How Many Chapters and Verses Are in the Bible?

The Bible has 1,189 chapters and 31,102 verses in the King James Version and most Protestant Bibles. The Old Testament has 929 chapters and 23,145 verses; the New Testament has 260 chapters and 7,957 verses. By our count of the KJV text, that's 790,892 words in all: about 610,000 in the Old Testament and 181,000 in the New.

Those totals are the standard ones for the 66-book Protestant Bible, and they're the numbers the Bible Academy reading plan is built on. Below you'll find every book in one table (chapters, verses and words), totals by section, the reasons some Bibles show slightly different numbers, and what these numbers mean for planning your reading.

The Bible in numbers

	Books	Chapters	Verses	Words (KJV)
Old Testament	39	929	23,145	610,324
New Testament	27	260	7,957	180,568
Whole Bible	66	1,189	31,102	790,892

A few averages that help you picture it: the average chapter has about 26 verses and 665 words, and the average verse about 25 words. The Old Testament makes up about 77% of the Bible's words, the New Testament about 23%.

All counts on this page come from the KJV text used in the Bible Academy app, counted with a short script. Chapters and verses match the standard KJV numbering. For words, we split the text on spaces, including the psalm titles and the short notes after Paul's letters, so a hyphenated name like Beth-el counts as one word. Other published counts (you'll often see about 783,000) differ because of the edition and the counting rules.

If you'd like to open any of these books right now, the app's Bible reader has all 66 in the KJV and the ASV, and it works offline.

Chapters, verses and words in every book of the Old Testament

#	Book	Chapters	Verses	Words (KJV)
1	Genesis	50	1,533	38,262
2	Exodus	40	1,213	32,685
3	Leviticus	27	859	24,541
4	Numbers	36	1,288	32,896
5	Deuteronomy	34	959	28,352
6	Joshua	24	658	18,853
7	Judges	21	618	18,966
8	Ruth	4	85	2,574
9	1 Samuel	31	810	25,048
10	2 Samuel	24	695	20,600
11	1 Kings	22	816	24,513
12	2 Kings	25	719	23,517
13	1 Chronicles	29	942	20,365
14	2 Chronicles	36	822	26,069
15	Ezra	10	280	7,440
16	Nehemiah	13	406	10,480
17	Esther	10	167	5,633
18	Job	42	1,070	18,098
19	Psalms	150	2,461	43,760
20	Proverbs	31	915	15,038
21	Ecclesiastes	12	222	5,579
22	Song of Songs	8	117	2,658
23	Isaiah	66	1,292	37,036
24	Jeremiah	52	1,364	42,654
25	Lamentations	5	154	3,411
26	Ezekiel	48	1,273	39,401
27	Daniel	12	357	11,602
28	Hosea	14	197	5,174
29	Joel	3	73	2,033
30	Amos	9	146	4,216
31	Obadiah	1	21	669
32	Jonah	4	48	1,320
33	Micah	7	105	3,152
34	Nahum	3	47	1,284
35	Habakkuk	3	56	1,475
36	Zephaniah	3	53	1,616
37	Haggai	2	38	1,130
38	Zechariah	14	211	6,443
39	Malachi	4	55	1,781
	Total	929	23,145	610,324

Chapters, verses and words in every book of the New Testament

#	Book	Chapters	Verses	Words (KJV)
40	Matthew	28	1,071	23,684
41	Mark	16	678	15,166
42	Luke	24	1,151	25,939
43	John	21	879	19,094
44	Acts	28	1,007	24,245
45	Romans	16	433	9,438
46	1 Corinthians	16	437	9,480
47	2 Corinthians	13	257	6,083
48	Galatians	6	149	3,090
49	Ephesians	6	155	3,030
50	Philippians	4	104	2,193
51	Colossians	4	95	1,989
52	1 Thessalonians	5	89	1,847
53	2 Thessalonians	3	47	1,032
54	1 Timothy	6	113	2,260
55	2 Timothy	4	83	1,694
56	Titus	3	46	915
57	Philemon	1	25	439
58	Hebrews	13	303	6,905
59	James	5	108	2,304
60	1 Peter	5	105	2,476
61	2 Peter	3	61	1,553
62	1 John	5	105	2,517
63	2 John	1	13	298
64	3 John	1	14	294
65	Jude	1	25	608
66	Revelation	22	404	11,995
	Total	260	7,957	180,568

Click any book for a short summary, key passages and the BibleProject video. Every book also has a quiz on the Bible quiz hub.

Totals by section

Grouping the books into their traditional sections shows where the bulk of the Bible sits. (The section order is the one many people use to memorize the books of the Bible.)

Section	Books	Chapters	Verses	Words (KJV)	Share of words
Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy)	5	187	5,852	156,736	19.8%
History (Joshua to Esther)	12	249	7,018	204,058	25.8%
Poetry (Job to Song of Songs)	5	243	4,785	85,133	10.8%
Major Prophets (Isaiah to Daniel)	5	183	4,440	134,104	17.0%
Minor Prophets (Hosea to Malachi)	12	67	1,050	30,293	3.8%
Gospels	4	89	3,779	83,883	10.6%
Acts	1	28	1,007	24,245	3.1%
Paul's letters (Romans to Philemon)	13	87	2,033	43,490	5.5%
General letters (Hebrews to Jude)	8	34	734	16,955	2.1%
Revelation	1	22	404	11,995	1.5%

Two things surprise most readers. First, the twelve Minor Prophets together are shorter than Genesis alone (30,293 words against 38,262). Second, the four Gospels plus Acts make up about 60% of the New Testament's words. If you read only the Gospels and Acts, you've read most of the New Testament by volume.

