Book of Judges
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Book of Judges trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Book of Judges covers the rough centuries between Israel's arrival in Canaan and its first kings. It is a cycle of failure and rescue, told through some of the Bible's most vivid characters: a left-handed assassin, a reluctant farmer turned general, an outcast who makes a terrible vow, and a strongman undone by his own weaknesses. The questions range across the whole book: the opening chapters and the first deliverers, the stories of Gideon, Abimelech and Jephthah, a long run on Samson that includes his wedding and riddle in Judges 14, and the tribal wars of the closing chapters. Every answer comes with an explanation that points back to the text. It suits Bible study groups, Sunday school classes, quiz teams and anyone reading through the Old Testament who wants to see how much of Judges has stuck.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which password caught fleeing Ephraimites at the Jordan fords because they could not pronounce it?
Shibboleth
Shibboleth came out as 'Sibboleth' on Ephraimite tongues, and Jephthah's men of Gilead killed anyone who said it that way. The word still means a telltale test of who belongs.
Q 02With what improvised weapon did Samson strike down a thousand Philistines at a place called Lehi?
A donkey's jawbone
A donkey's jawbone, lying fresh on the ground, was all Samson had after the two new ropes that bound him fell away like burnt flax. He boasted afterwards that it had left his enemies in heaps.
Q 03Which animals did Samson tie tail to tail with burning torches to destroy the Philistines' standing grain?
Foxes
Foxes were paired off with a torch between each two tails, and the fire took the Philistines' olive groves as well as their wheat. It was Samson's revenge for a marriage gone wrong.
Q 04What was hammered through the head of the Canaanite commander Sisera as he slept after fleeing a battle?
A tent peg
A tent peg went through Sisera's temple and into the ground, driven by a woman whose clan was at peace with his king. She had tucked him under a rug as if to hide him.
Q 05Gideon's army of 32,000 was whittled down to how many men before the night raid on the Midianite camp?
300
300 men were all God let Gideon keep, so that Israel could not boast that its own strength had won. The first to go were 22,000 who admitted they were afraid.
Q 06Which prophetess, the only woman among the leaders in Judges, held court beneath a palm tree?
Deborah
Deborah settled disputes under a tree that came to bear her name, between Ramah and Bethel. She also summoned the general who ended twenty years of Canaanite oppression.
Q 07What did Samson scoop out of an animal carcass on the way to his wedding and share with his parents?
Honey
Honey from a swarm of bees inside the carcass became the secret behind Samson's wedding riddle. He never told his parents where their snack had come from.
Q 08What did Gideon leave on a threshing floor overnight, asking that dew fall on it alone as a sign from God?
A wool fleece
A wool fleece came up soaked while the ground stayed dry, and Gideon wrung a bowlful of water from it. He then asked for the reverse the next night, and got that too.
Q 09Which woman took silver from the rulers of the Philistines to learn the secret of Samson's great strength?
Delilah
Delilah was promised eleven hundred pieces of silver by each Philistine ruler, and she pressed Samson daily until he gave in. He had fooled her with three false answers first.
Q 10After Jephthah's rash vow before battle, who was the first to come out of his house to greet him?
His daughter
His daughter, an only child, came out dancing with tambourines to celebrate the victory. Jephthah had sworn to offer up whatever first came through his doors.
Q 11On the road to arrange his marriage, which wild animal did Samson tear apart with his bare hands?
A lion
A lion, a young one that came roaring out of the vineyards, was torn apart as easily as a young goat. Samson told neither of his parents what he had done.
Q 12In which town did Samson see the Philistine woman he insisted on marrying despite his parents' protests?
Timnah
Timnah was where Samson first saw her, and his parents asked why he could not choose a wife from among his own people. He answered only that she pleased him.
Q 13What did Samson wager on the riddle he set for the Philistine guests at his seven-day wedding feast?
Thirty sets of clothing
Q 21Which parts of a crowded Philistine building did the captive Samson push against to bring it crashing down?
The middle pillars
The middle pillars, two of them, held up the whole house, and Samson braced one with each hand. He killed more people in that moment than in the rest of his life.
