Book of Ezra
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50 free Book of Ezra trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Book of Ezra picks up where the exile ends. A Persian decree sends the people of Judah home from Babylon, and the book follows them as they raise God's house again in Jerusalem, face down hostile neighbours and wait out years of official delay. This quiz covers the whole book: the first caravan and its long register of families, the laying of the foundation, the letters that fly between local officials and the Persian court, the dedication, and then Ezra's own journey, his prayer and the hard decisions of the closing pages. Every answer comes with an explanation tied to the text. It works for Bible study groups, Sunday school classes, Pathfinder Bible Experience teams drilling the book, and anyone reading through the Old Testament who wants to see how much of Ezra has stuck.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01When the new temple's foundation was laid in Ezra 3, how did the old men who had seen the first one react?
They wept aloud
They wept aloud while others shouted for joy, and the two sounds mixed so thoroughly that nobody could tell the gladness from the grief.
Q 02Which Persian king's proclamation, letting the exiles go home to rebuild God's house, opens the Book of Ezra?
Cyrus
Cyrus not only freed the exiles but handed back the gold and silver vessels that had been looted from Jerusalem and kept in a pagan shrine.
Q 03On hearing the princes' report in Ezra 9, Ezra tore his garment and robe and did what else to himself?
Pulled out his hair
Ezra pulled out his hair, from head and beard alike, then sat down confounded while those who trembled at God's words gathered round him.
Q 04What weather left the men of Judah trembling as they sat in the open square before God's house in Ezra 10?
Heavy rain
Heavy rain soaked the crowd, and the people pleaded that they could not stand outside in such a season while every case was heard.
Q 05The Book of Ezra originally shared one scroll with which book, named after a rebuilder of Jerusalem's wall?
Nehemiah
Nehemiah and Ezra stayed a single book in Hebrew Bibles until the first printed rabbinic editions split them in the early 16th century.
Q 06According to Ezra 3, what did the returned exiles build first in Jerusalem, before the temple foundation was laid?
The altar
The altar came first, set on its base despite the builders' fear of the surrounding peoples, so that daily burnt offerings could resume at once.
Q 07In Ezra 3, the returned exiles paid the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar trees from where?
Lebanon
Lebanon supplied the cedar, which was brought by sea to Joppa and paid for with food, drink and oil.
Q 08What stopped Ezra from asking the Persian king for soldiers and horsemen to guard the caravan to Jerusalem?
He was ashamed to
He was ashamed to, having already told the king that God protects all who seek him, so a request for an escort would have looked like doubt.
Q 09What practice among the returned exiles, reported by the princes in Ezra 9, drove Ezra to mourning and confession?
Marrying foreign women
Marrying foreign women was the charge, and the princes admitted that the leaders and rulers themselves had been foremost in it.
Q 10Besides being a priest, what was the profession of Ezra when he came up from Babylon to Jerusalem?
Scribe
Scribe, skilled in the law of Moses, is how the text introduces Ezra, and the Persian king is said to have granted him everything he requested.
Q 11According to Ezra 1, which Babylonian king had carried the temple vessels off from Jerusalem to the house of his gods?
Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar, who also destroyed the first temple, had taken them, and the exiles carried 5,400 gold and silver pieces back home.
Q 12Which governor, the son of Shealtiel, is named first among the exiles who returned from Babylon in Ezra 2?
Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel was a grandson of Jeconiah, the exiled king of Judah, so an heir of the old dynasty led the first caravan home.
Q 13Ezra 1 says the Persian decree to free the exiles fulfilled words spoken by which Hebrew prophet?
Jeremiah
Jeremiah had promised that after seventy years in Babylon the exiles would be brought back to their own land.
Q 21In Ezra 4, what did the adversaries who approached the family heads in Jerusalem first offer them?
To join the construction
To join the construction was their offer, on the grounds that they too had worshipped Israel's God since being resettled there, but the leaders turned them down flat.
Q 22Several official letters quoted in the Book of Ezra switch from Hebrew into which language of Persian administration?
Aramaic
Aramaic had become the main language of public life under Persian rule, and Daniel is the only other Old Testament book with long passages in it.
Q 23Which prophet, named alongside Zechariah son of Iddo, stirred the Jews to resume building the temple in Ezra 5?
Haggai
Q 14To which prince of Judah did the Persians count out the returned temple vessels in Ezra 1?
Sheshbazzar
Sheshbazzar received the vessels and is later credited with laying the temple's foundations, yet after that he vanishes from the story.
Q 15In Ezra 2, priests who could not prove their ancestry were barred until a priest could consult what?
Urim and Thummim
Urim and Thummim were kept in the high priest's breastplate for seeking God's verdict, and until they could be used these families ate none of the most holy food.
Q 16Roughly how many people does Ezra 2 count in the whole assembly that returned from exile in Babylon?
About 42,000
About 42,000 is the scale: the text totals 42,360, then adds 7,337 servants and 200 singers on top.
Q 17Ezra 2 counts horses, mules, camels and which far more numerous animal among the returning exiles' livestock?
Donkeys
Donkeys numbered 6,720, nearly five times the horses, mules and camels put together, which shows what really carried the caravan's baggage.
Q 18Which seventh-month festival did the returned exiles keep in Ezra 3 before the temple foundation was laid?
Feast of Booths
Feast of Booths, also called Tabernacles or Sukkot, commemorates the Exodus from Egypt, a fitting festival for people just home from another captivity.
Q 19Which instruments did the sons of Asaph play when the temple foundation was laid in Ezra 3?
Cymbals
Cymbals were the Asaphites' part while the priests in their vestments blew trumpets, an arrangement credited to a much earlier ruler.
Q 20At the temple foundation ceremony in Ezra 3, the musicians followed directions laid down by which king of Israel?
David
David had set Asaph and his descendants aside to worship in song and music, so the returned exiles were reviving a tradition far older than the exile.
Haggai has a short book of his own, in which he scolds the people for living in panelled houses while God's house lay in ruins.
Q 24In Ezra 5, which governor of the province Beyond the River wrote to Darius questioning the temple builders' authority?
Tattenai
Tattenai is more than a name in a story: a clay tablet dated to 502 BC mentions a servant of a governor of Across-the-River called Tattannu.
Q 25After Darius ordered the archives searched in Ezra 6, the scroll of the original decree turned up in which province?
Media
Media held the scroll, in the palace at Achmetha, better known as Ecbatana, the old Median capital that Persian rulers used as a summer seat.
Q 26In Ezra 6, anyone who altered Darius's temple edict was to be fastened to what?
A beam from his house
A beam from his house was to be torn out for the purpose, and the house itself was then to be turned into a dunghill.
Q 27Under Darius's decree in Ezra 6, who had to cover the expenses of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem?
The royal treasury
The royal treasury paid, out of the tribute collected beyond the River, so the very officials who had queried the work ended up funding it.
Q 28The letter of accusation sent to Artaxerxes in Ezra 4 described Jerusalem as what kind of city?
A rebellious one
A rebellious one, the writers claimed, urging the king to search his fathers' records and warning that he would lose everything west of the River.
Q 29In Ezra 4, which official wrote to Artaxerxes against Jerusalem and then hurried there to halt the Jews by force?
Rehum
Rehum got the answer he wanted: the king ordered the city's rebuilding stopped, and Rehum and Shimshai went to enforce the ban in person.
Q 30The adversaries in Ezra 4 claimed they had sacrificed to Israel's God since the days of which Assyrian king?
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon, the Assyrian conqueror of Egypt, was the ruler who had brought their ancestors into the land, by their own account.