Psalms wins on chapters and verses. Jeremiah wins on Hebrew words. Here are the real counts, where each number comes from, and why the long books are worth your time.
The longest book in the Bible is Psalms if you count chapters or verses: 150 chapters and 2,461 verses. Count the words in the original Hebrew and Jeremiah comes out on top, 33,002 words to 30,147 for Psalms, with Genesis in between.
In the New Testament, Luke is the longest book by word count, with Acts close behind. At the other end, the shortest book in the whole Bible is 3 John.
Both of the answers you have heard are right. They are answering different questions. If you came here from our post on the longest chapter in the Bible, this is the fuller version of the one line we gave there.
And the numbers matter less than people think. Nobody loves Psalms because it is big. But since you asked, here is the honest version, with the sources showing.
There are three ways to measure a book of the Bible, and each one produces its own leader board.
Chapters are the easiest to count and the least meaningful. Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters in the early 1200s, so a chapter is a later slice, not something the authors wrote. Psalms wins easily with 150, because every psalm became its own chapter. Isaiah is a distant second at 66.
Verses tell a similar story. Psalms has 2,461 in the King James Version, Genesis 1,533, Jeremiah 1,364. Hebrew Bibles number many psalm titles as verses, so the count there runs higher still. But a verse is not a unit of length either. Some are two words. One, Esther 8:9, is a whole royal decree, the longest verse in the Bible.
Words are the fairest ruler, and here the lead changes hands. Counted in Hebrew, Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible. Genesis is second. Psalms drops to third, because so many psalms are short poems with short lines.
Chapters and verses: King James Version. Old Testament words: the Hebrew text of the Lexham Hebrew Bible, as tallied at OverviewBible. New Testament words: the Greek of the Analytical Greek New Testament, from Felix Just, S.J., at Catholic Resources. Editions split and join words differently, so expect other tallies to differ by a handful. Gold marks the leader in each column for its testament.
In English the race is tighter. In a King James text we counted, Psalms edged Jeremiah by only a few dozen words, which is why confident lists online name either one. Translation choices alone can tip it.
The complete answer fits in one sentence: Psalms by chapters and verses, Jeremiah by words.
The case for Psalms deserves its strongest form. It has more chapters and more verses than any other book. It takes the longest to pray through. In English it runs neck and neck with Jeremiah. If your reading plan is built on chapters, Psalms is the mountain. That is a fair answer, just not the whole one.
Psalms is the longest book in the Bible, full stop. Any list that says otherwise is wrong.
Psalms has the most chapters and verses. Jeremiah has the most words of any book as printed. And three books pass Jeremiah once you put them back together.
Here is the wrinkle most lists skip. In the Hebrew tradition, 1 and 2 Samuel were one book. So were 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and Ezra with Nehemiah. The two-part division is generally traced to the Greek translation, and Christian Bibles kept it. The twelve Minor Prophets were copied together as well, on one scroll known as the Book of the Twelve.
Using the same Hebrew counts, Samuel reunited comes to 38,007 words, Kings to 39,145 and Chronicles to 38,013. Read as the single works they were, each one is longer than Jeremiah. None of this is about scoring points. It is a reminder that chapter numbers and book divisions came later, a story told well in how the Bible was put together.
Counted in the original Hebrew, which book of the Bible has the most words?
Jeremiah, at 33,002 Hebrew words, ahead of Genesis at 32,046 and Psalms at 30,147. Psalms owns the chapter and verse records, and Isaiah, for all its 66 chapters, comes in at 25,608.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
In the New Testament the longest book by word count is Luke, 19,482 Greek words. Acts is next at 18,451, and Matthew is right behind at 18,345. Matthew and Acts each have 28 chapters to Luke's 24, which is why chapter lists sometimes name them instead. Luke still has the most verses, 1,151.
Here is the detail I love. The same man wrote Luke and Acts. Together they come to 37,933 Greek words, more than all thirteen letters that carry Paul's name, which total 32,407 in the same count. The physician who traveled with Paul wrote more of the New Testament than Paul did. More on him in who Luke was.
The shortest book in the Bible by word count. A personal note to a friend named Gaius, thanking him for his hospitality to traveling believers.
Thirteen verses, the fewest of any book. Written to a chosen lady and her children, most likely a local congregation.
Paul's one-page appeal for Onesimus, a runaway slave, to be received as a brother. A few minutes to read, centuries of weight.
The shortest book in the Old Testament. One chapter of 21 verses, an oracle against the nation of Edom.
Short does not mean slight. Philemon puts the gospel into one household and one broken relationship, and it is still some of the clearest writing in Scripture on what reconciliation costs.
After the resurrection, Jesus told His disciples what the whole Hebrew Bible was about.
“Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Luke 24:44Look at the three sections He names. The longest books in the Bible sit in exactly those three. So the better question is not how long they are. It is where Jesus is in them.
On the cross Jesus cried out the opening line of Psalm 22, and His last words in Luke, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46), come from Psalm 31:5. Psalms gives you words for joy, anger, grief and doubt, and shows you that honest prayer is not a lack of faith. If you read one long book this year, pray this one. See who wrote the Psalms.
Jeremiah watched Babylon destroy Jerusalem and still promised something new: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). At the Last Supper Jesus called the cup the new covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20). He quoted Jeremiah's den of robbers line over a temple that fell again within a generation, in AD 70. This is the book for anyone who has watched something they loved come apart. Start with who Jeremiah was and what the new covenant is.