Q 22What forced labour did the Philistines give the captured Samson while he was held in their prison?
Grinding grain
Grinding grain at the prison mill was Samson's lot until the Philistines fetched him out to entertain the crowd at a great festival.
Q 23The Philistine rulers were offering a great sacrifice to which god when Samson brought the roof down on them?
Dagon
Thirty sets of clothing, plus as many linen garments, would go to whichever side won. Samson lost, and paid the debt with clothes stripped from men he killed in another town.
Q 14What did the Philistine wedding guests threaten to do unless Samson's bride coaxed out his riddle's answer?
Burn her and her family
Burn her and her family was the threat, so she wept and pressed Samson until he told her on the seventh day of the feast. The same fate caught up with her later anyway.
Q 15After Samson stormed home from his wedding feast in anger, what did his father-in-law do with the bride?
Gave her to his companion
Gave her to his companion, a man who had been Samson's friend, on the assumption that Samson now hated her. The father then offered her younger sister instead.
Q 16An angel told Samson's mother that her son would be set apart to God from the womb as what?
A Nazirite
A Nazirite was someone consecrated by a special vow, and Samson's mother had to give up wine and unclean food herself while she carried him.
Q 17Which man of Zorah, the father of Samson, feared he would die after seeing an angel rise in a flame?
Manoah
Manoah thought that seeing God meant certain death, but his wife reasoned that a God who meant to kill them would never have accepted their offering.
Q 18Samson ripped out the gates of which Philistine city, the same place where he later died a prisoner?
Gaza
Gaza lost its gate doors, posts and bar, which went up a hill on Samson's shoulders while townsmen waited to kill him at dawn. He was later hauled back there in bronze shackles.
Q 19What was done to Samson as he slept on a woman's knees that finally drained away his strength?
His hair was shaved off
His hair was shaved off, all seven braids of it, after he admitted that no razor had ever touched his head. He woke expecting to shake himself free as before.
Q 20What did the Philistines do to Samson straight after seizing him, before leading him away in bronze shackles?
Blinded him
Blinded him: the Philistines took his sight on the spot, then set him to forced labour in prison. His final prayer asked for one last surge of strength to avenge that loss.
Dagon got the credit from the Philistines for delivering Samson into their hands, and they were praising their god when they sent for the prisoner to perform.
Q 24At the spring of Harod, Gideon kept only the soldiers who drank the water in which way?
Lapping like a dog
Lapping like a dog, hand to mouth, marked out the few who would fight, while everyone who knelt to drink was sent home.
Q 25Besides trumpets, what did Gideon's men carry into the night attack to hide their burning torches?
Empty pitchers
Empty pitchers, or clay jars, hid the flames until every man smashed his at once and blew a trumpet. The Midianite camp panicked, and its soldiers turned their swords on one another.
Q 26Where was Gideon secretly threshing wheat, to hide it from Midianite raiders, when an angel appeared?
In a winepress
In a winepress, out of sight of the enemy, Gideon heard himself hailed as a mighty man of valor. He protested that his clan was the poorest in its tribe and he the least in it.
Q 27What did Gideon tear down at night with ten servants, leading the men of Ophrah to demand his death?
An altar of Baal
An altar of Baal belonging to his own father came down, along with the sacred pole beside it. His father saved him by arguing that a real god could fight his own battles.
Q 28In a dream Gideon overheard in the Midianite camp, what came tumbling in and flattened a tent?
A barley loaf
A barley loaf rolled into camp and knocked the tent flat, and the dreamer's comrade said it could only mean the sword of Gideon. Gideon bowed low in thanks on the spot.
Q 29What did Gideon make from the gold earrings of the plunder that became a snare to his own family?
An ephod
An ephod made from some 1,700 shekels of gold went on show in Gideon's home town of Ophrah, and Israel began to treat it as an idol.
Q 30Which Israelite general refused to fight Sisera's army unless the prophetess who summoned him came too?
Barak
Barak got his wish, along with a warning that the glory of the victory would not be his. He led ten thousand men down from a mountain camp to rout the enemy.