animal from it!

Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’”

Four tables were on each side next to the gate; [a total of] eight tables on which they slaughter sacrifices.