'Ten' in the Bible

So Noah went out, and his wife and his sons and their wives with him [after being in the ark one year and ten days].

After Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian [maid], and gave her to her husband Abram to be his [secondary] wife.

Then Abraham said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry [with me], and I will speak only this once; suppose ten [righteous people] are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels, and set out, taking some of his master’s good things with him; so he got up and journeyed to Mesopotamia [between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers], to the city of Nahor [the home of Abraham’s brother].

When the camels had finished drinking, Eliezer took a gold ring weighing a half-shekel and two bracelets for her hands weighing ten shekels in gold,

But Rebekah’s brother and mother said, “Let the girl stay with us a few days—at least ten; then she may go.”

They blessed Rebekah and said to her,“May you, our sister,Become [the mother of] thousands of ten thousands,And may your descendants possess (conquer)The [city] gate of those who hate them.”

Yet your father has cheated me [as often as possible] and changed my wages ten times; but God did not allow him to hurt me.

These twenty years I have been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for [my share of] your flocks, and you have changed my wages ten times.

So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.

To his father he sent the following: ten male donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provision for his father [to supply all who were with him] on the journey.

You shall put into the ark the Testimony (Ten Commandments) which I will give you.

You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony which I will give you.

“Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle (sacred tent of worship) with ten [interior] curtains of fine twisted linen, and blue, purple, and scarlet fabric; you shall make them with [embroidered] cherubim, the handwork of a skillful craftsman.

The length of each board shall be ten cubits and the width of each board shall be one and a half cubits.

For the width of the court on the west side there shall be curtains of fifty cubits, with ten pillars (support poles) and ten sockets.

Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

All the skilled men among them who were doing the work on the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue, purple, and scarlet fabric, with cherubim [worked into them], the work of an embroiderer, Bezalel made them.

Each board was ten cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.

For the west side [of the court] there were curtains of fifty cubits with their ten support poles and their ten sockets; the hooks of the support poles and their connecting rings were silver.

He took the Testimony [the stones inscribed with the Ten Commandments] and put it into the ark [of the covenant], and placed the poles [through the rings] on the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.

Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight; your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

When I break your staff of bread [that is, cut off your supply of food], ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will ration your bread; and you will eat and not be satisfied.

If the person is between five years and twenty years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels.

If the person is sixty years old and above, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female.

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

one golden bowl of ten shekels, full of incense;

the twelve golden bowls, full of incense, weighing ten shekels apiece, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, all the gold of the bowls being a hundred and twenty shekels;

And when the ark rested, Moses said,“Return, O Lord,To the myriad (many) thousands of Israel.”

You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,

The people spent all that day and all night and all the next day and caught and gathered the quail (the one who gathered least gathered ten homers) and they spread them out for themselves around the camp [to cure them by drying].

Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not listened to My voice,

‘Then on the fourth day [of the Feast of Booths]: ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old without blemish;

So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to follow, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.

The Lord wrote on the tablets, like the first writing, the Ten Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; then the Lord gave them to me.

“How could one chase a thousand,And two put ten thousand to flight,Unless their Rock had sold them,And the Lord had given them up?

He said,“The Lord came from Sinai,And dawned on them from Seir;He shone forth from Mount Paran,And He came from among ten thousand holy ones;At His right hand was a flaming fire, a law, for them.

“His majesty is like a firstborn young bull,And his horns like the horns of the wild ox;With them he will gore the peoples,All of them together, to the ends of the earth.And those are the ten thousands of Ephraim,And those are the thousands of Manasseh.”

Kain, Gibeah and Timnah; ten cities with their villages.

So ten portions fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is beyond the Jordan [on the east side of the river],

The rest of the sons of Kohath received ten cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Ephraim and from the tribe of Dan and from the half-tribe of Manasseh.

All the cities with their pasture lands for the families of the rest of the sons of Kohath totaled ten.

and with him ten leaders, one leader from each father’s household from each of the tribes of Israel; and each one was the head of his father’s household among the thousands of Israel.

Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did just as the Lord had told him; but because he was too afraid of his father’s household (relatives) and the men of the city to do it during daylight, he did it at night.

After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel for ten years.

And Micah said to him, “Live here with me and be a father and a [personal] priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver each year, a supply of clothing, and your sustenance (room and board).” So the Levite went in.

and we will take ten men out of a hundred throughout the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to bring provisions for the men, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may punish them for all the despicable acts which they have committed in Israel.”

They took wives from the Moabite women; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years;

Then Boaz took ten men from the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” And they sat down.

Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you cry and why do you not eat? Why are you so sad and discontent? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

Then a champion came out from the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

Then Jesse said to David his son, “Take for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread and run quickly to the camp to your brothers.

Also take these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of the unit. See how your brothers are doing and bring back news of them.

The women sang as they played and danced, saying,“Saul has slain his thousands,And David his ten thousands.”

Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed [only] thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?”

The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing in praise of this one as they danced, saying,‘Saul has slain his thousands,And David his ten thousands’?”

So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name;

About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

Is this not David, of whom they used to sing in dances,‘Saul killed his thousands,And David his ten thousands’?”

So the king left, and all his household with him. But the king left behind ten women who were concubines to take care of the house (palace).

Joab said to the man who informed him, “You saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt.”

And ten young men, Joab’s armor bearers, surrounded and struck Absalom and killed him.

Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, “We have ten [tribes’] shares in the king, and we have more claim on David than you. Why then did you treat us with contempt and ignore us [by rushing ahead]? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were harsher than those of the men of Israel.

Then David came to his house (palace) at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his concubines whom he had left to take care of the house, and placed them under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were confined, and lived as widows until the day of their death.

ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed oxen, a hundred sheep not counting fallow deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.

The porch in front of the main room of the house (temple) was twenty cubits long, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth in front of the house was ten cubits.

Within the Holy of Holies he made two cherubim (sculptured figures) of olive wood, each ten cubits high.

One wing of the cherub was five cubits long, and the other wing was also five cubits long; it was ten cubits from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other.

The [wingspan of the] other cherub was also ten cubits. The measurements and cut (shape) of the two cherubim were the same;

the height of the one cherub was ten cubits, as was the other.

The foundation was of expensive stones, large stones, stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.

Now he made the Sea (basin) of cast metal, ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, five cubits high and thirty cubits in circumference.

Under its brim were gourds encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the Sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast in one piece with it.

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.

He made the ten stands like this: they all had one casting, one measure, and one form.

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.

the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;

There I have made a place [in the Holy of Holies] for the ark, in which is the covenant (solemn agreement) of the Lord, which He made with our fathers when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

He said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am going to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes—

But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to you: ten tribes.

Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a bottle of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

Then the king of Aram (Syria) said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel (Jehoram the son of Ahab).” So he left and took with him ten talents of silver and 6,000 shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

For he left to Jehoahaz [king of Israel] an army of no more than fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 footmen, for the king of Aram (Ben-hadad) had destroyed them and made them like dust to be trampled.

Then King Ahaz cut away the frames of the basin stands [in the temple], and removed the basin from [each of] them; and he took down the [large] Sea from the bronze oxen which were under it, and put it on a plastered stone floor.

Isaiah said, “This will be the sign to you from the Lord, that He will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow [indicating the time of day] go forward ten steps, or go backward ten steps?”

Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to go forward ten steps; no, but let the shadow turn backward ten steps.”

So Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow on the steps ten steps backward by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz.

But in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family [who had a claim to be governor], came with ten men and struck and killed Gedaliah and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

Then to the rest of the sons of Kohath were given ten cities by lot from the family of the tribe [of Ephraim and of Dan and], from the half-tribe, the half of Manasseh.

Then Solomon made an altar of bronze, twenty cubits in length, twenty cubits in width, and ten cubits in height.