- In Jewish tradition:
- Seventy souls went down to Egypt to begin the Hebrews' Egyptian exile (Genesis 46:27).
- There is a core of 70 nations and 70 world languages, paralleling the 70 names in the Table of Nations.
- There were 70 men in the Great Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of ancient Israel. (Sanhedrin 1:4.)
- According to the Jewish Aggada, there are 70 perspectives ("faces") to the Torah (Numbers Rabbah 13:15).
- Seventy elders were assembled by Moses on God's command in the desert (Numbers 11:16–30).
- Psalm 90:10 allots three score and ten (70 years) for a man's life, and the Mishnah attributes that age to "strength" (Avot 5:32), as one who survives that age is described by the verse as "the strong".
- Ptolemy II Philadelphus ordered 72 Jewish elders to translate the Torah into Greek; the result was the Septuagint (from the Latin for "seventy"). The Roman numeral seventy, LXX, is the scholarly symbol for the Septuagint.
- In Christianity:
- In Matthew 18:21–22, Jesus tells Peter to forgive people seventy times seven times.
- In Luke 10:1–24, Jesus appoints Seventy Disciples and sends them out in pairs to preach the Gospel.
- Seventy is a priesthood office in the Latter Day Saint religion.
- In Islamic history and in Islamic interpretation the number 70 or 72 is most often and generally hyperbole for an infinite amount:
- There are 70 dead among the Prophet Muhammad's adversaries during the Battle of Badr.
- 70 of the Prophet Muhammad's followers are martyred at the Battle of Uhud.
- In Shia Islam, there are 70 martyrs among Imam Hussein's followers during the Battle of Karbala.
