diff --git a/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OnnxRuntime.java b/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OnnxRuntime.java
index 573467db05cda..430c8fcc58a54 100644
--- a/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OnnxRuntime.java
+++ b/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OnnxRuntime.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019, 2023, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * Licensed under the MIT License.
  */
 package ai.onnxruntime;
@@ -84,6 +84,9 @@ final class OnnxRuntime {
   /** The available runtime providers */
   static EnumSet<OrtProvider> providers;
 
+  /** The version string. */
+  private static String version;
+
   private OnnxRuntime() {}
 
   /* Computes and initializes OS_ARCH_STR (such as linux-x64) */
@@ -124,6 +127,7 @@ private static String initOsArch() {
    * Loads the native C library.
    *
    * @throws IOException If it can't write to disk to copy out the library from the jar file.
+   * @throws IllegalStateException If the native library failed to load.
    */
   static synchronized void init() throws IOException {
     if (loaded) {
@@ -139,7 +143,11 @@ static synchronized void init() throws IOException {
       load(ONNXRUNTIME_LIBRARY_NAME);
       load(ONNXRUNTIME_JNI_LIBRARY_NAME);
       ortApiHandle = initialiseAPIBase(ORT_API_VERSION_11);
+      if (ortApiHandle == 0L) {
+        throw new IllegalStateException("Failed to load native library");
+      }
       providers = initialiseProviders(ortApiHandle);
+      version = initialiseVersion();
       loaded = true;
     } finally {
       if (tempDirectory != null) {
@@ -161,6 +169,15 @@ private static void cleanUp(File file) {
     file.deleteOnExit();
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Gets the native library version string.
+   *
+   * @return The version string.
+   */
+  static String version() {
+    return version;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Extracts the CUDA provider library from the classpath resources if present, or checks to see if
    * the CUDA provider library is in the directory specified by {@link #ONNXRUNTIME_NATIVE_PATH}.
@@ -433,4 +450,11 @@ private static EnumSet<OrtProvider> initialiseProviders(long ortApiHandle) {
    * @return The array of providers
    */
   private static native String[] getAvailableProviders(long ortApiHandle);
+
+  /**
+   * Gets the version string from the native library.
+   *
+   * @return The version string.
+   */
+  private static native String initialiseVersion();
 }
diff --git a/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OrtEnvironment.java b/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OrtEnvironment.java
index 090fe34a45b6f..73718093c6b41 100644
--- a/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OrtEnvironment.java
+++ b/java/src/main/java/ai/onnxruntime/OrtEnvironment.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019, 2022 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019, 2023 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * Licensed under the MIT License.
  */
 package ai.onnxruntime;
@@ -271,9 +271,24 @@ public void setTelemetry(boolean sendTelemetry) throws OrtException {
     setTelemetry(OnnxRuntime.ortApiHandle, nativeHandle, sendTelemetry);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Gets the native library version string.
+   *
+   * @return The version string.
+   */
+  public String getVersion() {
+    return OnnxRuntime.version();
+  }
+
   @Override
   public String toString() {
-    return "OrtEnvironment(name=" + curLoggingName + ",logLevel=" + curLogLevel + ")";
+    return "OrtEnvironment(name="
+        + curLoggingName
+        + ",logLevel="
+        + curLogLevel
+        + ",version="
+        + getVersion()
+        + ")";
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/java/src/main/native/ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime.c b/java/src/main/native/ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime.c
index 911651dae8075..a209f2df2b045 100644
--- a/java/src/main/native/ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime.c
+++ b/java/src/main/native/ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime.c
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019, 2022 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019, 2023 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * Licensed under the MIT License.
  */
 #include <jni.h>
+#include <assert.h>
 #include "onnxruntime/core/session/onnxruntime_c_api.h"
 #include "ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime.h"
 #include "OrtJniUtil.h"
@@ -54,3 +55,17 @@ JNIEXPORT jobjectArray JNICALL Java_ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime_getAvailableProvi
   }
   return providerArray;
 }
+
+/*
+ * Class:     ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime
+ * Method:    initialiseVersion
+ * Signature: ()Ljava/lang/String;
+ */
+JNIEXPORT jstring JNICALL Java_ai_onnxruntime_OnnxRuntime_initialiseVersion
+  (JNIEnv * jniEnv, jclass clazz) {
+  (void)clazz;  // required JNI parameter not needed by functions which don't access their host class.
+  const char* version = OrtGetApiBase()->GetVersionString();
+  assert(version != NULL);
+  jstring versionStr = (*jniEnv)->NewStringUTF(jniEnv, version);
+  return versionStr;
+}
diff --git a/java/src/test/java/ai/onnxruntime/InferenceTest.java b/java/src/test/java/ai/onnxruntime/InferenceTest.java
index cdc94e3991f89..d545292aead80 100644
--- a/java/src/test/java/ai/onnxruntime/InferenceTest.java
+++ b/java/src/test/java/ai/onnxruntime/InferenceTest.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2019, 2022, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019, 2023, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * Licensed under the MIT License.
  */
 package ai.onnxruntime;
@@ -72,6 +72,12 @@ public void environmentTest() {
     assertSame(env, otherEnv);
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testVersion() {
+    String version = env.getVersion();
+    Assertions.assertFalse(version.isEmpty());
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void createSessionFromPath() throws OrtException {
     String modelPath = TestHelpers.getResourcePath("/squeezenet.onnx").toString();