Meaning of Numbers in the Bible

Nineteen is a number not without significance. It is a combination of 10 and 9, and would denote the perfection of Divine order connected with judgment. It is the gematria of Eve and of Job.

Twenty is the double of ten, and may in some cases signify its concentrated meaning. But its significance seems rather to be connected with the fact that it is one short of twenty-one, 21 - 1 = 20; that is to say, if 21 is the three-fold 7, and signifies Divine (3) completion as regards spiritual perfection (7), then twenty, being one short of 21, it would signify what Dr. Milo Mahan calls expectancy, and certainly we are not without illustrations in support of it:

• Twenty years Jacob waited to get possession of his wives and property, Genesis 21:38,41.

• Twenty years Israel waited for a deliverer from Jabin's oppression, Judges 4:3.

• Twenty years Israel waited for deliverance through Samson, Judges 15:20, 16:31. But his work was never much more than "begun," Judges 13:25.

• Twenty years the Ark of the Covenant waited at Kirjath-jearim, 1Samuel 7:2.

• Twenty years Solomon was waiting for the completion of the two houses, 1 Kings 9:10; 2Chronicles 8:1.

• Twenty years Jerusalem waited between its capture and destruction; and

• Twenty years Jeremiah prophesied concerning it.

Additional Miscellaneous Illustrations

Twenty dreams are recorded in the Bible and they were dream by in the Old Testament and New Testament: