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Thursday, November 7, 2024

What is the Shortest Verse in the Bible?


I’ve been challenging myself all month to look at the Bible in a new and different way, to glean, to learn, to understand more. I’m having a lot of fun with it! 

I started with…

Those lists were a lot of fun to make and made me see things in a new light! 💡 Now I think I’ll do some research on both the shortest verses in the Bible and the longest verses in the Bible. 

Ready?!

Let’s cover the topic, what is the shortest verse in the Bible? today!

What is the Shortest Verse in the Bible?

👉 Quick answer (either way you count) is, “Jesus wept.” (ESV)

Counting by the number of words

If you’re counting the shortest verse by the amount of words, these two verses have two words each.

John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.” It has fewer characters than the second in the list: 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Followed by:

  • Luke 20:30
  • Job 3:2
  • 1 Chronicles 1:25
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:17
  • Luke 17:32

These all have three words in them.

Counting by the number of characters

If you are counting the shortest verse by the amount of characters, the shortest verse is still John 11:35 (with 11 characters). However, the second shortest verse in the Bible would be Job 3:2 (13 characters). 

Followed by:

  • 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (tied at 14 characters)
  • Luke 20:30 (tied at 14 characters)
  • 1 Chronicles 1:25 (17 characters)
  • Luke 17:32 (20 characters)
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (21 characters)

Different versions

If you take into account different versions though, the NIV has Job 3:2 saying, “He said:” (2 words; 8 characters) instead of saying, “And Job said:” in the ESV, which would make it the shortest verse in the Bible.

So really, the choice is up to you if you want to go by John 11:35 or Job 3:2. Both are short verses! 😊

More short verses

Here are some verses that have only four words in them…

  • Exodus 20:13 / Deuteronomy 5:17
  • Exodus 20:15
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:20
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:25
  • Hebrews 13:1

Great short verses to memorize

If you’re looking for some quick verses for your children to memorize, here are a few great ones to start with…

If you’re looking for some foundational verses for new believers to memorize, here are some great ones to start with…

If you’re looking for some quick wins in your own life to memorize, here are 25 great verses to pick and choose from…

  1. Numbers 6:23 
  2. Luke 1:37
  3. Psalm 25:4
  4. Colossians 3:2
  5. Psalm 56:3
  6. 1 Thessalonians 5:22
  7. Hebrews 13:25
  8. Psalm 119:105
  9. John 3:30
  10. Psalm 18:1
  11. Matthew 11:30
  12. Psalm 23:1
  13. Isaiah 26:4
  14. Genesis 1:1
  15. 1 Joh 4:19
  16. 2 Corinthians 5:7
  17. Matthew 5:17
  18. Psalm 25:1
  19. 1 Timothy 6:6
  20. Luke 6:36
  21. Romans 7:22
  22. Matthew 11:39
  23. 1 Corinthians 10:31
  24. 1 Peter 5:7
  25. Isaiah 40:29

Shortest chapter in the Bible to memorize

If you’re looking to memorize an entire chapter of the Bible, here’s a great one to start with… 

It has only two verses and in the ESV, it has 28 words. 

What does the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, mean?

It’s hard to imagine, God, who is in Heaven, weeping. Heaven is supposed to be a happy place. The Bible says there are no tears in Heaven, but that’s only part of His deity. God is God who IS in Heaven, but He is also omnipresent. He is everyone at once. He’s not bound by space, matter, or time. He’s not bound by anything! 

At that time, God was Jesus in human form as part of the Trinity, and as a human, He experienced sadness and wept. This wasn’t the only time He wept on earth; there are three or four recorded instances of Him weeping (though He may have cried more often; these are the instances recorded in the Bible).

  • The Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46)
  • Lazarus (John 11:35)
  • Over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41)
  • Over His Death on the Cross (Hebrews 5:7)

Sidenote: In Luke 22:44, it talks about Jesus being in great distress and some people say that Jesus sweat blood. Jesus did not sweat blood. We must be very careful to READ every WORD of the Bible and not gloss over it or go too quickly. The verse says, “…and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” It became LIKE blood. It was not blood.

Hebrews 5:7 may be referring to The Garden of Gethsemane, but I take the opinion that it DOESN’T refer to that occasion.

First, you want me to believe that Jesus only cried ONCE about His upcoming death on the cross? In all of 33 years, He only wept once over it?

Secondly, it says that His prayer was heard because of His reverence. In that moment, Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane was sweating like drops of blood, so profusely. He was crying out to His Father to take this cup from Him. The reason God would have heard Him in those moments wouldn’t have been due to reverence, although His reverence was present. God would have heard Him because of His Ze’akah. 

Ze’akah is a Hebrew word and it’s my absolute, #1 favorite word in Hebrew. It means to cry aloud with great anguish. When you’re crying uncontrollably and you’re just in SO much intense, emotional pain you can’t stand it, that’s Ze’akah. It’s those tears of intense pain and anguish. 

I can promise you, that the FASTEST way to get God’s attention is to cry in this way. When God hears this cry come, He is instantly at your side in a way you would not believe. He is right there with you. He hears your cry. He sees your pain. He’s there to help. 

The first time, the word is introduced in the Bible is in the Cain and Abel story. Abel’s blood cried from the ground, Ze’Akah (Genesis 4). God heard that cry and banished Cain for killing Abel.

Moses cried Ze’akah in Exodus 17 when Amalek was attacking the Israelites and God reacted. God ALWAYS hears that cry and responds IMMEDIATELY!!!!

God would have been near to Jesus during those moments because of His Ze’Akah, his intense, emotional pain, suffering, and anguish, not as much during that time because of Jesus’ reverence. 

Jesus was begging, God was near. 

Either way, whether you take the stance of three or four times in the Bible Jesus cried, the point is, He wept. He had emotions like us. He experienced pain, suffering, and loss. 

One such time was with Lazarus. Verse 33 says “Jesus is deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”

Lazarus was His friend. Mary and Martha were His friends. So seeing the pain inflicted upon them, caused Him to be sad.

He was probably sad and cried for many reasons. 

  • Seeing all the people comforting Mary and Martha could have been overwhelming to Him because He cared so deeply for them.
  • Seeing it in person that His friend, Lazarus, was now dead. The reality of what He knew to be true had set in, and quickly.
  • Knowing that His friends had to suffer through the loss of Lazarus and Lazarus dying to do a miracle so that the people would believe in Him.

But I also think there’s one more reason you may not think of.

The Bible says that if we are absent from the body, we are present with God (2 Corinthians 5:1-8). So Lazarus would have been with GOD in HEAVEN for four days. 

That must have stung His heart, loving Lazarus and knowing that Lazarus was happy, perfect, with God, and had to bring him BACK to this earthly life, which is not near as good as being with the Lord (Philippians 1:23)! 

As a friend, and perfect Deity, He would have wanted what was best for Lazarus and of course, to be with God is best in that moment. There’s nothing better than to be with God, however, God allowed it for Jesus’ miracle to show the people He is who He says He is, and it must have ultimately been for Lazarus’ best too. Romans 8:28 promises that. So it could be that sending Lazarus back to earth gave him more time to earn Heaven rewards, to be a godly example to all, for the benefit of Mary and Martha and a myriad more reasons. 

Either way, in God’s humanness, He saw His friend was dead, He saw the pain, suffering, and anguish of His friends, and He wept. 

God cares so much for us, so much more than we realize. It’s a good thing to constantly remind ourselves how MUCH God loves us!!! ❤️

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