Why is number 13 considered unlucky? What does the Bible say?

Question:

Some say number 13 is unlucky and that is of the devil. Others say the contrary, it goes well with this figure. What does the Bible say?

People rob others blind on extent of this figure. In a coverage a lady who alleges she is a specialist says that number 13 is unlucky because Judas was the 13th apostle and he betrayed Jesus. This lady does not have even the most elementary knowledge of the Scriptures.

There is nothing bad written in the Bible about number 13 and it does not say that it brings bad luck. In the New American Standard Bible translation the word “thirteen” is used 24 times and only in the Old Testament. Here are the passages:

Genesis 14:4

Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but the thirteenth year they rebelled.

Genesis 17:25

And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

Numbers 29:13

‘You shall present a burnt offering, an offering by fire as a soothing aroma to the LORD: thirteen bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs one year old, which are without defect.

Numbers 29:14

And add their grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams.

Joshua 19:6

and Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages;

Joshua 21:4

Then the lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. And the sons of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, received thirteen cities by lot from the tribe of Judah and from the tribe of the Simeonites and from the tribe of Benjamin.

Joshua 21:6

The sons of Gershon received thirteen cities by lot from the families of the tribe of Issachar and from the tribe of Asher and from the tribe of Naphtali and from the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.

Joshua 21:19

All the cities of the sons of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their pasture lands

Joshua 21:33

All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.

1 Kings 7:1

Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

1 Chronicles 6:60

and from the tribe of Benjamin: Geba with its pasture lands, Allemeth with its pasture lands, and Anathoth with its pasture lands. All their cities throughout their families were thirteen cities.

1 Chronicles 6:62

To the sons of Gershom, according to their families, were given from the tribe of Issachar and from the tribe of Asher, the tribe of Naphtali, and the tribe of Manasseh, thirteen cities in Bashan.

1 Chronicles 24:13

the thirteenth for Huppah, the fourteenth for Jeshebeab,

1 Chronicles 25:20

for the thirteenth, Shubael, his sons and his relatives, twelve;

1 Chronicles 26:11

Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth; all the sons and relatives of Hosah were 13.

Esther 3:12

Then the king’s scribes were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to the king’s satraps, to the governors who were over each province and to the princes of each people, each province according to its script, each people according to its language, being written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

Esther 3:13

Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder.

Esther 8:12

on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar)

Esther 9:1

Now in the twelfth month (that is, the month Adar), on the thirteenth day when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain the mastery over them, it was turned to the contrary so that the Jews themselves gained the mastery over those who hated them.

Esther 9:17

This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Esther 9:18

But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Jeremiah 1:2

to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Jeremiah 25:3

“From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

Ezekiel 40:11

And he measured the width of the gateway, ten cubits, and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits.

As you see, there is no biblical reason to believe that number 13 is unlucky.

Translated by Felicia Rotaru