The number 19
Faith, divine order in judgment
Bullinger's treatment of nineteen is brief. His Number in Scripture (ch. "Nineteen") reads it as 10+9, the perfection of divine order combined with the number nine, which he elsewhere ties to judgment or finality, and notes that nineteen is the Hebrew letter-value (gematria) of both "Eve" and "Job." He gives no scriptural illustration beyond this. The "faith" label does not come from Bullinger; it traces to later derivative number-meaning lists rather than to his book or to a verse naming nineteen as faith's number. The "divine order in judgment" half of the site's existing label is a fair paraphrase of Bullinger's own words. The "faith" half should be held as popular tradition, not an attested source, and no scripture reference anchors it.
The mathematics
- The eighth prime, and a twin prime with 17.
- A centred hexagonal number: nineteen identical circles pack into a perfect hexagon (1, 7, 19, 37…), which is why the magic hexagon — unique in all of mathematics — has nineteen cells.
Every property here was checked before it was printed.
The same number, in what He made
Nineteen years is the Metonic cycle: nineteen solar years come to 6,939.60 days and 235 lunar months to 6,939.69 — a difference of about two hours. That near-perfect closure is why the Hebrew calendar inserts seven leap months in every nineteen years, and why the feasts keep their seasons across centuries (synodic month 29.53059 d, NASA Goddard; tropical year 365.24219 d).
Sources are named in the line itself. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
What they have said about this number
The perfection of divine order connected with judgment — ten joined to nine.
“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.”
“Faith.”
In Hebrew and Greek
Hebrew
Tishah asar (תִּשְׁעָה עָשָׂר) - nineteen
Greek
Dekaennea (δεκαεννέα) - nineteen
First occurrence
And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
The pattern in Scripture
- 19th book is Psalms
- Faith connected to divine order
Key verses
And Nahor lived after he begat Terah an hundred and nineteen years, and begat sons and daughters.
And Iron, and Migdal–el, Horem, and Beth–anath, and Beth–shemesh; nineteen cities with their village...
And Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lack...
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuch...
The nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel,
19:19 verses
Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou...
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God an...
Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not ...
And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and o...
Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the ev...
Related numbers
The works behind these readings
- E. W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture (1894)The standing catalogue of what each number means and where it returns: the spine of this whole section. Public domain; free to read in full.
- John J. Davis, Biblical Numerology (1968)The counting discipline: which numbers the text itself repeats, and which readings run past what it says.
- Ryken, Wilhoit & Longman (eds.), Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (1998)The entries on Three, Seven, Twelve and Forty: how each image works across both testaments.
- Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes (1999)The letter-value material and the design case built on it.
- Troy Brewer, Numbers That Preach (2007)What each number preaches: the founder's named guide, quoted here within the cap on living authors, with the book named so you can go and read it whole.