Records: the most and fewest chapters and verses

Record	Book	Count
Most chapters	Psalms	150 chapters
Most verses	Psalms	2,461 verses
Most words	Psalms	43,760 words, titles included (Jeremiah close behind with 42,654)
Fewest verses	2 John	13 verses
Fewest words	3 John	294 words
Longest chapter	Psalm 119	176 verses
Shortest chapter	Psalm 117	2 verses
Shortest verse	John 11:35	2 words
Longest verse	Esther 8:9	90 words
Most chapters in the New Testament	Matthew and Acts	28 chapters each
Most verses in the New Testament	Luke	1,151 verses

Five books have a single chapter: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John and Jude. Each of these records has its own story: see the longest book in the Bible, the shortest book in the Bible and the longest chapter in the Bible.

Why some Bibles have different numbers

If you've seen 31,103 verses, more than 1,189 chapters, or a different word count, nobody is necessarily wrong. Here's why the numbers move.

Different canons. Catholic Bibles have 73 books and Eastern Orthodox Bibles a few more, so they have more chapters and verses than the 66-book Protestant Bible. The numbers on this page are for the Protestant canon.

Different verse divisions. A few modern translations split verses differently from the KJV. For example, the KJV ends 3 John at verse 14, while several modern versions divide that last verse in two and end at verse 15.

Hebrew numbering. Hebrew Bibles often number the psalm titles as verse 1, and they divide a few books differently. Malachi has 4 chapters in English Bibles but 3 in Hebrew, where our Malachi 4 is the end of chapter 3. Joel has 3 chapters in English and 4 in Hebrew.

Missing verses. Some translations based on older Greek manuscripts leave certain verse numbers empty. The ASV in the app, for example, keeps 31,102 verse numbers but leaves 16 New Testament verses blank, such as Acts 8:37. Our KJV vs ASV guide explains why.

Word counting rules. Translations simply use different numbers of words. By the same method, the ASV in the app has about 785,000 words, roughly 6,000 fewer than the KJV. Counting rules matter too: is "burnt offering" one word or two? Is "Beth-el" one or two?

Who added chapters and verses?

The biblical authors didn't write chapter or verse numbers. Chapters came first: the system we use is usually credited to Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, in the early 1200s. Verse numbers for the New Testament were added by the printer Robert Estienne (also called Stephanus) in his Greek New Testament of 1551. The Geneva Bible (1560) was the first complete English Bible with numbered verses throughout, and the KJV (1611) used the same system.

That's worth remembering when you read. Chapter breaks sometimes fall in odd places, and a sentence can run across several verses. Reading a whole passage, not a single verse, usually gives you the meaning the author intended.

What these numbers mean for your reading plan

The most useful thing about knowing there are 1,189 chapters is that you can plan. Here's how long the whole Bible takes at different paces:

Chapters a day	Days to finish	Roughly
1	1,189	3 years and 3 months
2	595	1 year and 8 months
3	397	1 year and 1 month
4	298	10 months
5	238	8 months

To finish in exactly one year, you need about 3.26 chapters a day (1,189 ÷ 365). In practice that means 3 chapters on most days and 4 on about one day in four. Our guide on how many chapters a day to read the Bible in a year has a few ways to schedule it.

Chapters aren't equal, though. Psalm 117 has 33 words and Psalm 119 more than 2,400. That's why it helps to also think in words: at 200 words per minute, the whole KJV takes about 66 hours to read aloud. Spread over a year, that's about 11 minutes a day. More on that in how long it takes to read the Bible.

The app's reading plan lets you pick a pace from 1 to 5 chapters a day, shows your progress on a calendar, keeps a streak, and ends each reading with a short quiz so you remember what you read.

Check what you remember

Knowing how many chapters a book has is one thing; remembering what's in them is another. Here are three questions from the app's Genesis quiz, the book with the second most verses in the Bible:

Quick quiz: Genesis

How long did the rain of the flood fall on the earth?

What did the LORD count to Abram as righteousness?

What new name does Jacob receive after his wrestling at the ford of the Jabbok?

Continue the quiz

There are many more questions like these in Bible Academy, each with its explanation and verse. Start free, no card needed.

Frequently asked questions

How many chapters are in the Bible?

The Bible has 1,189 chapters in the King James Version and other Protestant Bibles: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament. Psalms has the most chapters, with 150, followed by Isaiah with 66. Five books have only one chapter: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John and Jude.

How many verses are in the Bible?

The King James Version has 31,102 verses: 23,145 in the Old Testament and 7,957 in the New Testament. Psalms has the most verses (2,461) and 2 John the fewest (13). Some modern translations number a few verses differently, so you may see totals like 31,103, but 31,102 is the standard KJV count.

How many words are in the Bible?

By our count of the KJV text in the Bible Academy app, the King James Bible has 790,892 words: 610,324 in the Old Testament and 180,568 in the New Testament. The ASV has about 785,000 by the same method. Other published counts differ slightly depending on the edition and on how hyphenated words are counted.

How many chapters and verses are in the New Testament?

The New Testament has 27 books, 260 chapters and 7,957 verses in the KJV, and 180,568 words by our count. Matthew and Acts have the most chapters (28 each) and Luke the most verses (1,151). The shortest New Testament books are 2 John (13 verses) and 3 John (14 verses).

How many chapters should I read a day to finish the Bible in a year?

To read all 1,189 chapters in 365 days, read about 3.26 chapters a day: three chapters on most days and four on roughly every fourth day. Four chapters a day finishes in about ten months, and one chapter a day takes a little over three years.