The Major and Minor Prophets
The 5 major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. The 12 minor prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. "Major" and "minor" describe length, not importance: the major prophets hold 134,209 words in the King James Version, and all 12 minor prophets together hold 30,307, fewer than Isaiah alone (37,047).
Updated October 25, 2026. Chapters, verses and words are counted from the full text of the King James Version, and reading time assumes 238 words a minute, the rate the rest of this site uses.
The 5 major prophets
Books 23 to 27 of the Old Testament: 183 chapters and 4,440 verses. Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible by words in both translations, 10 King James words ahead of Psalms.
| # | Major prophet | Chapters | Verses | KJV words | Reading time | "Thus saith the LORD" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isaiah | 66 | 1,292 | 37,047 | 2 hours 36 minutes | 35 |
| 2 | Jeremiah | 52 | 1,364 | 42,693 | 2 hours 59 minutes | 148 |
| 3 | Lamentations | 5 | 154 | 3,411 | 14 minutes | 0 |
| 4 | Ezekiel | 48 | 1,273 | 39,441 | 2 hours 46 minutes | 126 |
| 5 | Daniel | 12 | 357 | 11,617 | 49 minutes | 0 |
The 12 minor prophets
Books 28 to 39, the last twelve books of the Old Testament: 67 chapters and 1,050 verses in all. Obadiah, at 21 verses, is the shortest book in the Old Testament.
| # | Minor prophet | Chapters | Verses | KJV words | Reading time | "Thus saith the LORD" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Hosea | 14 | 197 | 5,183 | 22 minutes | 0 |
| 7 | Joel | 3 | 73 | 2,033 | 9 minutes | 0 |
| 8 | Amos | 9 | 146 | 4,219 | 18 minutes | 13 |
| 9 | Obadiah | 1 | 21 | 669 | 3 minutes | 1 |
| 10 | Jonah | 4 | 48 | 1,320 | 6 minutes | 0 |
| 11 | Micah | 7 | 105 | 3,154 | 13 minutes | 2 |
| 12 | Nahum | 3 | 47 | 1,285 | 5 minutes | 1 |
| 13 | Habakkuk | 3 | 56 | 1,475 | 6 minutes | 0 |
| 14 | Zephaniah | 3 | 53 | 1,615 | 7 minutes | 0 |
| 15 | Haggai | 2 | 38 | 1,130 | 5 minutes | 4 |
| 16 | Zechariah | 14 | 211 | 6,443 | 27 minutes | 18 |
| 17 | Malachi | 4 | 55 | 1,781 | 7 minutes | 1 |
Why major and minor? The sizes side by side
The five major prophets hold 82% of the words in these 17 books. The twelve minor prophets together are shorter than Isaiah alone: 30,307 words to 37,047.
The names go back at least to Augustine. In City of God, book 18, chapter 29, he says the twelve "are called the minor from the brevity of their writings, as compared with those who are called the greater prophets because they published larger volumes." Lamentations is shorter than 3 of the minor prophets, but it is grouped with the major ones because it has long been credited to Jeremiah and English Bibles place it right after his book. The Bible ties Jeremiah to laments in 2 Chronicles 35:25: "Jeremiah lamented for Josiah".
Who says "thus saith the LORD" most?
The phrase appears 415 times in the King James Version, and these 17 books hold 349 of them, 309 in the major prophets.
The count takes in both ways the King James Version prints it: "Thus saith the LORD" (281 times) and "Thus saith the Lord GOD" (134). Ezekiel almost always uses the second form, 122 of its 126. The phrase never appears in 7 of the books: Lamentations, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. Several of them use other openings. Hosea and Joel begin with "The word of the LORD that came", and Jonah is mostly a story about a prophet rather than his sayings. The World English Bible renders the phrase "Yahweh says". The full count by book is on thus saith the Lord.
The same books in the Hebrew Bible
The major and minor split belongs to the order of English Bibles. The Hebrew Bible counts the twelve minor prophets as one book, called the Twelve, and places Lamentations and Daniel among the Writings rather than the Prophets. When Stephen quotes Amos in Acts 7:42, he cites it as "written in the book of the prophets". Jesus calls Daniel a prophet in Matthew 24:15, "spoken of by Daniel the prophet".
"Prophet" or "prophets" appears 480 times in the King James Version and 478 in the World English Bible. Amos, one of the twelve, told the priest at Bethel "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son" (Amos 7:14). Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, closes with a promise to send "Elijah the prophet" (Malachi 4:5).
Questions about the major and minor prophets
Who are the 5 major prophets?
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. Lamentations is counted with them because it has long been credited to Jeremiah, who "lamented for Josiah" (2 Chronicles 35:25), and English Bibles place it right after his book. The book itself names no author.
Who are the 12 minor prophets?
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, in the order of English Bibles. Together they have 67 chapters and 1,050 verses.
Why are they called major and minor prophets?
Because of length. Augustine, writing in the 400s, says the twelve "are called the minor from the brevity of their writings" (City of God, book 18, chapter 29). The longest minor prophet, Zechariah, has 6,443 KJV words; the shortest major prophet, Lamentations, has 3,411.
Which prophet book is the longest?
Jeremiah, with 42,693 words in the King James Version. It is the longest book in the whole Bible by words, but only just: Psalms has 42,683, 10 fewer. The World English Bible gives the same order (40,543 to 40,228). Isaiah has more chapters (66).
Which is the shortest book of the prophets?
Obadiah, with 21 verses in one chapter. It is also the shortest book in the Old Testament.
Sources
- The King James Version (1769) and the World English Bible, both public domain: every count on this page, from the text at github.com/seven1m/open-bibles, counted by scripts/build-bible-stats.mjs and scripts/lists/major-and-minor-prophets.mjs (read and counted 2026-10-25).
- Augustine, City of God, book 18, chapter 29, translated by Marcus Dods (New Advent, read 2026-10-25).
Every book in order is on the Old Testament books in order and the books of the Bible. Read about Isaiah, Jeremiah and Jonah, or the word counts for prophet, Daniel and Jonah. The shortest books are on the shortest book in the Bible.
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 2026-10-25.