The 24 Books of the Hebrew Scriptures

by Prof. Mordochai ben-Tziyyon, Universitah Ha'ivrit, Y'rushalayim

I. Torah
The first division of the Hebrew Scriptures is called ‫תוֹר ָה‬
ּ Torah. This word is often
mistakenly translated as "Law", but while it is undeniably true that the books of
the Torah division do contain all the laws God gave to Yisraél, the word itself is
related to ‫ הוֹרָאָה‬hora'ah, derived from the verb ‫ ל ְהוֹרֹת‬to teach, and means a
"teaching".

The Torah division of the Scriptures consists of the five books traditionally ascribed
to Mosheh ("Moses") and are sometimes referred to as ‫משֵׁי תוֹר ָה‬
ְ ‫ח‬
ֻ ‫משָּׁה‬
ִ ‫ח‬
ֲ
ḥamishah ḥum'shei torah or "the five 'fifths' of the Torah", and consequently each
of the five books can also be called a ׁ‫מש‬ ָ ּ ‫ חו‬ḥumash, a "fifth"—
ֶ ֹ‫ חו‬ḥomesh or a ׁ‫מש‬
this word is often erroneously applied to a volume containing all five "fifths" which
can be used for studying or for following the weekly torah-readings at shabbat
services.

The conventional Hebrew practice is to refer to the Torah's five books by their
opening word or words; e.g., the first book opens with the words b'réshit bara
elohim "At the start of God's creating...", so it's generally known as "the book
B'réshit", meaning "the book that starts with the word b'réshit". The five books of
the Torah division are—

         Hebrew name         English     chapters verses s'darim

1. ‫ בְ ּר ֵאשִׁית‬B'réshit Genesis 050 1,534 043

2. ‫ שְׁמוֹת‬Sh'mot Exodus 040 1,209 029

3. ְ ּ ִ ‫ וַי‬Vayikra
‫קר ָא‬ Leviticus 027 0,859 023

4. ‫מ ְדבָּר‬
ִ ּ ְ‫ ב‬B'midbar Numbers 036 1,288 032

5. ‫ ְּדבָר ִים‬D'varim Deuteronomy 034 0,955 027

187 5,845 154

II. N'viyim
The second division of the Hebrew Scriptures is called ‫ נְב ִיאִים‬N'viyim, or
"Prophets". There are eight N'viyim... not eight "prophets", but rather eight
"prophetic books". They are sub-divided into the four "earlier prophetic books"
and the four "later prophetic books", the terms "earlier" and "later" referring to the
positions of the books in the conventional arrangement of the 24 books. The only
real significance of this sub-division is that the content of the four "earlier
prophetic books" is predominantly historical in nature, while the four "later
prophetic books" contain mostly chapters of poetic prophecy utterances. It should
be noted that christian "versions" divide Sh'muél and M'lachim into two parts each,
and T'reisar into twelve separate "books". The eight books of the N'viyim division
are—

    Hebrew name         English     chapters verses s'darim

6. ַ‫ יְהוֹשֻׁﬠ‬Y'hoshu'a Joshua 024 0,656* 014

7. ‫ שֹׁפְטִים‬Shoftim Judges 021 0,618* 014

1 Samuel (31 chapters, 811

verses)
8. ‫ שְׁמוּאֵל‬Sh'muél 2 Samuel (24 chapters, 695
055 1,506* 034
verses)

1 Kings (22 chapters, 817

verses)
9. ‫מלָכ ִים‬
ְ M'lachim 2 Kings (25 chapters, 719
047 1,536* 035
verses)

10. ּ ‫ יְשַׁﬠְיָהו‬Y'shayahu Isaiah 066 1,295* 026

11. ּ ‫ יִרְמְיָהו‬Yirm'yahu Jeremiah 052 1,365* 031

12. ‫ יְחֶזְקֵאל‬Y'ḥezkél Ezekiél 048 1,273* 029

"The Twelve Prophets":

