Spiritual Fitness: How Long Does It Take to Read the Bible?

Jesus said the greatest commandment ever given by God—the most important one for us to obey—is: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).

The best way to obey that command is to read God’s communication to us (the Bible) and to communicate back to God (prayer). In this way our love for him will grow richer every day and our soul will grow stronger in our spiritual warfare against evil and personal temptation.

[ Read SemperVerus articles on the subject of spiritual fitness ]

But you may be thinking you don’t have enough time in a day to complete the reading of the entire Bible. The reality is you do have enough time, since each book of the Bible can be measured in achievable “chunks.”

Almost half the books in the Bible take less than a half-hour to read. Twenty-three of them can each be read in under 20 minutes!

Here’s a chart (by the website desiringGod) of the average time it takes to read each book of Scripture, shown in the order in which each one appears in the Bible:

Books of the Bible — Shortest to Longest

And the following is a list of the books of the Bible beginning with the quickest reads; each book is linked to its location on Bible Gateway where you’ll also find a video introduction to each book:

• 3 John — 219 words, 2.2 minutes
• 2 John — 245 words, 2.5 minutes
• Philemon — 335 words, 3.5 minutes
• Obadiah — 440 words, 4.5 minutes
• Jude — 461 words, 4.6 minutes
• Titus — 659 words, 7 minutes
• 2 Thessalonians — 823 words, 8 minutes
• Nahum — 855 words, 8.5 minutes
• Haggai — 926 words, 9 minutes
• Habakkuk — 1,011 words, 10 minutes
• Jonah — 1,082 words, 10 minutes
• 2 Peter — 1,099 words, 10 minutes
• Zephaniah — 1,141 words, 10 minutes
• 2 Timothy — 1,238 words, 12 minutes
• Malachi — 1,320 words, 13 minutes
• Joel — 1,447 words, 15 minutes
• 1 Thessalonians — 1,481 words, 15 minutes
• Colossians — 1,582 words, 16 minutes
• 1 Timothy — 1,591 words, 16 minutes
• Philippians — 1,629 words, 16 minutes
• 1 Peter — 1,684 words, 17 minutes
• James — 1,742 words, 17.5 minutes
• Song of Songs — 2,020 words, 20 minutes
• Ruth — 2,039 words, 20 minutes
• Micah — 2,118 words, 21 minutes
• 1 John — 2,141 words, 21 minutes
• Galatians — 2,230 words, 22 minutes
• Lamentations — 2,324 words, 23 minutes
• Ephesians — 2,422 words, 24 minutes
• Amos — 3,027 words, 30 minutes
• Hosea — 3,615 words, 36 minutes
• 2 Corinthians — 4,477 words, 45 minutes
• Ecclesiastes — 4,537 words, 45 minutes
• Zechariah — 4,855 words, 48 minutes
• Esther — 4,932 words, 49 minutes
• Hebrews — 4,953 words, 50 minutes
• Ezra — 5,605 words, 56 minutes
• 1 Corinthians — 6,830 words, 68 minutes
• Romans — 7,111 words, 71 minutes
• Nehemiah — 8,507 words, 85 minutes
• Daniel — 9,001 words, 90 minutes
• Revelation — 9,851 words, 98 minutes
• Proverbs — 9,921 words, 99 minutes
• Mark — 11,304 words, 113 minutes
• Job — 12,674 words, 126 minutes
• Judges — 15,385 words, 153 minutes
• John — 15,635 words, 156 minutes
• Joshua — 15,671 words, 156 minutes
• 1 Chronicles — 16,664 words, 166 minutes
• 2 Samuel — 17,170 words, 171 minutes
• Matthew — 18,346 words, 183 minutes
• Acts (of the Apostles) — 18,450 words, 184 minutes
• 2 Kings — 18,784 words, 187 minutes
• Leviticus — 18,852 words, 188 minutes
• Luke — 19,482 words, 194 minutes
• 1 Kings — 20,361 words, 203 minutes
• 1 Samuel — 20,837 words, 208 minutes
• 2 Chronicles — 21,349 words, 213 minutes
• Deuteronomy — 23,008 words, 230 minutes
• Numbers — 25,048 words, 250 minutes
• Isaiah — 25,608 words, 256 minutes
• Exodus — 25,957 words, 259 minutes
• Ezekiel — 29,918 words, 299 minutes
• Psalms — 30,147 words, 301 minutes
• Genesis — 32,046 words, 320 minutes
• Jeremiah — 33,002 words, 330 minutes

Reading the Bible and acting on its message is vital to living the SemperVerus code to “stay true to what is right” (1 Timothy 4:16).

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