Book of Zephaniah
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40 free Book of Zephaniah trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Zephaniah is one of the shortest books in the Old Testament: three chapters that move from some of the darkest warnings in the Bible to one of its warmest endings. It opens with a threat against the whole earth, turns on Jerusalem and the nations around it, and closes with a city told to rejoice because its God is in its midst. This quiz covers the whole book: the day of the LORD, the charges against Judah's leaders and worshippers, the oracles against neighbouring peoples, and the promises made to those who come through the judgment. A few questions step outside the text to ask who the prophet was, when he lived, where the book sits among the Minor Prophets, and how later readers, translators and musicians used it. It suits Bible study groups, Sunday school classes and anyone reading through the prophets. Every question about the text names its verse, so you can check the answer in your own translation, and each answer comes with a short explanation. The full set can be printed for a group.
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Q 01Zephaniah 2:9 swears that a nation which taunted Judah will become like which city, a place of weeds and salt pits?
Sodom
Sodom was the city Lot escaped, and in Genesis the two nations cursed in this oath descend from Lot's own daughters.
Q 02Zephaniah 2:13 foretells that which great city will become a desolation, as dry as a desert?
Nineveh
Nineveh was the largest city in the world until it was sacked in 612 BC; the book has it boasting that there was none besides it.
Q 03Zephaniah 3:17, which calls God mighty to save, pictures him rejoicing over his people with gladness and with what?
Singing
Singing closes a verse that also promises God will quiet his people with his love.
Q 04Which empire besieged and destroyed Jerusalem a few decades after Zephaniah warned the city of coming judgment?
Babylon
Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II took Jerusalem after a long siege, then razed the city and Solomon's Temple.
Q 05Zephaniah 1:1 dates the prophet's message to the reign of which reforming king of Judah, the son of Amon?
Josiah
Josiah became king at age eight and later reformed Judah's worship after a book of the law was discovered in the Temple.
Q 06Which medieval Latin hymn, best known from the Requiem Mass, takes its title and opening words from Zephaniah 1:15?
Dies irae
Dies irae means the Day of Wrath, the Latin Bible's wording of the verse, and Mozart and Verdi both set the hymn in their Requiems.
Q 07Zephaniah 1:18 names which pair of things as powerless to deliver anyone on the day of the LORD's anger?
Silver and gold
Silver and gold fail because the verse foresees a sudden end for all who dwell on the earth.
Q 08Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ekron, all doomed in Zephaniah 2:4, were cities of which coastal people?
Philistines
The Philistines held five chief cities, and the fifth, Gath, is the one this list leaves out.
Q 09Zephaniah 1:4 vows to cut off from Jerusalem every last trace of which god of rain and fertility?
Baal
Baal worship is condemned alongside people who bow to the stars and those who have turned back from following the LORD.
Q 10Which Old Testament figure, known to scholars as the weeping prophet, was a contemporary of Zephaniah?
Jeremiah
Jeremiah had much in common with Zephaniah; the hardships described in his own book and in Lamentations earned him the nickname.
Q 11In Zephaniah 1:12, God says he will search Jerusalem with what, to punish people settled in complacency?
Lamps
Lamps leave no dark corner for those who tell themselves the LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.
Q 12Which hill's name completes the title Zephaniah 3:14 gives to rejoicing Jerusalem: Daughter of what?
Zion
Zion is called to rejoice because the LORD has taken away her punishment and turned back her enemy.
Q 13Zephaniah 3:4 accuses which leaders of Jerusalem of profaning the sanctuary and doing violence to the law?
Priests
Priests are charged in the same breath as the city's prophets, who are called reckless and faithless men.
Q 21Zephaniah's opening verse traces his family back four generations to a man sharing which famous king's name?
Hezekiah
Hezekiah is the last name in the list, and the medieval commentator Ibn Ezra took him to be the king, though the verse never says so.
Q 22Zephaniah 1:5 condemns people who bow down to the host of heaven from which part of their homes?
Rooftops
Rooftops were where the stars were worshipped; the same verse condemns swearing by the LORD and also by Milcom, a name some Bibles give as Molech.
Q 23Zephaniah 1:7 pictures the day of the LORD as which kind of occasion, prepared by God with consecrated guests?
A sacrifice
A sacrifice is the image, and the next verse names who is punished on that day: the princes and the king's sons.
Q 14Zephaniah 3:3 likens Jerusalem's judges to which evening hunters that leave nothing for the morning?
Wolves
Wolves are paired with roaring lions, the verse's image for the princes of the same city.
Q 15Hebrew fragments of Zephaniah dating from the second century BC were found among which famous collection of manuscripts?
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls include a Zephaniah fragment dated 150–125 BC, about a thousand years older than the oldest Hebrew codex of the book.
Q 16Zephaniah 1:13 warns the wealthy they will build houses they never live in and plant what in vain?
Vineyards
Vineyards are planted, but the owners never drink the wine, and their wealth is plundered.
Q 17Which word does Zephaniah 3:13 use for the humble people of Israel who will do no wrong and tell no lies?
Remnant
The remnant are promised they will feed and lie down with no one to make them tremble.
Q 18Zephaniah 1:7 demands what response in the presence of the Lord GOD, because the day of the LORD is near?
Silence
Silence is the hush before a solemn rite: the verse goes on to say that God has consecrated his guests.
Q 19Which short prophetic book comes immediately before Zephaniah in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament?
Habakkuk
Habakkuk and Zephaniah are both set in the later Assyrian period, and the order of these short books is roughly chronological.
Q 20Which book of prophecy, set in the Persian period, follows directly after Zephaniah in the Old Testament?
Haggai
Haggai begins the last group of these short prophetic books, the three that are set in the Persian period.
Q 24Zephaniah 1:8 says the princes and the king's sons will be punished along with all who wear what?
Foreign clothes
Foreign clothes were a fashion of the aristocracy, and the prophet is read as urging a return to the simplicity of earlier generations.
Q 25Zephaniah 1:18 warns that the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of God's what?
Jealousy
Jealousy comes back in 3:8, where the line about all the earth being consumed by fire is repeated almost word for word.
Q 26Zephaniah 2:8 hears the insults of the Ammonites and the reproach of which neighbouring nation?
Moab
Moab and its neighbour had taunted God's people and threatened their borders; the oath that follows gives their land to Judah's survivors.
Q 27Zephaniah 2:13 says God will turn against which point of the compass to destroy Assyria?
North
North comes last: the oracle has already dealt with the seacoast, two taunting neighbours and the peoples of the upper Nile.
Q 28Zephaniah 3:16 tells Jerusalem not to fear and not to let which part of the body fall limp?
Hands
Hands are to stay strong because, the next verse says, the LORD your God is among you and mighty to save.
Q 29Zephaniah 3:19 promises that God will gather the scattered and save which other group of the afflicted?
The lame
The lame are promised fame in every land where they were once disgraced.
Q 30Zephaniah's final verse promises the gathered people fame and what else among all the peoples of the earth?
Praise
Praise ends the book on hope, and its closing promise to gather the exiles home has a place in Jewish liturgy.