"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
— John 3:16 (KJV)
This page counts one English word-family in one public-domain Bible file. It counts love, loves, loved, loving, loveth, lovest, love's in the King James Version package eng-kjv2006 from eBible.org. It does not count every Hebrew or Greek word that can mean love. A Strong's number is reported only when that same USFM span carries the English word. Every figure below is written by scripts/love-counts/count-kjv-love.mjs into content/love-counts.json.
The file has 66 books and 31,102 numbered verses. The love-form total is 492. One of those tokens is a heading before a numbered verse (Psalms 45 title). The heading is in the USFM file, so it is counted. The verse total above does not include headings.
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The count
| Love-form tokens | 492 |
| Old Testament | 238 |
| New Testament | 254 |
| Token sits on a Strong's span | 482 |
| Token has no Strong's number | 10 |
Old Testament plus New Testament is 492. Tagged plus untagged is 492. Both sums equal the love-form total.
By English form
| Form | Count |
|---|---|
| love | 310 |
| loves | 3 |
| loved | 98 |
| loving | 3 |
| loveth | 65 |
| lovest | 12 |
| love's | 1 |
love's is the possessive in Philemon 1:9 (love’s in the file, with a curly apostrophe). The other six forms are whole words. loves here is the plural noun the KJV actually prints, as in "song of loves," not the modern verb.
By book
12 books have none: Numbers, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, Ezra, Lamentations, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Acts.
| Book | Testament | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Genesis | OT | 15 |
| Exodus | OT | 2 |
| Leviticus | OT | 2 |
| Numbers | OT | 0 |
| Deuteronomy | OT | 22 |
| Joshua | OT | 2 |
| Judges | OT | 4 |
| Ruth | OT | 1 |
| 1 Samuel | OT | 11 |
| 2 Samuel | OT | 8 |
| 1 Kings | OT | 4 |
| 2 Kings | OT | 0 |
| 1 Chronicles | OT | 0 |
| 2 Chronicles | OT | 5 |
| Ezra | OT | 0 |
| Nehemiah | OT | 1 |
| Esther | OT | 1 |
| Job | OT | 1 |
| Psalms | OT | 42 |
| Proverbs | OT | 33 |
| Ecclesiastes | OT | 6 |
| Song of Solomon | OT | 32 |
| Isaiah | OT | 9 |
| Jeremiah | OT | 8 |
| Lamentations | OT | 0 |
| Ezekiel | OT | 5 |
| Daniel | OT | 2 |
| Hosea | OT | 12 |
| Joel | OT | 0 |
| Amos | OT | 1 |
| Obadiah | OT | 0 |
| Jonah | OT | 0 |
| Micah | OT | 2 |
| Nahum | OT | 0 |
| Habakkuk | OT | 0 |
| Zephaniah | OT | 1 |
| Haggai | OT | 0 |
| Zechariah | OT | 2 |
| Malachi | OT | 4 |
| Matthew | NT | 13 |
| Mark | NT | 7 |
| Luke | NT | 15 |
| John | NT | 56 |
| Acts | NT | 0 |
| Romans | NT | 15 |
| 1 Corinthians | NT | 5 |
| 2 Corinthians | NT | 13 |
| Galatians | NT | 5 |
| Ephesians | NT | 19 |
| Philippians | NT | 4 |
| Colossians | NT | 4 |
| 1 Thessalonians | NT | 6 |
| 2 Thessalonians | NT | 3 |
| 1 Timothy | NT | 3 |
| 2 Timothy | NT | 4 |
| Titus | NT | 4 |
| Philemon | NT | 3 |
| Hebrews | NT | 5 |
| James | NT | 3 |
| 1 Peter | NT | 6 |
| 2 Peter | NT | 1 |
| 1 John | NT | 46 |
| 2 John | NT | 4 |
| 3 John | NT | 2 |
| Jude | NT | 2 |
| Revelation | NT | 6 |
By Strong's number
The transliteration and gloss come from the Open Scriptures JSON of Strong's lexicon. The gloss is the lexicon's kjv_def, shortened on this page when it is long. The full kjv_def is in the JSON. Love-form tokens counts only the English forms above. Spans in the file counts every USFM span with that number, including spans whose English word is not one of those forms.
