How long is the Bible?
The King James Bible is 790,325 words, 31,102 verses and 1,189 chapters. At 250 words a page that is about 3,161 pages. It takes about 55.3 hours to read silently (238 words a minute) or 72.0 hours aloud (183 words a minute). The World English Bible is shorter: 751,245 words, about 3,005 pages.
Updated October 22, 2026
Reading rates from Brysbaert (2019): adults read English non-fiction silently at 238 words a minute and aloud at 183. Pages are words divided by 250, a stated convention, not a printed count.
How many words, pages and hours
Verse text only. KJV and World English Bible counts side by side.
| Part | Words (KJV) | Words (WEB) | Pages (KJV) | Silent (KJV) | Aloud (KJV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole Bible | 790,325 | 751,245 | 3,161 | 55 hours 21 minutes | 71 hours 59 minutes |
| Old Testament | 609,937 | 576,157 | 2,440 | 42 hours 43 minutes | 55 hours 33 minutes |
| New Testament | 180,388 | 175,088 | 722 | 12 hours 38 minutes | 16 hours 26 minutes |
Length of every book
All 66 books in canon order, with pages at 250 words and reading time at 238 words a minute.
| # | Book | Words (KJV) | Words (WEB) | Pages | Silent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genesis | 38,307 | 35,731 | 153 | 2 hours 41 minutes |
| 2 | Exodus | 32,692 | 30,696 | 131 | 2 hours 17 minutes |
| 3 | Leviticus | 24,543 | 23,305 | 98 | 1 hour 43 minutes |
| 4 | Numbers | 32,930 | 30,929 | 132 | 2 hours 18 minutes |
| 5 | Deuteronomy | 28,365 | 26,895 | 113 | 1 hour 59 minutes |
| 6 | Joshua | 18,965 | 17,604 | 76 | 1 hour 20 minutes |
| 7 | Judges | 19,010 | 17,804 | 76 | 1 hour 20 minutes |
| 8 | Ruth | 2,574 | 2,461 | 10 | 11 minutes |
| 9 | 1 Samuel | 25,086 | 23,410 | 100 | 1 hour 45 minutes |
| 10 | 2 Samuel | 20,646 | 19,357 | 83 | 1 hour 27 minutes |
| 11 | 1 Kings | 24,561 | 22,843 | 98 | 1 hour 43 minutes |
| 12 | 2 Kings | 23,565 | 22,031 | 94 | 1 hour 39 minutes |
| 13 | 1 Chronicles | 20,440 | 19,123 | 82 | 1 hour 26 minutes |
| 14 | 2 Chronicles | 26,100 | 24,386 | 104 | 1 hour 50 minutes |
| 15 | Ezra | 7,451 | 7,101 | 30 | 31 minutes |
| 16 | Nehemiah | 10,494 | 10,056 | 42 | 44 minutes |
| 17 | Esther | 5,633 | 5,415 | 23 | 24 minutes |
| 18 | Job | 18,099 | 17,663 | 72 | 1 hour 16 minutes |
| 19 | Psalms | 42,683 | 40,228 | 171 | 2 hours 59 minutes |
| 20 | Proverbs | 15,037 | 14,460 | 60 | 1 hour 3 minutes |
| 21 | Ecclesiastes | 5,579 | 5,495 | 22 | 23 minutes |
| 22 | Song of Solomon | 2,661 | 2,544 | 11 | 11 minutes |
| 23 | Isaiah | 37,047 | 35,232 | 148 | 2 hours 36 minutes |
| 24 | Jeremiah | 42,693 | 40,543 | 171 | 2 hours 59 minutes |
| 25 | Lamentations | 3,411 | 3,372 | 14 | 14 minutes |
| 26 | Ezekiel | 39,441 | 37,649 | 158 | 2 hours 46 minutes |
| 27 | Daniel | 11,617 | 11,321 | 46 | 49 minutes |
| 28 | Hosea | 5,183 | 5,017 | 21 | 22 minutes |
| 29 | Joel | 2,033 | 1,907 | 8 | 9 minutes |
| 30 | Amos | 4,219 | 4,013 | 17 | 18 minutes |
| 31 | Obadiah | 669 | 615 | 3 | 3 minutes |
| 32 | Jonah | 1,320 | 1,251 | 5 | 6 minutes |
| 33 | Micah | 3,154 | 2,954 | 13 | 13 minutes |
| 34 | Nahum | 1,285 | 1,193 | 5 | 5 minutes |
| 35 | Habakkuk | 1,475 | 1,369 | 6 | 6 minutes |
| 36 | Zephaniah | 1,615 | 1,524 | 6 | 7 minutes |
