How many chapters are in 1 Kings?
1 Kings has 22 chapters and 816 verses. The King James Version text of 1 Kings runs 24,561 words, about 1 hour 43 minutes of reading at 238 words a minute. It is book 11 of the 66 books of the Bible (11th of the 39 Old Testament books) and the 12th longest by word count.
Verses in each chapter of 1 Kings
The longest chapter is 1 Kings 8 with 66 verses; the shortest is 1 Kings 5 with 18.
Longest and shortest verse in 1 Kings
Longest: 1 Kings 2:5, 73 words in the KJV.
Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
Shortest: 1 Kings 5:2, 6 words in the KJV.
And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,
How 1 Kings begins and ends
First verse, 1 Kings 1:1
Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he gat no heat.
Now king David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm.
Last verse, 1 Kings 22:53
For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.
He served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger, in all the ways that his father had done so.
1 Kings in our topic collections
7 verses from 1 Kings appear on our Bible verse topic pages, most often in these topics:
- Bible Verses About Mental Health (4 from 1 Kings)
- Bible Verses About Family (1 from 1 Kings)
- Bible Verses About Dreams (1 from 1 Kings)
- Bible Verses About Integrity (1 from 1 Kings)
1 Kings: common questions
How many chapters are in the book of 1 Kings?
1 Kings has 22 chapters. The longest chapter is 1 Kings 8 with 66 verses; the shortest is 1 Kings 5 with 18.
How many verses are in 1 Kings?
1 Kings has 816 verses in the King James Version, and the same number in the World English Bible.
How long does it take to read 1 Kings?
About 1 hour 43 minutes at an average silent reading speed of 238 words a minute. The KJV text is 24,561 words and the World English Bible text is 22,843 words.
What is the longest verse in 1 Kings?
1 Kings 2:5 is the longest verse in 1 Kings, at 73 words in the King James Version. The shortest is 1 Kings 5:2 (6 words): "And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,"
Compare all 66 books on how many books are in the Bible, see the Bible by the numbers, or work out how long it takes to read the Bible at your own pace.
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.