What does the number 10 represent in the Bible?
Answered from the commentary of A. J. Pollock, W. W. Fereday, Morrish Bible Dictionary and 4 others
Ten represents the full measure of human responsibility, toward God and toward other people. It is also the measure of human capacity for work and walk, and of the testing of that responsibility. Thus the ten commandments set out man’s responsibility to God and man, and the ten plagues show the fullness of judgment. The ten days before the Passover lamb was taken speak of the ages of responsibility that ran their course before God sent His Son.
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Ten is the full measure of man's responsibility Godward and man-ward, four representing that which is universal. It sets forth the full measure of probation and testing.
Ten is the number that speaks of responsibility Godward, whilst five speak of responsibility manward. There were ten commandments, five commandments regulating our conduct to our fellow-man. To love God and our neighbour is the summing up of man’s responsibility. The numbers ten and five are likewise stamped by a wise Creator upon the human frame. Man has ten fingers and ten toes divided into sets of five, and five senses—all speaking of human responsibility to God and man.
Numbers are used in Holy Scripture with divine significance The frequent occurrence of "seven" and "twelve" in the book of God is sufficient to suggest this to every observant reader. This is scarcely the place in which to show the meaning of all the numerals divinely employed; for our present purpose it is enough to say that "ten" represents the full measure of human responsibility. Thus we have ten commandments in Ex. 20, ten virgins in Matt. 25:1-13, and ten pounds in Luke 19:13. The ten days of Ex. 12:3 speak to us therefore of the ages of responsibility (or probation) which ran their course ere God sent forth His beloved Son to be the Lamb of God, the taker away of the sin of the world.
TEN. Complete ground of. human responsibility. Pharaoh was visited by ten plagues. Ex. 7 — Ex.12. The ten commandments. Ex. 34:28. Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils to Melchisedek. Gen. 14:20. The Israelites gave a tenth to the Levites, and they gave a tenth to the priests. Num. 18:21, 26. Ten virgins went forth to meet the bridegroom. Matt. 25. There were ten servants to whom the pounds were entrusted. Luke 19:13. In the last form of the Roman empire there will be ten kings. Rev. 17:12, 16.
The words spoken out of the midst of the fire were ten in number. The plagues poured out upon Egypt had been ten. The divine dwelling-place in the sanctuary was a cube of ten. Symmetry of purpose and of plan is here apparent. A measure of divine completeness — a standard of divine perfectness, it may be termed — is presented in the revelation of God rendered from out of the midst of the fire.
The number ten is notable in connection with the ten commandments and with parts of the sanctuary of Jehovah, particularly the place of His throne, which was situated in a chamber that was a cube of ten. The number implies completeness; having uttered the ten words, Jehovah added no more — He dwelt where all was absolutely equal. So in the ten plagues of Egypt we see a divine fullness of judgment and a, completion of it upon all the gods of Egypt. The number nine was symbolically most important to the Egyptians; it signified "either the gods of a locality or the entire Pantheon."
These curtains were united into two sets of five each, making ten in all. Five is the number of human capacity, as the four fingers and thumb upon the hand; the two hands making ten in all. The ten reminds us of the ten commandments, the measure of man's full responsibility. The ten commandments were upon two tables, showing responsibility, Godward and manward. The two sets of curtains would suggest this two-fold responsibility met by our Lord. Look at His relation to God; what was there lacking in every moment of His life? We have the witness of our Lord as to this: "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29); of the Father who spoke from the excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17), and of the Holy Spirit who anointed and abode upon Him.
Ten generations lay between Adam and Noah. Five is the number of human responsibility; two, that of adequate testimony. Twice five, then, signifies adequate testimony concerning human responsibility. The Ten Commandments formed an adequate test as to man’s ability or otherwise to answer to God’s claims. The human body illustrates the use of the numbers five and ten. We have five senses. We have five fingers on each hand, ten in all, for work. We have five toes on each foot, ten in all, for walking.
It is the figure with its multiple ten that is stamped on the human frame. Five fingers on each hand, ten in all, speaks of human responsibility in work; five toes on each foot, ten in all, our responsibility in walk; the five senses - seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling - represent the whole range of human receptiveness in its responsibility to God.
Ten in Scripture is a number connected with responsibility. We have ten fingers on our hands to work with and ten toes on our feet to aid us in walking. Ten is therefore the measure of our capacity for our walk and work. One thousand is 10x10x10. So the thousand pieces would represent a definite return to the Lord according to the full measure of one's responsibility.
Verses
- Genesis 1:26–2826And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over the whole earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. 27And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over every animal that moveth on the earth.
- Genesis 7:1–41And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 2Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female. 3Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth. 4For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.
- Genesis 16:3And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar, the Egyptian, her maidservant, at the end of ten years that Abram had dwelt in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram, as his wife.