Bible at a glance
- List of Bible books in order with the number of chapters in
each book
- Bible books ranked by number of chapters from most to
least
- Shortest and longest Bible books? Bible books ranked by number of words. The word count
is done from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.
Layout of Bible books
Number of chapters in each of the 66 "books" with a list of the books in order from most
chapters to the least number of chapters
The chart below is a list of all 66 canonical books of the Bible along with the number of
chapters in each book. Most of the books were written for a group of readers. Those written to
specific individuals are identified with an asterisk. This list of Bible books has them in
the order in which they appear in Bibles today. The order is more in terms of subject matter --
history, wisdom literature, prophecy, gospel accounts, letters, and so on -- than in the
chronological order in which they were written.
For example, Bible scholars say Mark was likely the first Gospel account to be written.
However, Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, likely because it makes more
references to the Old Testament than any of the other three Gospel accounts. Scholars also
think1Thessalonians was the first of Paul's letters or epistles to be written. However, Romans the
first book in the section containing his letters to churches and individuals. The same kind of
thing occurs in the Old Testament. Esther, for instance, is about events during the Babylonian
exile while books like Psalms and Isaiah, which were written prior to the Exile, appear in the Bible
after Esther's story.
Book of the Old Testament, a.k.a. the Hebrew Bible
Books of the New Testament
*Biblical writings addressed to an individual
 | See the Old Testament portion of this outline in a
graphic table [ more ] |
What are the longest and the shortest books of the Bible?
There are three ways to measure the length of the books of the Bible. One way is by the
number of chapters. The second is by the number of words. The third is by the number of verses
into which the books are divided.
By number of chapters and total number of verses, Psalms is by far the longest book.
Jeremiah is the longest Bible book in terms of words.
In terms of the shortest Bible book, five have only one chapter: Obadiah, Second John,
Third John, Jude and Philemon. Third John has the fewest words while Second John has the
fewest verses.
Bible books ranked by the number of chapters
From the most chapters to the least number of chapters
Note: Books having an equal number of chapters are listed in alphabetical order.
- Psalms -- 150
- Isaiah -- 66
- Jeremiah -- 52
- Genesis -- 50
- Ezekiel -- 48
- Job -- 42
- Exodus -- 40
- Second Chronicles -- 36
- Numbers -- 36
- Deuteronomy -- 34
- First Samuel -- 31
- Proverbs -- 31
- First Chronicles -- 29
- Acts -- 28
- Matthew -- 28
- Leviticus -- 27
- Second Kings -- 25
- Second Samuel -- 24
- Joshua -- 24
- Luke -- 24
- First Kings -- 22
- Revelation -- 22
- John -- 21
- Judges -- 21
- First Corinthians -- 16
- Mark -- 16
- Romans -- 16
- Hosea -- 14
- Zechariah -- 14
- Second Corinthians -- 13
- Esther -- 13
- Hebrews -- 13
- Nehemiah -- 13
- Daniel -- 12
- Ecclesiastes -- 12
- Ezra -- 10
- Amos -- 9
- Song of Solomon -- 8
- FirstTimothy -- 6
- Ephesians -- 6
- Galatians -- 6
- First John -- 5
- First Peter -- 5
- First Thessalonians -- 5
- James -- 5
- Lamentations -- 5
- Second Timothy -- 4
- Colossians -- 4
- Jonah -- 4
- Malachi -- 4
- Micah -- 4
- Philippians -- 4
- Ruth -- 4
- Second Thessalonians -- 3
- Second Peter -- 3
- Habakkuk -- 3
- Joel -- 3
- Nahum -- 3
- Titus -- 3
- Zephaniah -- 3
- Haggai -- 2
- Second John -- 1
- Third John -- 1
- Jude -- 1
- Obadiah -- 1
- Philemon -- 1
Note: The writings of the Bible were not originally divided into chapters. Around A.D. 1227,
Englishman Stephen Langton developed the 1,189 chapter divisions used today by every Bible
publisher I know of. The 929 chapters in the Old Testament were divided into verses by a Jewish
rabbi in 1448 A.D. Robert Estienne divided the 260 chapters of the New Testament books into
numbered verses in 1555 A.D.
Longest and shortest chapters
With 176 verses, Psalm 119 is the longest Bible chapter. It is divided into 22 stanzas. Each
stanza starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
With just two verses, Psalm 117 is the shortest Bible chapter. Since it is the 595th of 1189
Bible chapters, Psalm 117 is also the middle chapter of the Bible..
