The number 39 is associated with the 39 forbidden categories of work on the Sabbath (melakhot) and with the punishment of 39 lashes in Jewish law.
In Jewish tradition, the number 39 is best known from the 39 melakhot – the 39 main categories of work forbidden on the Sabbath, derived from the work done in building the Tabernacle (Mishkan). In addition, Deuteronomy 25:3 sets the maximum penalty at 40 lashes, but the rabbis limited this to 39 to avoid exceeding the limit through a miscount. The number 39 also appears in chronological contexts, as in 2 Kings 15:13 and 15:17, where it indicates the 39th year of the reign of Judah's king Azariah (Uzziah), serving as a timeframe for the accession of Israel's kings. The 39 melakhot are systematically listed in the Mishnah, tractate Shabbat 7:2, and are derived from the types of work necessary to build the Tabernacle. The rabbis ruled that the condemned should receive 39 lashes instead of 40, to ensure that the limit of 40 was never exceeded, even in case of a counting error. This is discussed in the Mishnah, tractate Makkot 3:10. Paul mentions in 2 Corinthians 11:24 that he received five times 'forty lashes minus one,' meaning 39 lashes. This confirms that the rabbinic practice of using 39 instead of 40 lashes was well established in the first century CE.*