What is the longest book of the Bible? What is the shortest book of the Bible? These are interesting questions that surprisingly don’t have simple answers. To figure out what’s happening here, we need to break down each book of the Bible by word count – not just in the English translations, but also in the original language.
To start, I’m going to share with you the sortable data table to compare word count for each translation of the Bible, but then we’re going use this information to answer a few interesting questions such as:
- What is the longest book of the Bible?
- What is the shortest book of the Bible?
- How many words are in the King James Bible?
- How many words are in the New International Version?
- How many words are in the English Standard Version?
Books of the Bible by Word Count (Compared by Translation)
Below is a table that shows each book of the Bible and their respective word count based on the translation. It is ordered from the longest to shortest book of the Bible based on the original language, but you can sort this by clicking each of the header columns below.
What is the Longest Book of the Bible?
The longest book of the Bible is Jeremiah, Psalms or the Kings, depending on how you define “longest.” What makes this such an interesting question is that you can look at this based on word count in the original language, word count in the translated English language or even in the Bible’s original form.
Here’s what I mean:
- Jeremiah is the longest book if you count based on words in the original Greek or Hebrew language (33,002).
- Psalms is the longest book if you count based on the translated English version of the Bible (43,738 words in KJV). The reason for this discrepancy is that psalms are usually shorter and punchier in the original language, but require more words to translate in the English language.
- 1 & 2 Kings is the longest book if you consider the Bible in its original form. Back when the Old Testament was written on scrolls, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles were all one scroll. It wasn’t until they were translated from Hebrew to Greek (what we call the Septuagint) that the books became too long to fit one one scroll and were split into two. When combined, the Kings scroll would have to be considered the longest at 39,145 words.
At the end of the day, there are multiple “longest books” of the Bible and it makes for some fun trivia to share with friends and family. But what about the “shortest” book?
What is the Shortest Book of the Bible?
The shortest book of the Bible is either 2 John or 3 John, depending on the translation. The book of 2nd John (13 verses) has one fewer verse than 3rd John (14 verses), but the word counts differ based on translation.
For example, as you can see above, 2 John is the shortest book in both the New International Version (302 words) and the English Standard Version (300 words). However, 3 John is the shortest book in the King James Version (294 words) as well as the original Greek language (219).
How Many Words in the King James Version (KJV)
There seem to be various numbers floating around the internet, but the King James Version has 790,678 words as calculated in the word count table above. This is broken out into 610,296 words in the Old Testament and 180,382 in the New Testament.
These word count numbers vary based on translation, but what stays the same is that the KJV still has 66 books and 1,189 chapters. (learn more about how many chapters & verses in the Bible)
How Many Words in the New International Version (NIV)
In the New International Version (NIV), a popular English translation of the Bible, there are 727,993 words across all 66 books. This can be broken down into 551,742 in the Old Testament and 176,251 in the New Testament.
Keep in mind that these numbers reflect the modern version of the NIV, not the 1984 edition.
How Many Words in the English Standard Version (ESV)
In the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible, there are 756,846 words. This includes 581,112 in the Old Testament and 175,734 in the New Testament. This puts the ESV in the middle of the pack in terms of length of Bibles, being shorter than the KJV translation but longer than the NIV.
More Than Just Words…
To be clear, the word count of the Bible is trivial and not nearly as important as the meaning of the words. While it’s fun to look up the number of words in each book or be able to answer questions about which is the longest/shortest book, this should never undermine the the value of what Bible is.
The Bible is God’s Word. It is His gift to us!
It’s great to read and study the Bible, but here at Bible Memory Goal we encourage people to go a step further and learn to memorize the Bible!
Don’t know where to start? Here are a few resources that could be helpful:
- Start with 52 Verses: Download this list of 52 verses – one for each week of the year – so that you can start with a solid foundation in your understanding of the Christian faith.
- Which Translation to Memorize? There are so many different translations to choose from, at least in the English lanague, so how can you decide which one you should choose to memorize?
- Learn HOW to Memorize the Bible! (premium) Join this 5-part training that includes video lessons, downloadable PDFs and Q&A sessions to jump-start your Scripture memory journey.