How many proverbs are there in the Bible?
The Book of Proverbs has 31 chapters and 915 verses (15,037 words in the King James Version). A proverb can run over more than one verse, so verses are what can be counted, not separate sayings. 1 Kings 4:32 says Solomon "spake three thousand proverbs": even if every verse in the book were one proverb, 915 is about 31% of that.
Updated October 22, 2026. What is counted: verses of the Book of Proverbs, verse text only. Where a section starts is read from the book's own opening lines, quoted below.
Verses in each section of Proverbs
The book announces its own sections. Each row starts at a verse that says whose words follow, quoted here, and the verse counts add up to the whole book.
| Section | Verses | Count | Words | Opening verse (KJV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instruction to a son (opens "The proverbs of Solomon") | 1:1-9:18 | 256 | 3,947 | "The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;" |
| The proverbs of Solomon, first collection | 10:1-22:16 | 375 | 6,225 | "The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." |
| The words of the wise | 22:17-24:22 | 70 | 1,156 | "Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge." |
| More sayings of the wise | 24:23-34 | 12 | 208 | "These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment." |
| More proverbs of Solomon, copied out by the men of Hezekiah | 25:1-29:27 | 138 | 2,394 | "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out." |
| The words of Agur | 30:1-33 | 33 | 640 | "The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal," |
| The words of king Lemuel | 31:1-31 | 31 | 467 | "The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him." |
| Whole book | 915 | 15,037 | ||
Solomon's 3,000 proverbs against the 915 verses
Two verses give the figures, and both are in our text.
"And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five."
"And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs."
The Book of Proverbs has 915 verses, about 31% of 3,000, and 769 of them sit under headings that name Solomon. The count of verses is exact; how many separate sayings those verses hold is not something the text states, because some proverbs fill two or three verses and some verses hold two sayings.
Verses in every chapter of Proverbs
KJV verse counts per chapter, counted from the text.
Questions about the number of proverbs
How many proverbs are in the Bible?
The Book of Proverbs has 31 chapters and 915 verses (15,037 words in the King James Version). A proverb can run over more than one verse, so verses are what can be counted, not separate sayings. 1 Kings 4:32 says Solomon "spake three thousand proverbs": even if every verse in the book were one proverb, 915 is about 31% of that.
How many chapters are in Proverbs?
31, one for each day of a 31-day month. Chapter 8 is the longest (36 verses) and chapter 9 the shortest (18 verses).
How many verses are in Proverbs?
915 in the King James Version and 915 in the World English Bible, with 15,037 and 14,460 words.
How many proverbs did Solomon write?
The text gives two figures to compare. 1 Kings 4:32 says he "spake three thousand proverbs". The Book of Proverbs has 915 verses, 769 of them in sections that open with his name (Proverbs 1:1-9:18, Proverbs 10:1-22:16 and Proverbs 25:1-29:27). Who wrote each saying is a question this page does not settle; it counts what the text says about itself.
Who are the other voices in Proverbs?
The book names "the words of the wise" (from 22:17-24:22, 70 verses, and 24:23-34, 12 verses), Agur (chapter 30, 33 verses) and king Lemuel (chapter 31, 31 verses).
How long does it take to read Proverbs?
About 1 hour 3 minutes at 238 words a minute, the average adult silent reading rate for English non-fiction (Brysbaert 2019).
How many times does the word proverb appear in the Bible?
"Proverb" and "proverbs" appear 29 times in the King James Version, in 26 verses. See the full count by book on the proverb page.
Read the book itself on the Proverbs book page, count the word on the proverb word page, browse Bible verses about wisdom, or test yourself with Bible trivia questions counted from the text. More counts are on the Bible by the numbers.
Sources: the King James Version (1769) and the World English Bible, both public domain. Section openers are quoted from the KJV text above; counts by scripts/build-proverbs.mjs.
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.