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Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 18

[Study Aired March 15, 2026]

We have already learned that the multiplication of any number simply amplifies or matures that number’s meaning. For example, if the number six signifies incomplete mankind, created on the sixth day, then the number 666 amplifies and matures that concept of an incomplete mankind. If twelve signifies foundations, then 144,000 would amplify and mature that concept.

Our study today is concerned with the number eighteen, which is a multiple of the number nine. The number nine is unlike any other number in that no matter which number you multiply it with, the product of that number will always reduce back to nine when added together. If we multiply 9×2=18, and the sum of the numbers which make up that product will always equal 9 because 1+8=9. 3×9=27, and when you add 2+7 it equals 9. 4×9=36 and 3+6=9… 5×9=45 and 4+5=9, etc. etc.

The spiritual significance of the number 9 is judgment which leads to salvation as demonstrated by this verse of scripture:

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Here is an in depth study on what the scriptures reveal the number nine signifies spiritually: https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_nine/

If indeed the number nine signifies the Lord’s judgments, leading to repentance and deliverance, and knowing that multiples of any number amplify and mature that number, we should expect to find that principle being demonstrated throughout the scriptures, and indeed in the first two places when this number eighteen appears in scripture that is exactly what we see:

Jdg 3:14  So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
Jdg 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.

Israel’s subjection and enslavement by Eglon the king of Moab, is the Lord’s judgment upon them for their sins. It was their judgment which led to their repentance and their deliverance. ‘When your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.’(Isa 26:9)

The next time we see this number 18 is in:

Jdg 10:7  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
Jdg 10:8  And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Jdg 10:9  Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

What is the result of the Lord’s judgment of our sins and our repentance for those sins?

Jdg 10:10  And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.
Jdg 10:11  And the LORD said unto the children of Israel,  Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?
Jdg 10:12  The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.
Jdg 10:13  Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
Jdg 10:14  Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
Jdg 10:15  And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
Jdg 10:16  And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Jdg 10:17  Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.

Once again, the Lord’s judgments of our sins produces the repentance of those sins and the deliverance we all so desperately need:

Jdg 11:32  So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
Jdg 11:33  And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

The sins and the judgment of those sins of Israel, leading to the repentance and deliverance from those sins, is signified by this number 18. That was the number of years Israel was oppressed by her enemies. Paul tells us that all these things happened to Israel and they are written for our admonition:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The ‘Israel’ of the Old Testament signifies those who are now claiming the name and character of Jesus Christ. It is now we who must come to see our sins and repent of those sins before we can be delivered from our bondage of desiring to be as the nations and the people around us.

The next time we see this number 18 is in the story of the destruction of the tribe of Benjamin for raping to death the concubine of a Levite who had spent the night in Gibeah, a city of Benjamin, in the home of a man of that city who had invited him to his house for the night. We will see in this story that both Israel and Benjamin lose 18,000 men each in two separate battles.

The men of Gibeah had demanded that the host send his Levite guest out to them so they could do to him what the men of Sodom had wanted to do to the two angels who had been invited into Lot’s home. The Levite gave the men his concubine and the men of Gibeah raped her to death. The next day the Levite cut her body into twelve pieces and sent a piece to each tribe of Israel hoping for revenge for the loss of his concubine who had given her life for him. The story of what had been done to the Levite’s concubine outraged the entire nation, and they determined to discipline Gibeah for this atrocity:

Jdg 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
Jdg 20:12  And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
Jdg 20:13  Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:
Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

Israel wanted only the guilty men, but all of Benjamin refused to punish these perverts among themselves. Benjamin was of Israel, and what had been manifested at Gibeah was lying dormant in all Israel and is dormant in all flesh. The Lord used this occasion to punish both Israel and Benjamin even though Israel inquired of the Lord daily before going to war.

Jdg 20:14  But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
Jdg 20:15  And the children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
Jdg 20:16  Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
Jdg 20:17  And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Jdg 20:18  And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

It is in this situation amidst the loss of thousands on both sides that both Israel and Benjamin lost 18,000 men in two separate battles:

Jdg 20:25  And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

These “eighteen thousand” were just on “the second day.” Israel lost many more on the first day:

Jdg 20:19  And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
Jdg 20:20  And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21  And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

Eighteen plus twenty two equals a loss of 40,000 men of Israel in just two days with apparently very few of Benjamin being slain. It is plain for all to see the Lord was not happy with either side. Nevertheless, He did give Israel the final victory over Benjamin for the atrocities committed by the men of Gibeah against the concubine of a Levite.

