# 2 Samuel in Chinese — vocabulary profile

> 2 Samuel uses 1,332 distinct Chinese characters and 2,157 distinct words across 23,411 characters and 694 verses of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified). 56.2% of its word tokens are HSK 1-3, ranking it 49th of 66 books from easiest to hardest by that measure.

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Chapters | 24 |
| Verses | 694 |
| Chinese characters | 23,411 |
| Distinct characters | 1,332 |
| Word tokens | 17,376 |
| Distinct words | 2,157 |
| Average verse | 34 characters |
| HSK 1-3 word tokens | 56.2% |
| HSK 1-6 word tokens | 69.6% |
| Not in HSK 1-9 | 24.6% |
| Difficulty rank | 49 of 66 (1 = easiest) |
| Reading time | 90 min at 260 chars/min |
| Testament | Old Testament |

## Most frequent words in this book

| # | Word | Occurrences |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 说 | 336 |
| 2 | 人 | 320 |
| 3 | 王 | 320 |
| 4 | 大卫 | 284 |
| 5 | 亚 | 183 |
| 6 | 押 | 161 |
| 7 | 去 | 153 |
| 8 | 耶和华 | 153 |
| 9 | 约 | 143 |
| 10 | 儿子 | 124 |
| 11 | 押沙龙 | 108 |
| 12 | 来 | 98 |
| 13 | 拿 | 91 |
| 14 | 仆人 | 85 |
| 15 | 利 | 78 |
| 16 | 以色列 | 75 |
| 17 | 比 | 75 |
| 18 | 必 | 72 |
| 19 | 要 | 72 |
| 20 | 有 | 70 |
| 21 | 希 | 68 |
| 22 | 扫罗 | 67 |
| 23 | 巴 | 67 |
| 24 | 一 | 64 |
| 25 | 基 | 63 |
| 26 | 作 | 62 |
| 27 | 使 | 61 |
| 28 | 见 | 60 |
| 29 | 神 | 59 |
| 30 | 死 | 56 |
| 31 | 珥 | 56 |
| 32 | 尼 | 56 |
| 33 | 玛 | 50 |
| 34 | 面前 | 50 |
| 35 | 民 | 50 |
| 36 | 雅 | 50 |
| 37 | 主 | 49 |
| 38 | 众 | 48 |
| 39 | 城 | 46 |
| 40 | 那里 | 45 |
| 41 | 以色列人 | 44 |
| 42 | 行 | 43 |
| 43 | 给 | 43 |
| 44 | 单 | 41 |
| 45 | 跟随 | 40 |
| 46 | 杀 | 39 |
| 47 | 米 | 39 |
| 48 | 波 | 38 |
| 49 | 于是 | 38 |
| 50 | 洗 | 37 |

## Words found in 2 Samuel and nowhere else

胞兄 有情 累赘 炒 瓮 跑法 棺 设有

## Chapters, easiest first

| Chapter | HSK 1-3 | Verses | Characters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2 Samuel 12 | 63% | 31 | 1,085 |
| 2 Samuel 22 | 62.7% | 51 | 1,151 |
| 2 Samuel 7 | 61.4% | 29 | 976 |
| 2 Samuel 1 | 60.6% | 27 | 748 |
| 2 Samuel 15 | 59.8% | 37 | 1,257 |
| 2 Samuel 16 | 59.2% | 23 | 836 |
| 2 Samuel 18 | 58.9% | 33 | 1,248 |
| 2 Samuel 24 | 58.7% | 25 | 925 |
| 2 Samuel 13 | 58.6% | 39 | 1,302 |
| 2 Samuel 19 | 58.2% | 43 | 1,556 |
| 2 Samuel 14 | 58.1% | 33 | 1,159 |
| 2 Samuel 11 | 56.7% | 27 | 918 |
| 2 Samuel 9 | 54.9% | 13 | 466 |
| 2 Samuel 21 | 54.1% | 22 | 959 |
| 2 Samuel 17 | 53.9% | 29 | 1,082 |
| 2 Samuel 4 | 53.7% | 12 | 508 |
| 2 Samuel 20 | 53.6% | 26 | 982 |
| 2 Samuel 6 | 52.2% | 23 | 783 |
| 2 Samuel 10 | 51.9% | 19 | 661 |
| 2 Samuel 3 | 51.1% | 38 | 1,390 |
| 2 Samuel 2 | 51% | 32 | 1,031 |
| 2 Samuel 23 | 50.9% | 39 | 1,085 |
| 2 Samuel 8 | 48.1% | 18 | 555 |
| 2 Samuel 5 | 48% | 25 | 748 |

Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/books/2-samuel · Read it: https://chinese-bible.com/en/2-samuel

## Method

- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation)
- HSK levels: HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9
- Reading times: 260 characters a minute (an assumption)
- Computed: 2026-09-22

These are reproducible counts over a public-domain text, not a peer-reviewed study. Difficulty ranks are one stated formula, not a validated readability score.


---

- Definitions: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- If you share this file onward, keep this notice and share alike.
- Character data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License / LGPL).
- Bible text: public domain — 和合本 · World English Bible · Louis Segond 1910.
- Built with https://chinese-bible.com