Bible books ranked by the number of words
From the most words to the fewest words
Which Bible book is the longest? Well, it's not necessarily the one with the most chapter
divisions. Take a look at this list.
The word count given is the number of words each book has in the original languages
(Hebrew and Greek). The word count would, of course, vary from language translation to
language translation.
- Jeremiah -- 33,002 words
- Genesis -- 32,046 words
- Psalms -- 30,147 words
- Ezekiel -- 29,918 words
- Exodus -- 25,957 words
- Isaiah -- 25,608 words
- Numbers -- 25,048 words
- Deuteronomy -- 23,008 words
- Second Chronicles -- 21,349 words
- First Samuel -- 20,837 words
- First Kings -- 20,361 words
- Luke -- 19,482 words
- Leviticus -- 18,852 words
- Second Kings -- 18,784 words
- Acts -- 18,450 words
- Matthew -- 18,346 words
- Second Samuel -- 17,170 words
- First Chronicles -- 16,664 words
- Joshua -- 15,671 words
- John -- 15,635 words
- Judges -- 15,385 words
- Job -- 12,674 words
- Mark -- 11,304 words
- Proverbs -- 9,921 words
- Revelation -- 9,851 words
- Daniel -- 9,001 words
- Nehemiah -- 8,507 words
- Romans -- 7,111 words
- First Corinthians -- 6,830 words
- Ezra -- 5,605 words
- Hebrews -- 4,953 words
- Esther -- 4,932 words
- Zechariah -- 4,855 words
- Ecclesiastes -- 4,537 words
- Second Corinthians -- 4,477 words
- Hosea -- 3,615 words
- Amos -- 3,027 words
- Ephesians -- 2,422 words
- Lamentations -- 2,324 words
- Galatians -- 2,230 words
- First John -- 2,141 words
- Micah -- 2,118 words
- Ruth -- 2,039 words
- Song of Solomon -- 2,020 words
- James -- 1,742 words
- First Peter -- 1,684 words
- Philippians -- 1,629 words
- First Timothy -- 1,591 words
- Colossians -- 1,582 words
- First Thessalonians -- 1,481 words
- Joel -- 1,447 words
- Malachi -- 1,320 words
- Second Timothy -- 1,238 words
- Zephaniah -- 1,141 words
- Second Peter -- 1,099 words
- Jonah -- 1,082 words
- Habakkuk -- 1,011 words
- Haggai -- 926 words
- Nahum -- 855 words
- Second Thessalonians -- 823 words
- Titus -- 659 words
- Jude -- 461 words
- Obadiah -- 440 words
- Philemon -- 335 words
- Second John -- 245 words
- Third John -- 219 words
Longest and shortest verses in the Bible
The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35: "Jesus wept."
The longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9: "At once the royal secretaries were summoned --
on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's
orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from
India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each
people and also to the Jews in their own script and language."
Famous Bible chapters
Some of the most famous or well-known of the Bible's almost 1,200 chapters are these:
- Creation story -- Genesis 1 and 2
- Noah and the flood -- Genesis 6
- The Tower of Babel -- Genesis 11
- Call of Abraham -- Genesis 12
- Ma href="moses.htm">Moses at the burning bush -- Exodus 3
- Ten Commandments -- Exodus 20
- Fall of the walls of Jericho -- Joshua 6
- Samuel's response to God's call -- 1 Samuel 3
- The Good Shepherd Psalm -- Psalm 23
- The prophecy of Jesus' virgin birth -- Isaiah 7
- The vision of dry bones -- Ezekiel 37
- Daniel and the lions' den -- Daniel 6
- Jonah and the big fish -- Jonah 2
- Jesus' Sermon on the Mount -- Matthew 5-7
- Birth of Jesus of Nazareth -- Luke 2
- The Lord's Supper -- John 13
- Coming ot the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost -- Acts 2
- Paul's Macedonian vision -- Acts 16
- The love chapter -- 1 Corinthians 13
- Fruit of the Spirit -- Galatians 5
- The faith chapter -- Hebrews 11
- Gossip: Taming the tongue -- James 3
- Letters to the seven churches -- Revelation 2-3
- Grand finale: Vision of people in Heaven -- Revelation 7
-- Howard Culbertson,
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