Hoshé'a (14 chapters, 197
verses)
Yo'él (4 chapters, 73 verses)
'Amos (9 chapters, 146
verses)
'Ovadyah (1 chapter, 21
verses)
Yonah (4 chapters, 48 verses)
‫תְר ֵיסַר‬
ּ Treisar Michah (7 chapters, 105
verses)
13. Naḥum (3 chapters, 47 067 1,050* 021
(or ‫ שְׁנ ֵים ﬠָשָׂר‬Sh'neim verses)
Asar) Ḥavakkuk (3 chapters, 56
verses)
Tz'fanyah (3 chapters, 53
verses)
Ḥaggai (2 chapters, 38
verses)
Z'charyah (14 chapters, 211
verses)
Mal'achi (3 chapters, 55
verses)

380 9,299 204

*  The Masorah gives a count of 1,534 verses for M'lachim, but there are actually 1,536
III. K'tuvim
The third and final division of the Hebrew Scriptures is called ‫ כ ְּתוּבִים‬K'tuvim, or
"Writings". The eleven K'tuvim include

i. the three EMET books T'hillim, Mishlei, and Iyov (the term EMET is an
acronym of the letters ‫ א‬alef, ‫ מ‬mem, ‫ ת‬tav which are the initials (in reverse
order) of the names T'hillim, Mishlei, and Iyyov);
ii. the five m'gillot or "Scrolls" which are read at public prayer services on
various festivals—i.e. Shir Hashirim (read on Pesaḥ), Rut (read on Shavu'ot),
Eichah (read on 9th Av), Kohelet (read on Sukkot), and Ester (read on Purim);
and
iii. the three post-exilic compositions Daniyyél, Ez'ra-N'ḥemyah, and Div'rei
Hayamim.

Note that christian "versions" divide Ez'ra-N'ḥemyah and Div'rei Hayamim into two
parts each.The eleven books of the K'tuvim division are—

         Hebrew name         English     chapters verses s'darim

14. ‫תְהִל ִּים‬

ּ T'hillim Psalms 150 2,527* 19

15. ‫משְׁל ֵי‬

ִ Mishlei Proverbs 031 0,915* 08

16. ‫ אִיו ֹּב‬Iyyov Job 042 1,070* 08

17. ‫השִּׁיר ִים‬

ַ ‫ שִׁיר‬Shir Solomon's Song
008 0,117* 01
Hashirim (or "Song of Songs")

18. ‫ רוּת‬Rut Ruth 004 00,85* 01

19. ‫ אֵיכ ָה‬Eichah Lamentations 005 0,154* 01

20. ‫הל ֶת‬

ֶ ֹ‫ ק‬Kohelet Ecclesiastes 012 0,222* 04

21. ‫תֵר‬
ּ ‫ס‬
ְ ‫א‬
ֶ Estér Ester 010 0,167* 05

22. ‫ ד ָּנ ִי ֵ ּאל‬Daniyyél Daniyyél 012 0,357* 07

Ezra (10 chapters, 280

23. ֶ ְ ‫ ﬠֶזְר ָא וּנ‬Ez'ra-
‫חמְיָה‬ verses)
023 0,685* 10
N'ḥemyah Nehemyah (13 chapters, 405
verses)

24. ‫ ִּדבְר ֵי הַי ָ ּמִים‬Divrei 1 Chronicle (29 chapters)

065 1,656* 25
Hayamim 2 Chronicle (36 chapters)

362 7,955* 89

*  The Masorah gives a count of 688 verses for Ezra-N'ḥemyah, but there are actually only 685

The total number of chapters in the 24 books is 929, the total number of verses is
23,099 and the total number of s'darim is 447.

and once ( 24:44) as "the , the and the " (because is the first of the books). This is
clear evidence that those pagan authors were familiar with the arrangement of the
books in the Hebrew (even though they didn't understand what the Hebrew text
said!) and couldn't have been using a Greek translation (e.g. the so-called "pseudo-
septuaginta" or "LXX"), because not even the very earliest christian translations
preserve the Hebrew division of the books into the three sections , , .