| Strong's | Transliteration | Gloss | Love-form tokens | Spans in the file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H157 | ʼâhab | (be-) love(-d, -ly, -r), like, friend. | 168 | 208 |
| G25 | agapáō | (be-)love(-ed) | 134 | 146 |
| G26 | agápē | (feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love | 86 | 117 |
| H160 | ʼahăbâh | love. | 39 | 40 |
| G5368 | philéō | kiss, love | 21 | 25 |
| H7474 | raʻyâh | fellow, love. | 9 | 9 |
| H1730 | dôwd | (well-) beloved, father's brother, love, uncle. | 8 | 61 |
| G5360 | philadelphía | brotherly love (kindness), love of the brethren | 3 | 6 |
| H2836 | châshaq | have a delight, (have a) desire, fillet, long, set (in) love. | 3 | 11 |
| G2309 | thélō | love | 1 | 217 |
| G5363 | philanthrōpía | kindness, love towards man | 1 | 3 |
| H158 | ʼahab | love(-r). | 1 | 2 |
| H159 | ʼôhab | love. | 1 | 1 |
| H2245 | châbab | love. | 1 | 1 |
| H2896 | ṭôwb | loving | 1 | 558 |
| H3039 | yᵉdîyd | amiable, (well-) beloved, loves. | 1 | 9 |
| H5690 | ʻegeb | much love, very lovely. | 1 | 2 |
| H5691 | ʻăgâbâh | inordinate love. | 1 | 1 |
| H7355 | râcham | love | 1 | 47 |
| H7356 | racham | bowels, compassion, damsel, tender love, (great, tender) mercy, pity, womb. | 1 | 44 |
H157 (ʼâhab) is on 168 counted tokens and on 208 spans in the file. G26 (agápē) is on 86 counted tokens and on 117 spans. G5368 (philéō) is on 21 counted tokens and on 25 spans.
H2617 (chêçêd) is on 248 spans and on 0 counted love-form tokens. Its lexicon gloss is “favour, good deed(-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness, merciful (kindness), mercy, pity, reproach, wicked thing.” lovingkindness occurs 26 times in this file and is not one of the counted forms.
Where the file has no Strong's number
10 counted tokens have no Strong's number on the word itself. The script does not move a number from the next word onto these.
| Reference | Form | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Genesis 29:20 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| Psalms 119:97 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| Mark 12:38 | love | Italic supplied word (USFM add). The file gives this word no Strong's number. |
| John 21:17 | lovest | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| 1 Timothy 6:10 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| Titus 2:4 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| Titus 2:4 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| 1 Peter 1:22 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| 1 Peter 3:8 | love | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
| 3 John 1:9 | loveth | The English word is outside a Strong's span. A number on a neighboring word was not moved. |
Words this count leaves out
The KJV often prints charity where later English Bibles print love. Charity is not in the 492. This file uses charity 28 times, 12 of them in 1 Corinthians. 28 of those charity tokens are tagged G26. 1 Corinthians itself has 5 counted love-form tokens. 1 Corinthians 13:4 in this file begins: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,".
These whole words are in the file and are not in the 492: beloved 111, lover 4, lovers 23, lovely 4, lovingkindness 26.
Spot-check
John 3:16 is quoted above. In that verse, "loved" is tagged G25.
Psalms 119:97 is one of the untagged lines: the English word love is outside a Strong's span. Genesis 29:20 is the same kind of line. Philemon 1:9 is the possessive love's. A reader can open those verses in the USFM zip and compare them with content/love-counts.json.
The verse list people read by theme is Bible verses about love. The chapter the KJV calls charity is 1 Corinthians 13.
Method
- Download
https://eBible.org/Scriptures/eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip. This run used the responseLast-Modified: Sat, 26 Sep 2026 02:21:51 GMT(2,461,782 bytes). - Read the 66
*.usfmbooks. The edition page is King James (Authorized) Version on eBible.org. eBible labels it public domain and says letters patent still govern printing in the United Kingdom. The same page says the file is courtesy of the CrossWire Bible Society and eBible.org, last updated 2026-09-26. - Delete footnote markers (
\\f ... \\f*) before counting. This run set aside 17 love-form tokens and 0 charity tokens inside footnotes. - Read each
\\w/\\+wspan. If the span's visible words include a counted form, keep the Strong's number that is on that span. A span such as "lovest thou" keeps its number on lovest. A number on a neighboring word is not copied across. - Count a word in
\\addas English, with no Strong's number. Those are the KJV's italic supplied words. - Match whole words, any case. Apostrophes are folded so
love’sandlove'sare one form.beloved,lover,lovers,lovely, andlovingkindnessdo not match. - The script stops if it does not see 66 books and 31,102 verses, the Protestant verse count, so a partial parse cannot write the JSON.
- Join Strong's numbers to the Open Scriptures lexicon for the lemma, transliteration, and
kjv_defonly. The counts do not depend on that lexicon. A number missing from the lexicon would be listed with the number alone. This run had 0 missing numbers.
Re-run from the repository root:
node scripts/love-counts/count-kjv-love.mjs
Sources
- Translation text: eBible.org eng-kjv2006 details and the USFM zip https://eBible.org/Scriptures/eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip. Public domain outside the United Kingdom, as that page states.
- Strong's numbers in the text: the
strong="..."attributes in that USFM. They are counted only on the span that contains the English word. - Lemma labels: Open Scriptures Strong's Greek dictionary and Hebrew dictionary, JSON transcriptions of Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (Greek 1890, Hebrew 1894). The transcription is CC BY-SA 4.0. Repository: openscriptures/strongs.
