How many chapters are in Lamentations?
Lamentations has 5 chapters and 154 verses. The King James Version text of Lamentations runs 3,411 words, about 14 minutes of reading at 238 words a minute. It is book 25 of the 66 books of the Bible (25th of the 39 Old Testament books) and the 38th longest by word count.
Verses in each chapter of Lamentations
The longest chapter is Lamentations 3 with 66 verses; the shortest is Lamentations 1 with 22.
Longest and shortest verse in Lamentations
Longest: Lamentations 2:6, 51 words in the KJV.
And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
Shortest: Lamentations 3:23, 9 words in the KJV.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
How Lamentations begins and ends
First verse, Lamentations 1:1
How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people how is she become as a widow she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary
How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave!
Last verse, Lamentations 5:22
But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
But you have utterly rejected us. You are very angry against us.
Lamentations in our topic collections
10 verses from Lamentations appear on our Bible verse topic pages, most often in these topics:
- Bible Verses About Depression (9 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About Hope (3 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About New Beginnings (3 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About Mercy (2 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About Mental Health (2 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About Faithfulness (2 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About Love (1 from Lamentations)
- Bible Verses About Orphans (1 from Lamentations)
Lamentations: common questions
How many chapters are in the book of Lamentations?
Lamentations has 5 chapters. The longest chapter is Lamentations 3 with 66 verses; the shortest is Lamentations 1 with 22.
How many verses are in Lamentations?
Lamentations has 154 verses in the King James Version, and the same number in the World English Bible.
How long does it take to read Lamentations?
About 14 minutes at an average silent reading speed of 238 words a minute. The KJV text is 3,411 words and the World English Bible text is 3,372 words.
What is the longest verse in Lamentations?
Lamentations 2:6 is the longest verse in Lamentations, at 51 words in the King James Version. The shortest is Lamentations 3:23 (9 words): "They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."
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.