Numbers sometimes have symbolic significance in scripture and, if understood, they can provide another layer of meaning and insight. The old book of Ether has many instances in which numbers might indicate something more than a simple tally of years or numbers of people.
In Ether 9:23-24 we read:
And it came to pass that Coriantum did walk in the steps of his father, and did build many mighty cities, and did administer that which was good unto his people in all his days. And it came to pass that he had no children even until he was exceedingly old. And it came to pass that his wife died, being an hundred and two years old. And it came to pass that Coriantum took to wife, in his old age, a young maid, and begat sons and daughters; wherefore he lived until he was an hundred and forty and two years old.
In most ancient cultures, letters also served as numbers, so numbers were used symbolically much more than now. Modern as we are, we still think of 7 as being lucky and 13 as having connotations of bad luck. In our scriptures the recurrent and significant numbers seem to be 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 40, 70 and their multiples. One is about unity. Three is tied to the Godhead, sealings, and to witnesses, four to the earth, five to grace, seven to divine completion, ten to human completion, twelve to priesthood and lineage, forty to earthly completion, and seventy to heavenly completion.
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In Matthew 18:21-22, Jesus told Peter to forgive 70 x 7 times. Jesus was most likely implying that we are to be constant and persistent in forgiving others rather than suggesting that we count off 490 transgressions and then withhold mercy.
Seven is a number that indicates God’s complete work (seven creative periods, seven dispensations, seven plagues in Revelation to bring God’s kingdom to fruition compared to the ten plagues in Egypt, which were sent to bring low Pharaoh’s human kingdom).
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Ten is a number of human completion—ten fingers, ten toes—human fulfillment. For the full benefit or the whole detriment of humans therefore, in scripture we have ten plagues, ten lepers, ten commandments, ten talents, ten virgins, etc. In Ecclesiastes 7:19 it says: “Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men which are in the city.” This is poetry, meaning that wisdom is better than all that man can do. Ten mighty men represent all men—the complete set.
Thus, God’s and man’s complete forgiveness is 7 x 10 = 70, and if God commands us to forgive, then that brings in another seven—a numerical expansion and commentary on forgiving 70 x 7.
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Coriantum, as a king, walked in righteousness as his father and grandfather had done. He had a beneficent administration. He built cities, which was taken as a sign of greatness in a king in the Asiatic cultures of ancient times such as the Jaredites. Hebrew and Nephite leaders were not noted as city-builders (by the way). The Book of Mormon gets the two different cultures right in this small matter.
Coriantum and his first wife were childless, but after the death of his wife, he remarried in his old age and had sons and daughters. It was said that he lived to be 142 years old. This is a suspicious number if taken merely as a count of years. It almost begs for another explanation.
It is more likely that this was an ancient shorthand way of efficiently saying this man was a good man (10) who did God’s work (7) through two marriages and two families (2). Some numbers can be considered as figures of speech in the same way that a spouse might say—I love you in a million ways! If someone says that to you, I hope you won’t ask for an itemized list. Such a demand would likely decrease the love just expressed.
Old age was meant as a blessing from God. Coriantum’s living to 142 might have been a birthday count, but for a writer in those times it would principally be a way of saying that God loved and blessed him—especially when it was coupled with his having had many children.
Seventy is a loaded number as we noted. Ten is man’s number of completion multiplied by God’s number of fulness: seven. This was also the “number” of the Gentile nations noted in Genesis 10 when the earth’s regions were divided amongst the nations. There were also seventy elders chosen to aid Moses. There are also the Seventy as an office in the priesthood. Each set of seventy stands for God’s doing His complete work (7) working with mankind giving their all in consecrated service (10). Thus, seventy is a blessed number in this kind of literature. Twice seventy would mean that one was doubly blessed. (See Job 42:10-17 for a very similar instance of such a blessing with age and family.)
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Just as 8 is one beyond 7 and thus stands for a new life or a new start (symbolized by the eight-year-old being baptized, the eight people on Noah’s ark, or the eight Jaredite barges heading for a new world) so 70+1 is going past the blessings of God and man in Coriantum’s “new life” with his “new wife.” And, as you’ve no doubt concluded, twice 71 gives 142.
We have in Coriantum a complete man (10) x God’s work done by him (7). He was doubly blessed with two lives (two marriages), which is another way of saying doubly blessed. However, Coriantum was also blessed beyond the usual measure i.e. moving into the next set of blessedness represented as (70+1). The shorter numerical way of saying all of this would be to say (70 + 1) x 2 = 142 or,
… wherefore he lived until he was an hundred and forty and two years old.
As we ponder the holy scriptures, numbers are often a source of important spiritual insights.