Longest and Shortest Parts of the Bible

== What Are the Longest and the Shortest Books of the Bible? ==
There are three ways to measure the length of the books of the Bible. One way is by the number of chapters. The second is by the number of words. The third is by the number of verses into which the books are divided.
By number of chapters and total number of verses, Psalms is by far the longest book. Jeremiah is the longest Bible book in terms of words.
In terms of the shortest Bible book, five have only one chapter: Obadiah, Second John, Third John, Jude, and Philemon. Third John has the fewest words while Second John has the fewest verses.
=== Bible Books Ranked by the Number of Chapters ===
==== From the Most Chapters to the Least Number of Chapters ====
Note: Books having an equal number of chapters are listed in alphabetical order.
# Psalms -- 150
# Isaiah -- 66
# Jeremiah -- 52
# Genesis -- 50
# Ezekiel -- 48
# Job -- 42
# Exodus -- 40
# Second Chronicles -- 36
# Numbers -- 36
# Deuteronomy -- 34
# First Samuel -- 31
# Proverbs -- 31
# First Chronicles -- 29
# Acts -- 28
# Matthew -- 28
# Leviticus -- 27
# Second Kings -- 25
# Second Samuel -- 24
# Joshua -- 24
# Luke -- 24
# First Kings -- 22
# Revelation -- 22
# John -- 21
# Judges -- 21
# First Corinthians -- 16
# Mark -- 16
# Romans -- 16
# Hosea -- 14
# Zechariah -- 14
# Second Corinthians -- 13
# Esther -- 13
# Hebrews -- 13
# Nehemiah -- 13
# Daniel -- 12
# Ecclesiastes -- 12
# Ezra -- 10
# Amos -- 9
# Song of Solomon -- 8
# First Timothy -- 6
# Ephesians -- 6
# Galatians -- 6
# First John -- 5
# First Peter -- 5
# First Thessalonians -- 5
# James -- 5
# Lamentations -- 5
# Second Timothy -- 4
# Colossians -- 4
# Jonah -- 4
# Malachi -- 4
# Micah -- 4
# Philippians -- 4
# Ruth -- 4
# Second Thessalonians -- 3
# Second Peter -- 3
# Habakkuk -- 3
# Joel -- 3
# Nahum -- 3
# Titus -- 3
# Zephaniah -- 3
# Haggai -- 2
# Second John -- 1
# Third John -- 1
# Jude -- 1
# Obadiah -- 1
# Philemon -- 1
The writings of the Bible were not originally divided into chapters. Around A.D. 1227, Englishman Stephen Langton developed the 1,189 chapter divisions used today by most Bible publishers. The 929 chapters in the Old Testament were divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi in 1448 A.D. Robert Etienne divided the 260 chapters of the New Testament books into numbered verses in 1555 A.D.
=== Longest and Shortest Chapters ===
With 176 verses, Psalm 119 is the longest Bible chapter. It is divided into 22 stanzas. Each stanza starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
With just two verses, Psalm 117 is the shortest Bible chapter. Since it is the 595th of 1189 Bible chapters, Psalm 117 is also the middle chapter of the Bible..
=== Bible Books Ranked by the Number of Words ===
==== From the Most Words to the Fewest Words ====
Which Bible book is the longest? Well, it's not necessarily the one with the most chapter divisions. Take a look at this list.
The word count given is the number of words each book has in the original languages (Hebrew and Greek ). The word count would, of course, vary from language translation to language translation.
# Jeremiah -- 33,002 words
# Genesis -- 32,046 words
# Psalms -- 30,147 words
# Ezekiel -- 29,918 words
# Exodus -- 25,957 words
# Isaiah -- 25,608 words
# Numbers -- 25,048 words
# Deuteronomy -- 23,008 words
# Second Chronicles -- 21,349 words
# First Samuel -- 20,837 words
# First Kings -- 20,361 words
# Luke -- 19,482 words
# Leviticus -- 18,852 words
# Second Kings -- 18,784 words
# Acts -- 18,450 words
# Matthew -- 18,346 words
# Second Samuel -- 17,170 words
# First Chronicles -- 16,664 words
# Joshua -- 15,671 words
# John -- 15,635 words
# Judges -- 15,385 words
# Job -- 12,674 words
# Mark -- 11,304 words
# Proverbs -- 9,921 words
# Revelation -- 9,851 words
# Daniel -- 9,001 words
# Nehemiah -- 8,507 words
# Romans -- 7,111 words
# First Corinthians -- 6,830 words
# Ezra -- 5,605 words
# Hebrews -- 4,953 words
# Esther -- 4,932 words
# Zechariah -- 4,855 words
# Ecclesiastes -- 4,537 words
# Second Corinthians -- 4,477 words
# Hosea -- 3,615 words
# Amos -- 3,027 words
# Ephesians -- 2,422 words
# Lamentations -- 2,324 words
# Galatians -- 2,230 words
# First John -- 2,141 words
# Micah -- 2,118 words
# Ruth -- 2,039 words
# Song of Solomon -- 2,020 words
# James -- 1,742 words
# First Peter -- 1,684 words
# Philippians -- 1,629 words
# First Timothy -- 1,591 words
# Colossians -- 1,582 words
# First Thessalonians -- 1,481 words
# Joel -- 1,447 words
# Malachi -- 1,320 words
# Second Timothy -- 1,238 words
# Zephaniah -- 1,141 words
# Second Peter -- 1,099 words
# Jonah -- 1,082 words
# Habakkuk -- 1,011 words
# Haggai -- 926 words
# Nahum -- 855 words
# Second Thessalonians -- 823 words
# Titus -- 659 words
# Jude -- 461 words
# Obadiah -- 440 words
# Philemon -- 335 words
# Second John -- 245 words
# Third John -- 219 words
=== Longest and Shortest Verses in the Bible ===
The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35: "Jesus wept."
The longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9: "At once the royal secretaries were summoned -- on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language."
Category:Longest Parts of the Bible
Category:Shortest Parts of the Bible
Category:Bible
Category:Trivia