What is the longest book in the Bible?
By word count the longest book in the Bible is Jeremiah: 42,693 words in the King James Version, 10 more than Psalms (42,683). Psalms has the most chapters (150) and the most verses (2,461). Count the 1,037 words of the psalm titles and Psalms is longer.
Updated October 22, 2026
Every ranking below is counted from the full text of the King James Version and the World English Bible. Where they differ, each table says which.
The 10 longest books of the Bible, by words (KJV)
Verse text only, headings and psalm titles left out.
| # | Book | Words (KJV) | Words (WEB) | Chapters | Verses (KJV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeremiah | 42,693 | 40,543 | 52 | 1,364 |
| 2 | Psalms | 42,683 | 40,228 | 150 | 2,461 |
| 3 | Ezekiel | 39,441 | 37,649 | 48 | 1,273 |
| 4 | Genesis | 38,307 | 35,731 | 50 | 1,533 |
| 5 | Isaiah | 37,047 | 35,232 | 66 | 1,292 |
| 6 | Numbers | 32,930 | 30,929 | 36 | 1,288 |
| 7 | Exodus | 32,692 | 30,696 | 40 | 1,213 |
| 8 | Deuteronomy | 28,365 | 26,895 | 34 | 959 |
| 9 | 2 Chronicles | 26,100 | 24,386 | 36 | 822 |
| 10 | Luke | 25,938 | 24,435 | 24 | 1,151 |
The 10 longest books in the World English Bible
Same count on the WEB text, which uses different wording and so different totals.
| # | Book | Words (KJV) | Words (WEB) | Chapters | Verses (KJV) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeremiah | 42,693 | 40,543 | 52 | 1,364 |
| 2 | Psalms | 42,683 | 40,228 | 150 | 2,461 |
| 3 | Ezekiel | 39,441 | 37,649 | 48 | 1,273 |
| 4 | Genesis | 38,307 | 35,731 | 50 | 1,533 |
| 5 | Isaiah | 37,047 | 35,232 | 66 | 1,292 |
| 6 | Numbers | 32,930 | 30,929 | 36 | 1,288 |
| 7 | Exodus | 32,692 | 30,696 | 40 | 1,213 |
| 8 | Deuteronomy | 28,365 | 26,895 | 34 | 959 |
| 9 | Luke | 25,938 | 24,435 | 24 | 1,151 |
| 10 | 2 Chronicles | 26,100 | 24,386 | 36 | 822 |
Questions people ask
What is the longest book in the Bible?
Jeremiah by words (42,693 in the KJV).
Which book has the most chapters?
Psalms, with 150 chapters.
Is Psalms or Jeremiah longer?
By words in the KJV, Jeremiah (42,693) is ahead of Psalms (42,683). Psalms has the most chapters and verses. The psalm titles add 1,037 words, which would put Psalms first.
What is the longest book in the New Testament?
Luke (25,938 words, KJV).
More counts: the shortest book in the Bible, the longest chapter in the Bible, the longest verse in the Bible. See also the Bible by the numbers, the books of the Bible in order and how long the Bible is.
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.