Book of Esther
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50 free Book of Esther trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Book of Esther reads like a palace thriller. A young woman raised in exile becomes queen of Persia while keeping a secret, a proud court official turns a personal grudge into a decree against an entire people, and a single sleepless night sets the whole scheme unravelling. It is one of the shortest and most dramatic stories in the Old Testament, and it is still read aloud in full every year. This quiz follows the story from the king's great feast to the final verse: the fall of one queen and the rise of another, Mordecai at the gate, Haman's rise and ruin, Esther's dangerous walk to the throne room, and the letters that turned a day of dread into a celebration. Later questions cover the book's background, its place in the Bible and the customs that grew up around it. Every answer comes with an explanation that points back to the text. It suits Sunday school classes, youth groups, Bible study leaders and families reading the story together, with easier questions that children can answer first and harder ones for readers who know every chapter.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On Mordecai's instructions, what secret did Esther keep from the Persian king after she was taken into the palace?
Her Jewish identity
Her Jewish identity stayed secret through twelve months of beauty treatments and her coronation, and Esther 2 notes twice that she told no one.
Q 02Which Jewish festival, kept with costumes and a festive meal, celebrates the rescue told in the Book of Esther?
Purim
Purim centres on the book itself: the whole story is read aloud from a handwritten scroll twice, once in the evening and again the next morning.
Q 03What did Haman have built fifty cubits high, on the advice of his wife and friends, in the Book of Esther?
A gallows
A gallows about 75 feet tall was meant for Mordecai, but the very next day the king had Haman himself hanged on it.
Q 04Which queen lost her throne at the start of the Book of Esther, opening the way for Esther to be crowned?
Vashti
Vashti was hosting her own banquet for the women of the palace while the king feasted his officials and the men of the capital.
Q 05Which famous phrase ends Mordecai's challenge that Esther may have become queen for a purpose?
Such a time as this
'Such a time as this' closes Esther 4:14, where Mordecai also warns that help for the Jews would come from elsewhere if she stayed silent.
Q 06What did Mordecai refuse to do before Haman at the palace gate, filling the newly promoted official with rage?
Bow down to him
Bow down to him is what the king had ordered every servant at the gate to do, and Mordecai's refusal turned Haman against all the Jews, not just one man.
Q 07By which Hebrew name, meaning myrtle, is Esther first introduced in the Book of Esther?
Hadassah
Hadassah is the name used when she first appears in Esther 2:7; 'Esther' is often linked to the Persian word for star or to the goddess Ishtar.
Q 08In the Book of Esther, what did the king hold out to spare anyone who entered his inner court uninvited?
His gold scepter
His gold scepter was the only escape from a death sentence, and Esther touched its tip when he extended it to her.
Q 09What did the sleepless Persian king order to be read to him on the night before Esther's second banquet?
The royal chronicles
The royal chronicles reminded him of a favour Mordecai had never been rewarded for, just as Haman arrived to ask for Mordecai's execution.
Q 10With which famous words did Esther accept the risk of approaching the king uninvited?
If I perish, I perish
'If I perish, I perish' was no exaggeration: Esther tells Mordecai she had not been called to the king for thirty days.
Q 11Esther is one of only two books in the Hebrew Bible that never mention God explicitly; which is the other?
Song of Songs
Song of Songs is a love poem, while Esther is a court drama in which Jewish tradition sees a hidden hand behind a string of well-timed coincidences.
Q 12What relation was Mordecai to Esther, the young woman he brought up as his own daughter in the Persian capital?
Her cousin
Her cousin is the answer, because Esther was the daughter of Mordecai's uncle, yet he was old enough to adopt her and check on her daily outside the harem.
Q 13Why was Esther raised by Mordecai rather than in her own family home, according to the Book of Esther?
Her parents had died
Q 21In which Persian royal city, where Nehemiah later served as cupbearer, does the Book of Esther take place?
