Data Study · TheWordPath Bible Genome
How Many Verses Are in the Bible?
The King James Version contains 31,102 verses. Here is every number that matters — broken down by Testament, by book, by chapter, and by single verse.
Published 2026-04-21 · Source: King James Version (KJV), standard Protestant canon
The Numbers at a Glance
31,102
Total verses (KJV)
1,189
Total chapters
783,137
Total words (KJV)
| Division | Books | Chapters | Verses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Testament | 39 | 929 | 23,145 |
| New Testament | 27 | 260 | 7,957 |
| Total (KJV) | 66 | 1,189 | 31,102 |
Why 31,102? A Note on the Number
The verse divisions in the Bible were not original to the text. The Hebrew scriptures were divided into chapters by Archbishop Stephen Langton around 1227 AD, and into numbered verses by Robert Estienne (Stephanus) in his 1551 Greek New Testament. The Old Testament received its verse numbers from the same process applied to the Hebrew text.
Different Bible editions count slightly differently. Some critical editions place certain verses in different locations or mark disputed verses (such as John 5:4 or Acts 8:37) in brackets or omit them entirely. The KJV's count of 31,102 is standard across most printed editions of the King James Bible and is the figure used throughout this study.
The 5 Longest Books by Verse Count
| Rank | Book | Testament | Chapters | Verses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Psalms | OT | 150 | 2,461 |
| 2 | Genesis | OT | 50 | 1,533 |
| 3 | Jeremiah | OT | 52 | 1,364 |
| 4 | Isaiah | OT | 66 | 1,292 |
| 5 | Ezekiel | OT | 48 | 1,273 |
Psalms is the longest book by both verse count and chapter count — its 150 chapters span a full range of human emotional states, from the deepest lament (“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1) to unrestrained praise (“Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.” Psalm 150:6). Genesis and Jeremiah follow, both books of sweeping scope — the one narrating origins, the other the final decades before the Babylonian exile.
The 5 Shortest Books by Verse Count
| Rank | Book | Testament | Chapters | Verses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 John | NT | 1 | 14 |
| 2 | 2 John | NT | 1 | 13 |
| 3 | Obadiah | OT | 1 | 21 |
| 4 | Philemon | NT | 1 | 25 |
| 5 | Jude | NT | 1 | 25 |
The shortest books in the Bible are intimate communications — personal letters, focused prophecy, concentrated theology. 3 John (14 verses) and 2 John (13 verses) are private pastoral letters; Obadiah (21 verses) is a focused prophetic word against Edom; Philemon (25 verses) is Paul's appeal on behalf of a runaway slave. Length and significance are not correlated in Scripture.
Longest and Shortest Individual Verses
Longest Verse (KJV)
Esther 8:9 — 90 words
“Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded...”
A royal decree containing extensive administrative detail — a legal document embedded in narrative.
Shortest Verse (KJV)
John 11:35 — 2 words
“Jesus wept.”
The most memorized short verse in the Bible. Recorded at the tomb of Lazarus. Two words that carry the full weight of the Incarnation.
How Different Translations Compare
The verse count of 31,102 is specific to the KJV. Other major translations vary slightly because of how they handle certain passages:
- NIV (New International Version): removes or brackets 16 verses found in the KJV (including John 5:4, Matthew 17:21, Acts 8:37), reducing the total to approximately 31,086.
- ESV (English Standard Version): similarly omits certain verses found in the KJV's Textus Receptus base, resulting in a comparable reduction.
- NKJV (New King James Version): retains the same textual base as the KJV and therefore preserves the same 31,102 verses.
These differences do not represent theological omissions — they reflect differences in which manuscripts were prioritized. The KJV drew primarily from the Textus Receptus; modern translations draw on older manuscripts discovered after 1611. In both cases, no major Christian doctrine is affected by the differences.
What This Teaches Us
The sheer scale of the Bible — 31,102 verses, 783,137 words, 66 books — is not usually what draws people to it. No one opens Scripture because they were impressed by the word count. But understanding the scope helps calibrate expectations.
Psalms has 2,461 verses because the full range of human prayer needed room. Jeremiah has 1,364 verses because the story of a nation's collapse — and God's persistent voice through it — could not be compressed. 3 John has 14 verses because the pastoral point needed to be made once, plainly, and trusted to land.
The Bible is not a uniform document. It is a library — assembled over more than a millennium, across multiple languages and literary genres, by writers ranging from kings to fishermen. That 31,102 verses across all that diversity cohere into a single theological story is, to those who take it seriously, as remarkable as any individual number it contains.
Citing This Study
TheWordPath. (2026). How Many Verses Are in the Bible? 31,102 in the KJV — Full Breakdown. Bible Data Study. Retrieved from https://thewordpath.com/reports/number-of-verses-in-the-bible