Revelation 7:4

4. And I heard the number Omitting the element of time, the present verse assumes the sealing as all done and the number reported. The whole number, not including the great multitude of Revelation 7:9; but the number of the sealed of all the tribes of… Israel is alone given.

A hundred and forty and four thousand A decisive instance of an exact for an inexact number, and decisive proof that there are symbol-numbers as well as symbol-objects. The basis is the symbol tribal-number, twelve; it is squared and multiplied by the cube of the number of universality, ten. It is, therefore, the churchly number, raised by multiplication of itself to a seemly magnitude, with the decimal symbolizing the inclusion of an immense whole. See notes on Revelation 9:16; Revelation 11:13; Revelation 20:4.