Susa
Susa was the winter capital of the Persian empire, in what is now Iran, and older Bibles call it Shushan.
Q 22In the Book of Esther, how was the date for destroying the Jews chosen in Haman's presence, nearly a year ahead?
By casting lots
By casting lots, which fell on the twelfth month, eleven months away, leaving room for the decree to be countered before the day arrived.
Q 23In Esther 9, Mordecai told Jews to mark the yearly celebration with feasting, sending food to friends and what else?
Gifts to the poor
Her parents had died, so Mordecai took the girl in and treated her as his own daughter, and she went on obeying him even after she was crowned.
Q 14Why was the queen before Esther stripped of her crown on the seventh day of the Persian king's feast?
She refused his summons
She refused his summons to appear before the guests and show off her beauty, and the king's advisers feared every wife in the empire would copy her.
Q 15What did Mordecai put on, after tearing his clothes, when he learned of Haman's decree against the Jews?
Sackcloth and ashes
Sackcloth and ashes kept him outside the palace, because nobody dressed in mourning was allowed through the king's gate.
Q 16Before going to the Persian king uninvited, what did Esther ask the Jews of the capital to do for three days?
Fast for her
Fast for her was the request, with nothing eaten or drunk by night or day, and Esther and her maids kept the same three days too.
Q 17What did the Persian king promise Esther, if she asked, when she came before his throne unsummoned?
Up to half his kingdom
Up to half his kingdom was the offer, and the king repeated it at both of Esther's banquets before she finally named her request.
Q 18What did the Persian king hand to Haman, letting him issue the decree against the Jews in the king's name?
His signet ring
His signet ring changed hands twice: after Haman's fall the king took it back and gave it to Mordecai, who sealed a rescue decree with it.
Q 19What did Mordecai uncover at the palace gate and report through Esther, before Haman rose to power?
An assassination plot
An assassination plot by two of the king's own door guards, Bigthan and Teresh, was foiled, yet Mordecai received no reward at the time.
Q 20Believing the honour was meant for himself, what reward did Haman suggest to the Persian king?
A royal robe and horse
A royal robe and horse, both used by the king himself, went to Mordecai instead, and Haman had to lead him through the city square proclaiming the honour.
Gifts to the poor remain a duty of the festival today, known in Hebrew as mattanot la-evyonim, alongside parcels of food sent to friends.
Q 24Triangular pastries eaten when Esther's story is celebrated are called 'oznei Haman' in Hebrew, meaning Haman's what?
Ears
Ears is the Hebrew nickname, while the Yiddish name hamantaschen means Haman's pockets; poppy seed paste is the oldest traditional filling.
Q 25What do listeners traditionally do each time Haman's name comes up when the Book of Esther is read in synagogue?
Make loud noise
Make loud noise is the custom, often with a rattle called a grogger, to blot out a name that comes up 54 times in the reading.
Q 26By which Hebrew word for a scroll, also slang for a long-winded story, is the Book of Esther commonly known?
Megillah
Megillah reached American English through Yiddish in the phrase 'the whole megillah', meaning an overly long explanation or story.
Q 27Esther 2 says Mordecai's family was carried into exile from Jerusalem by which king of Babylon?
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar deported them alongside King Jeconiah of Judah, more than a century before the story's events if its Persian king is Xerxes I.
Q 28By the final verse of the Book of Esther, what rank has Mordecai reached in the Persian empire?
Second to the king
Second to the king is how the book leaves him, popular with his fellow Jews and remembered for speaking up for their welfare.
Q 29At her second banquet, what did Esther finally ask the king to grant as her petition and request?
Her life and her people's
Her life and her people's were all she asked for, adding that she would have kept quiet if they had only been sold as slaves.
Q 30In Esther, what was special about a decree written into the laws of Persia and Media?
It could not be repealed
It could not be repealed, which is why the king could not simply cancel Haman's order and had to let a second decree counter it.