| 37 | Haggai | 1,130 | 1,019 | 5 | 5 minutes |
| 38 | Zechariah | 6,443 | 5,963 | 26 | 27 minutes |
| 39 | Malachi | 1,781 | 1,678 | 7 | 7 minutes |
| 40 | Matthew | 23,684 | 22,852 | 95 | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| 41 | Mark | 15,164 | 14,292 | 61 | 1 hour 4 minutes |
| 42 | Luke | 25,938 | 24,435 | 104 | 1 hour 49 minutes |
| 43 | John | 19,093 | 18,725 | 76 | 1 hour 20 minutes |
| 44 | Acts | 24,246 | 23,170 | 97 | 1 hour 42 minutes |
| 45 | Romans | 9,423 | 9,457 | 38 | 40 minutes |
| 46 | 1 Corinthians | 9,462 | 9,360 | 38 | 40 minutes |
| 47 | 2 Corinthians | 6,068 | 6,085 | 24 | 25 minutes |
| 48 | Galatians | 3,085 | 3,127 | 12 | 13 minutes |
| 49 | Ephesians | 3,023 | 3,087 | 12 | 13 minutes |
| 50 | Philippians | 2,184 | 2,218 | 9 | 9 minutes |
| 51 | Colossians | 1,980 | 1,992 | 8 | 8 minutes |
| 52 | 1 Thessalonians | 1,838 | 1,840 | 7 | 8 minutes |
| 53 | 2 Thessalonians | 1,022 | 1,037 | 4 | 4 minutes |
| 54 | 1 Timothy | 2,244 | 2,279 | 9 | 9 minutes |
| 55 | 2 Timothy | 1,666 | 1,618 | 7 | 7 minutes |
| 56 | Titus | 896 | 907 | 4 | 4 minutes |
| 57 | Philemon | 430 | 442 | 2 | 2 minutes |
| 58 | Hebrews | 6,897 | 6,896 | 28 | 29 minutes |
| 59 | James | 2,304 | 2,260 | 9 | 10 minutes |
| 60 | 1 Peter | 2,476 | 2,422 | 10 | 10 minutes |
| 61 | 2 Peter | 1,553 | 1,520 | 6 | 7 minutes |
| 62 | 1 John | 2,517 | 2,463 | 10 | 11 minutes |
| 63 | 2 John | 298 | 298 | 1 | 1 minute |
| 64 | 3 John | 294 | 293 | 1 | 1 minute |
| 65 | Jude | 608 | 607 | 2 | 3 minutes |
| 66 | Revelation | 11,995 | 11,406 | 48 | 50 minutes |
Questions about the length of the Bible
How long is the Bible?
The King James Bible is 790,325 words, 31,102 verses and 1,189 chapters. At 250 words a page that is about 3,161 pages. It takes about 55.3 hours to read silently (238 words a minute) or 72.0 hours aloud (183 words a minute). The World English Bible is shorter: 751,245 words, about 3,005 pages.
How many words are in the Bible?
790,325 in the King James Version and 751,245 in the World English Bible, counting verse text only (609,937 KJV words in the Old Testament and 180,388 in the New). Counts you see elsewhere differ by a few thousand depending on the edition and on whether psalm titles (1,037 words) and hyphenated names count.
How many pages are in the Bible?
There is no single answer, because a printed Bible's page count depends on its type size, margins and notes. At the common convention of 250 words a page, the KJV text is about 3,161 pages and the WEB about 3,005.
How many verses and chapters are in the Bible?
31,102 verses and 1,189 chapters in the KJV (31,098 verses in the WEB, which prints 7 verses as footnotes).
How long does it take to read the Bible out loud?
About 71 hours 59 minutes at 183 words a minute, the average adult reading-aloud rate (Brysbaert 2019).
Why are the KJV and WEB different lengths?
The two translate the same books with different wording: the KJV uses 39,080 more words (5.2% more) over 31,102 verses.
To plan your own pace use the Bible reading time calculator; for lists see the books of the Bible in order, the longest book and the Bible by the numbers.
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 2026-10-22.