Genesis is the book of beginnings and of one promise to Abraham: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). Paul calls that line the gospel announced in advance (Galatians 3:8). Genesis does not hide how flawed its people are. Read it as the opening of a story that finds its answer in Jesus, not as a science textbook. Our overview of the book of Genesis is a good companion.
A priest far from home saw the glory of God and heard this: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you” (Ezekiel 36:26). God calls him son of man about ninety times, the title Jesus took for Himself (see son of man meaning). Many readers hear Ezekiel's river flowing out of the temple in chapter 47 behind Jesus' promise of rivers of living water in John 7:38. More in who Ezekiel was.
Jesus opens His ministry in Luke with “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Acts shows what that today looks like: the Spirit poured out and the Kingdom spreading from Jerusalem to Rome. Luke writes as a careful investigator (Luke 1:1 to 4). Read the two back to back and you watch the Kingdom of God arrive. The book of Acts summary will get you started.
This is the part that matters more than the trivia. It is tempting to treat the biggest books as the weightiest, or to treat every line of a long book as carrying equal weight. Neither holds up.
Every book of the Bible is God-breathed, and we read all of it gladly. It was also written by real people over many centuries, in real cultures, as God revealed Himself step by step. Length tells you how much was written. It does not tell you how clearly a passage shows you God.
Jesus is the final and complete revelation of the Father. So Jeremiah's prayers for revenge on his persecutors, the last lines of Psalm 137 and Ezekiel's harshest images are read through Him, not beside Him. Some of what people said in God's name, Jesus corrected. That is not us standing over Scripture. It is Scripture pointing to the One it was about, which is what Luke 24:44 says.
The promises in Jeremiah and Ezekiel are not waiting on a future date. They were fulfilled in Jesus and in the covenant transition that closed with the end of the age in AD 70.
So we push back on two opposite habits. One flattens the Bible into a single rulebook where every line binds the same way, and it usually gets used on sincere new believers who are handed a hard verse with no context and told to swallow it. The other skips the long Old Testament books as irrelevant. Both miss Jesus in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. You can read more of our convictions on what we believe.
Read the long books for who they show you, not for how long they are. Jesus is the key that opens every one of them.
So the longest book in the Bible is Psalms by chapters and verses, Jeremiah by words, Luke for the New Testament, and 3 John sits at the other end. That settles the argument.
But these books are long because God had a lot to say to people in a lot of trouble. Exiles, grieving families, worshipers, a young church. All of it was heading somewhere. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus began with Moses and all the Prophets and explained what the Scriptures said about Himself (Luke 24:27).
We are not waiting for that story to finish. It came to its fulfillment in Him, the Kingdom is here, and the Spirit still opens the long books to anyone willing to read slowly. Pick one this month. Pray a psalm a day, or read Luke and Acts straight through, and ask Jesus to show you Himself.
For related reading, see the shortest Bible verse, how many books are in the Bible and how to read the Bible. And if you are on Long Island, come visit us on a Sunday.
The longest book in the Bible is Psalms by chapters and verses and Jeremiah by Hebrew words, Luke leads the New Testament, 3 John is the shortest, and every one of them, as Jesus said, is about Him.
If Jeremiah or Ezekiel has you lost, or a psalm is saying exactly what you feel, send it in. Someone at Sound of Heaven will read it and walk through it with you.
It depends on how you measure. Psalms is the longest book by chapters, with 150, and by verses, with 2,461 in the King James Version. Measured by words in the original Hebrew, Jeremiah is the longest, at 33,002 words in the Lexham Hebrew Bible count, followed by Genesis at 32,046 and Psalms at 30,147. So the fair short answer is Psalms by chapters and verses, Jeremiah by words. In the New Testament, Luke is the longest book by word count.
By word count, 3 John is the shortest book in the Bible, with 219 Greek words in the Analytical Greek New Testament. 2 John has the fewest verses, 13, and runs 245 words. Philemon, at 335 words, comes next. In the Old Testament the shortest book is Obadiah, a single chapter of 21 verses and 440 Hebrew words, an oracle against the nation of Edom. Short does not mean minor. Philemon has shaped centuries of Christian thinking about reconciliation.
Luke is the longest book in the New Testament by word count, with 19,482 Greek words. Acts is second at 18,451 and Matthew third at 18,345. Matthew and Acts each have 28 chapters to Luke's 24, so chapter-based lists sometimes name them, but Luke has the most verses at 1,151. Because Luke also wrote Acts, his two volumes together come to 37,933 words, more than all thirteen letters that carry Paul's name combined.
Because they are counting words, not chapters. Jeremiah has only 52 chapters to 150 for Psalms, but its chapters are long sermons and narratives, while many psalms are short poems. Counted in Hebrew, Jeremiah comes to 33,002 words against 30,147 for Psalms. In English translations the two run very close, and small differences in how a translation renders the Hebrew can tip the result, which is why confident online lists disagree. Both answers are true to their own ruler.
Yes. In the Hebrew tradition 1 and 2 Samuel were a single book, as were 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and Ezra with Nehemiah. The two-part division is generally traced to the Greek translation, and Christian Bibles kept it. Put back together, Samuel runs to 38,007 Hebrew words, Kings to 39,145 and Chronicles to 38,013, so each would pass Jeremiah. The twelve Minor Prophets were also copied together on one scroll, known as the Book of the Twelve.