Jdg 20:26  Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
Jdg 20:27  And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
Jdg 20:28  And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

Israel was given to exercise a much better strategy on the third day acting as if they had come to fight in the same manner as they had the first two days. Then they intentionally fled before the men of Benjamin while “liers in wait” came out of the fields and burned the city behind the Benjamite soldiers causing them to flee for their lives:

Jdg 20:29  And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
Jdg 20:30  And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
Jdg 20:31  And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
Jdg 20:32  And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
Jdg 20:33  And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:34  And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.
Jdg 20:35  And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
Jdg 20:36  So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
Jdg 20:37  And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
Jdg 20:38  Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
Jdg 20:39  And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
Jdg 20:40  But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
Jdg 20:41  And when the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.
Jdg 20:42  Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
Jdg 20:43  Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
Jdg 20:44  And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
Jdg 20:45  And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.
Jdg 20:46  So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
Jdg 20:47  But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
Jdg 20:48  And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

Israel was given deliverance from the sins of Gibeah while Benjamin was almost wiped out as a tribe.

Jdg 21:2  And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;
Jdg 21:3  And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

Israel was given to find a way to give wives to the six hundred Benjamites who had survived and were at the Rock Rimmon for four months. In the end they, too, were delivered and returned to rebuild their cities and the foundation of Israel was preserved in the twelve tribes.

The spiritual lesson in this story is the same as the story of the sin of Achan:

Jos 7:10  And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Jos 7:11  Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Jos 7:12  Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Jos 7:13  Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

Israel had just destroyed Jericho, and they were moving on to war against another very small city called Ai. For some strange reason they were defeated by this very small town:

Jos 7:5  And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
Jos 7:6  And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
Jos 7:7  And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
Jos 7:8  O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
Jos 7:9  For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

The Lord revealed to Joshua there was someone who had taken for himself what the Lord had forbidden, and for that reason a curse was upon the whole nation. That ‘someone’ was Achan, who confessed his sin and was put to death:

Jos 7:19  And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
Jos 7:20  And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:22  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:23  And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
Jos 7:24  And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
Jos 7:25  And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
Jos 7:26  And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

Once the sin was repented of and removed then the Lord delivered Ai into Israel’s hands, and Israel destroyed their enemy with the same strategy used by Israel to destroy Benjamin many years later:

Jos 8:10  And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
Jos 8:11  And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12  And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
Jos 8:13  And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
Jos 8:14  And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

While the number 18 is not mentioned in the story of the conquest of Ai, the principle of judgment leading to repentance followed by deliverance, signified by the number 18, is very evident.

The next appearance of this number eighteen is when King David was renowned for slaying 18,000 Syrians in the valley of salt. At that time the Lord delivered David from all his enemies:

2Sa 8:13  And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men.
2Sa 8:14  And he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David’s servants. And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.

This was following David’s trials and his judgment at the hands of wicked king Saul. At this time David was humble and was delivered from all of his enemies.

Another appearance of this number eighteen, is in giving us the measurements of the two huge copper pillars at the front of the temple of Solomon. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. That is 27 feet or 8.23 meters high:

The placement of these two pillars, which were 18 cubits high, at the front of the temple signifies that we are being delivered from our sins after being judged for those sins and repenting before entering into the house of our Lord.

We find this same number with the same significance in the New Testament. Christ makes it clear in Luke thirteen that this number signifies the repentance and deliverance which we all must experience when being judged of the Lord:

Luk 13:1  There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Luk 13:2  And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
Luk 13:3  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Luk 13:4  Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5  I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

This same number with the same spiritual significance appears twice more in this same thirteenth chapter of Luke:

Luk 13:10  And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
Luk 13:11  And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
Luk 13:12  And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
Luk 13:13  And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
Luk 13:14  And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.
Luk 13:15  The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
Luk 13:16  And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
Luk 13:17  And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

This woman was delivered from “a spirit of infirmity” which kept her “bowed together to the extent that she could not straighten herself up for 18 years. But at that point she was delivered from that infirmity and made whole.

There is much more that can be pointed out in scripture concerning the number eighteen but I will close this study at this juncture by pointing out that eighteen is three sixes, three signifying the process of judgment and six signifying our incomplete, carnal-minded old man who is in the process of being delivered from that sad state through the Lord’s judgments:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

That is truly good news!