Miscellaneous Bible Studies

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Selected passages where "ten thousand" seems to indicate the degree of God's blessing or curse.

God promised the Israelites that if they honored His covenant, they would have the ability to easily defeat their enemies:

Lev 26:8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

God also warned them that if they did NOT honor His covenant, they would be defeated by their enemies:

Deut 32:30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

Commentary: God's policy of blessing the faithful, but cursing those who know Him but are unfaithful. Note that in both passages, the ratio of the defeated to the victors is so great that only a supernatural intervention can explain it. Note also that the enemies are much more effective against the unfaithful than the faithful are against their enemies. This is likely a warning against the sin of pride. The use of the number ten thousand in both passages, added to the parallel structure (some chase many, and more put ten thousand to flight in both cases) indicates a strong relationship between them.

David credited God with the ability to save him from many:

Ps 3:6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.

Another Psalm sings praises to the Lord, and asserts God's protection over His own when others are devastated:

Ps 91:7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

David speaks of an abundance of blessings:

Ps 144:13 That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: (all...: Heb. from kind to kind)

Commentary: These passages all use the number ten thousand to represent the largeness of God's bounty: the size of the opposition protected from, the number of others not protected, or the magnitude of the blessing. The relationship is weaker here, and may not be justified at all considering the many other passages in the Bible which speak of God's blessings and protection. On the other hand, God may intend some other occurences of the number ten thousand, most of which seem to be a simple historical fact, to be understood as standing in relationship to these. There are a total of 52 uses of the number ten thousand in the Bible (valid for KJV English text).

A prophecy of the fruit of the Kingdom of God (somewhat confusing, because it appears to relate to final things but to occur before all enemies are defeated):

Dn 7: 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Maybe this corresponds to the ones who ministered and stood before in Daniel. If so, it is the number of angels, not the number appearing to be judged:

Rev 5: 11 And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

Commentary: These passages are not connected to cursing and blessing in the same way as the others, but are included because they are striking examples of the number ten thousand being used symbolically (it is also a literal minimum). The passage in Daniel strongly suggests a number to be judged, whereas the parallel in Revelation, separated by many chapters from the great white throne judgment scene, casts doubt upon that interpretation. Note that whereas the English translations suggest a single number, one hundred million (British: one hundred thousand thousand) by my count, the Greek of Revelation, "myriads of myriads", suggests "two or more hundreds of millions" to me. What it suggests to a Greek scholar I have no idea. I suspect the verse in Daniel was intended to indicate a minimum number at the time of judgment. At the time of writing, it would have been a very large number indeed. The reinterpretation in Revelation, of an earlier appearance at a praise and worship gathering, does not contradict the limit of a minimum number at the final judgment.