The number 20,000 symbolizes an overwhelmingly large army or God's incomprehensible power and majesty.
In the Bible, the number 20000 is mentioned several times in connection with large armies and military contexts, as in 2 Samuel 8:4 and 10:6, where it describes the number of soldiers. In Psalm 68:18, God's chariots are referred to as 'twenty thousand, yes thousands upon thousands', which emphasizes God's overwhelming power and heavenly host. The number thus serves as an expression of something enormous and overwhelming, often linked to divine or military strength, and conveys a scale that exceeds human comprehension. Rabbinic tradition interprets Psalm 68:18 as a description of angelic hosts that accompanied God at the revelation on Sinai. According to the Talmud (Pesachim 68b), God came to Sinai with 22,000 angels, and 'twenty thousand' chariots are understood as an image of the heavenly army surrounding God's throne. In biblical Hebrew, large round numbers like 20,000 are often used as a rhetorical device to express an overwhelming quantity rather than an exact count. Such numbers convey the impression of something countless and mighty.*