Verse collection
Short Bible verses to memorize
Fifteen verses from two words to eleven, in order. Every one fits in a single sitting, and a short verse memorized today beats a long one planned for someday.
Print: verse cards · take-home slips · copywork sheets · all printables
Short verses are where memorization habits get built: quick wins, real Scripture, zero excuses. Every verse below is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible. Run any of them through the five steps in about ten minutes, then let the quick reviews (a day, three days, a week) make it permanent.
Jesus wept.
The shortest verse in English Bibles, at the tomb of a friend, and the favorite answer to a famous trivia question. Two words that say God knows how grief feels.
Pray without ceasing.
Three words you will spend a lifetime unpacking. Memorized in ten seconds; obeyed more slowly.
Rejoice at all times.
The verse before it, and its twin in size. Learn 16, 17, and 18 together and you have a whole passage.
Do everything in love.
Paul's whole letter to a quarrelsome church, compressed to four words at the close.
We love because He first loved us.
Seven words holding the order of operations for the whole Christian life.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
The most famous opening line in the psalms; learn it and you have started the psalm everyone knows.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Hallelujah!
The last verse of the last psalm: the whole Psalter's closing note, and a fine one to have on hand.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The Bible's first sentence. Ten words, and the rest is commentary.
When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.
The classic first verse for kids, and not only for kids. David wrote it as a prisoner of war.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Ten words of pure stability, built on a three-beat rhythm that makes it nearly memorize itself.
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer.
Three matched phrases; the parallel structure is a built-in memory aid.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
Probably the most quoted verse in sports, written by a man in chains about contentment.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
The doorway into the armor-of-God passage; learn this line first and the rest has a hook.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
The Golden Rule, in eleven words even a five-year-old can carry.
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Eleven words most people wish they had memorized sooner. More like it on the anxiety page.
Bonus: memorize an entire chapter today
Praise the LORD, all you nations! Extol Him, all you peoples! For great is His loving devotion toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Hallelujah!
The shortest chapter in the Bible, and its middle one: chapter 595 of 1,189. Learn these two verses and you can honestly say you know a whole chapter of the Bible by heart. More trivia like that on the stats page.
Word counts use this site's counting rule in the Berean Standard Bible. Each reference links to the verse in its chapter.
Questions
What is the shortest verse in the Bible?
John 11:35, Jesus wept: two words in English Bibles. The runners-up are also memorizable in under a minute: Pray without ceasing and Rejoice at all times. How it reads in forty languages is on the stats page.
Can I really memorize a Bible verse in one sitting?
At these lengths, yes: every verse here fits in a single ten-minute run of the five steps. What needs the calendar is keeping it, so recall the verse again after a day, three days, and a week; the Verse Book schedules that for you.
What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
Psalm 117: two verses, and the middle chapter of the Bible's 1,189. Memorizing it means an entire chapter, and the Bible's exact center, is yours in an afternoon.
Half remember a different verse?
The words don't need to match exactly, just type what you remember.