It seems like everyone this time of year (ourselves included) is talking about the most-read Bible verses on every Bible app. And there’s good reason for this. For one thing, we were made for community. We should care about what matters to each other (within reason, of course); it’s how God designed us.
More than that, many of those Bible verses are famous for a reason. Maybe they’ve been in the news, or speak to a current cultural moment, or are longtime favorites that have been cited for generations for their theological or inspirational value. Less popular verses might not offer the same degree of immediate impact, usefulness, or profundity as these “top verses.”
Yet even so, faith is not a popularity contest. Every word of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16, NIV). They might not all have the zing of John 3:16 or Joshua 1:9, but they are in the Bible for a reason.
So as I read all these lists I started to wonder: What are the most overlooked Bible verses, and what are we missing by ignoring them?
It turns out that the 50-plus least-read verses on Bible Gateway in 2025 were almost all from one chapter of the Bible: Numbers 7, with a few thrown in from toward the end of 1 Chronicles 6.
So, what can we learn from these two chapters?
Numbers 7: Taking Our Sacrifices to God
Numbers 7 consists of 89 verses, mostly cataloguing the gifts or offerings brought by the leaders of each tribe of Israel — one leader per day for 12 days — for the dedication of the altar in the tabernacle. It takes place during Exodus 40:17-33 and — fun fact! — is the Bible’s second-longest chapter (after Psalm 119).
It’s also extremely repetitive. Every single one of the 12 leaders brings the exact same set of donations to the temple — but instead of saying “Nethanel son of Zuar, the leader of Issachar, brought the same stuff as Nahshon,” we get the same six verses repeated 12 times, with only the names changed.
It’s easy to see why people aren’t eager to read every line of this chapter. But it should make us wonder — why was it written this way? Why did this writer, inspired directly by God, consider it so important — at a time when paper scrolls were extremely expensive and painstaking to copy — to repeat the content of this chapter over and over?
To answer, I did a bit of digging in Bible Gateway Plus.
Gifts That God Received With Pleasure
One of my favorite Study Bibles, the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, says the pattern in this passage is typical of temple records in the ancient Near East, but that the “repetitive nature of the material may be primarily theological, to emphasize that every tribe has an equal stake in the worship of God and that each is fully committed to the support of the tabernacle and its priesthood.”
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary goes further: “Is it not possible that in this listing we catch a glimpse of the magnificent pomp and ceremony attending these gifts? Do we not see the genuine spirit of worship of each of the successive tribes as their turn came to bring gifts to the Lord? And finally, do we not see the joy of the Lord in his reception of these gifts? This chapter has a stately charm, a leisurely pace, and a studied sense of magnificence as each tribe in its turn was able to make gifts to God that he received with pleasure.”
In other words, each of the Israelite leaders brought magnificent, enormously valuable gifts simply for the sake of blessing the tabernacle. And the gradual, ceremonial process of bringing each of these gifts mattered enough to God that he wanted to celebrate each and every donor equally for their equal gifts — rather than to celebrate the first one and reduce the others to a secondary list of names.
That understanding paints a lovely, vivid picture of the events of Numbers 7 and drives home its literary beauty and theological depth. But what does it mean for us?
Bring Your Gifts Before the Lord
In the new covenant we no longer conduct ceremonial sacrifices. Instead, our whole lives are to be considered sacrifices to God (Romans 12:12). Yet we live in a material world, and material gifts still have value. “We have the privilege of joyfully acknowledging God with tangible gifts as well as prayers, songs, and testimonies,” notes the NIV Application Bible. So, “What material offerings or donations can we give for use in God’s community?”
Reading the long, repetitive chapter of Numbers 7 slowly and attentively should help us remember that God not only desires our gifts — both material and spiritual — but celebrates and delights in receiving them.
So, what can you bring the Lord today?
1 Chronicles 6: The Lord Is Our Inheritance
Although most of the least-read verses in 2025 were from Numbers 7, the last section of 1 Chronicles 6 made a few appearances as well. This chapter includes three separate lists: first the descendants of Levi; then the temple musicians appointed by David; and finally the settlements of the Levites. It’s this last section that appears in our tally.
The real estate listings here are actually taken from Joshua 21, so it may be that readers felt once was enough to know the details of which towns from the half-tribe of Menasseh went to the Gershomites.
Joking aside, there’s actually something really interesting here, but we have to get pretty deep into biblical theology to work it out.
Why the Levites Couldn’t Inherit Land
The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible reminds us just how important the tribe of Levi was to Israel’s covenant life: their genealogy here is longer than any other except for Judah’s. Yet unlike all the other tribes, they did not receive a land inheritance of their own, but were granted towns and pasturelands borrowed from the other tribes’ holdings.
Why?
Because the Lord was their inheritance (Num. 18:20-24).
Levites could have no worldly inheritance — but they could access the Lord directly through the tabernacle. All the other tribes of Israel received land inheritance — but they could not approach the tent of meeting. They had to go through the Levites.
Store Up Your Treasures in Heaven
That balance puts me in mind of two things. First, in the new covenant, all believers are called to be God’s “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Of course, we still have priests, pastors, or ministers (depending on your denomination) — but they are first among equals. They have no exclusive access to the Lord.
Second, “you cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13, NIV). God required the Levites to forsake worldly goods, knowing they would not be able to serve him wholeheartedly if their allegiances were divided.
Today, God has entrusted us, a “priesthood of all believers,” to make that choice ourselves. And with that great power there also comes great responsibility (that’s from Spider-Man, not the Bible, but the message fits). He has not commanded that we give up all our property like the Levites1 — but he has commanded us to store up our treasures in heaven, not on earth (Matt. 6:19-21). We must never come to value our money and property more than our relationship with him.
Conclusion: Pearls of Great Price
I mentioned at the beginning of this article that all Scripture is inspired (2 Tim. 3:16). As with so many things, it’s easy to believe that in theory, but harder to put it into practice. But exercises like this one demonstrate more clearly what that means.
We can take the most overlooked, seemingly most boring and repetitive parts of the Bible and discover potent, even life-changing truths there, in a way that no other book can offer.
So next time you find a passage of the Bible that you’d rather skip over, try to pause and sit with it for a while instead. You may just find priceless treasure in what looked like a barren field.
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- Well, actually he did (Mt 19:21, Mk 10:21, Lk 12:33, Lk 18:22) — but he has also condescended to forgive us the sin of our covetousness (Mt 6:12, Co 2:13-14). ↩︎
Jacob Edson is Editorial Director of Bible Gateway. He holds a Master of Theological Studies in Early Christian Thought from Harvard Divinity School, and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious History from Memorial University of Newfoundland, though with most of his coursework from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. His work has previously appeared in Ekstasis and Geez Magazine. He lives with his wife and children in New England.
