The Bible by the numbers
The King James Bible has 31,102 verses in 1,189 chapters, and 790,325 words. The shortest verse is John 11:35, "Jesus wept." The longest is Esther 8:9 at 90 words. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter (176 verses) and Psalm 117 the shortest (2). The middle verses are Psalm 103:1 and Psalm 103:2.
How many verses are in the Bible?
31,102 in the King James Version: 23,145 in the Old Testament and 7,957 in the New. The World English Bible numbers 31,098, because it prints 7 verses as footnotes (Luke 17:36, Acts 8:37, Acts 15:34, Acts 24:7, Romans 16:25, Romans 16:26, Romans 16:27) and numbers the closing doxology of Romans as 14:24-26.
The 10 books with the most verses (KJV).
How many words are in the Bible?
790,325 words in the King James Version and 751,245 in the World English Bible, counting verse text only. Published counts differ by a few thousand depending on the edition and on whether psalm titles and hyphenated names count as one word.
The Old Testament holds 609,937 of the KJV's words (77%) and the New Testament 180,388. See every book's word count or how often a single word appears.
What is the shortest verse in the Bible?
John 11:35, "Jesus wept." It is two words in the KJV and the World English Bible. In the KJV, 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice evermore.") is also two words but has more letters.
Jesus wept.
Every two-word verse: KJV John 11:35 ("Jesus wept.") and 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice evermore."); World English Bible Job 3:2 ("Job answered:"), John 11:35 ("Jesus wept."), 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice always.").
What is the longest verse in the Bible?
Esther 8:9, at 90 words in the King James Version (87 in the World English Bible). It records the king's scribes writing Mordecai's decree to the 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia, each in its own script and language.
Then were the king’s scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language.
What is the middle verse of the Bible?
The KJV has an even number of verses (31,102), so two verses share the middle: Psalm 103:1 and Psalm 103:2 (verses 15,551 and 15,552). Psalm 118:8 is often called the middle verse, but it is verse 15,878.
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
How many chapters are in the Bible?
1,189: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament. Psalms alone has 150.
What is the longest and shortest chapter in the Bible?
Psalm 119 is the longest, with 176 verses. Psalm 117 is the shortest, with 2. Psalm 117 is also the middle chapter of the Bible: chapter 595 of 1,189.
The 10 longest chapters by verse count (KJV).
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-02.