How many chapters are in 2 Samuel?
2 Samuel has 24 chapters and 695 verses. The King James Version text of 2 Samuel runs 20,646 words, about 1 hour 27 minutes of reading at 238 words a minute. It is book 10 of the 66 books of the Bible (10th of the 39 Old Testament books) and the 17th longest by word count.
Verses in each chapter of 2 Samuel
The longest chapter is 2 Samuel 22 with 51 verses; the shortest is 2 Samuel 4 with 12.
Longest and shortest verse in 2 Samuel
Longest: 2 Samuel 14:19, 68 words in the KJV.
And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid:
Shortest: 2 Samuel 5:16, 6 words in the KJV.
And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet.
How 2 Samuel begins and ends
First verse, 2 Samuel 1:1
Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag;
After the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag;
Last verse, 2 Samuel 24:25
And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was removed from Israel.
2 Samuel in our topic collections
6 verses from 2 Samuel appear on our Bible verse topic pages, most often in these topics:
- Bible Verses About Fasting (4 from 2 Samuel)
- Bible Verses About Kindness (1 from 2 Samuel)
- Bible Verses About Mercy (1 from 2 Samuel)
2 Samuel: common questions
How many chapters are in the book of 2 Samuel?
2 Samuel has 24 chapters. The longest chapter is 2 Samuel 22 with 51 verses; the shortest is 2 Samuel 4 with 12.
How many verses are in 2 Samuel?
2 Samuel has 695 verses in the King James Version, and the same number in the World English Bible.
How long does it take to read 2 Samuel?
About 1 hour 27 minutes at an average silent reading speed of 238 words a minute. The KJV text is 20,646 words and the World English Bible text is 19,357 words.
What is the longest verse in 2 Samuel?
2 Samuel 14:19 is the longest verse in 2 Samuel, at 68 words in the King James Version. The shortest is 2 Samuel 5:16 (6 words): "And Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet."
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.