Gideon
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40 free Gideon trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Gideon is one of the Old Testament's most relatable heroes: a farmer in hiding who argued with an angel, asked for proof more than once, and still went on to rescue Israel from years of Midianite raids. His story is short, vivid and full of details that stick, which is why it turns up so often in Sunday school lessons and Bible quizzes. This quiz follows the story in order. It starts with Gideon's call and the altar he pulled down, moves on to the signs he asked for and the way his army was cut to a fraction of its size, then covers the night raid on the enemy camp, the chase that followed and the choices he made after the victory. A few questions look at his family and at how his name is remembered today. The questions are written to work for children as well as adults: most can be answered from a careful reading of the story, with a handful of harder ones for keen Bible students. Every answer comes with a short explanation that points back to the text, so the quiz suits family quiz nights, youth groups and Bible study classes.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did Gideon leave on a threshing floor overnight, twice, to confirm that God would save Israel through him?
A fleece
A fleece gave Gideon exactly the sign he asked for on the first morning and, at his request, the opposite sign on the second.
Q 02How many soldiers did Gideon keep for his attack on the Midianite camp after God twice cut down his army?
300
300 men were all that remained of an army that began at thirty-two thousand; everyone else was sent back to the tents before the battle.
Q 03The Gideons, a society named after the biblical hero Gideon, are best known for leaving Bibles in which places?
Hotel rooms
Hotel rooms have held Gideon Bibles since 1908, when the society placed its first copies in the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana.
Q 04How did the few men Gideon kept for battle drink at the water, unlike the thousands he sent home?
Lapping like dogs
Lapping like dogs, with water scooped to the mouth by hand, marked out the chosen few; every man who got down on his knees to drink was dismissed.
Q 05What did Gideon's soldiers hide inside clay jars until the moment they surrounded the Midianite camp after dark?
Burning torches
Burning torches appeared on every side at once when the jars were smashed, and the whole Midianite army ran, crying out as it fled.
Q 06Where was Gideon secretly threshing wheat, to keep it from Midianite raiders, when an angel first appeared to him?
In a winepress
In a winepress the grain stayed out of sight; for seven years Midianite raiders had been stripping Israel's fields whenever crops were planted.
Q 07Why did God tell Gideon that his army of thousands was too large to fight the Midianites?
Israel would boast
Israel would boast that its own hand had won the victory, God said, so the volunteers were thinned out in two rounds before the battle.
Q 08Which book of the Old Testament tells the story of Gideon across its sixth, seventh and eighth chapters?
Judges
Judges covers the era before Israel had kings, when tribal leaders such as Gideon rose to lead in times of crisis.
Q 09Which weapon did Gideon's men name in their battle cry, even though their hands were full of other things?
A sword
A sword for the LORD and for Gideon was the shout, raised by men who simply stood in place around the camp while the enemy fled.
Q 10In the dream Gideon overheard outside the Midianite camp, what came tumbling in and flattened a tent?
A barley loaf
A barley loaf knocked the tent flat, and the dreamer's friend said it could only mean Gideon, into whose hand God had given the whole camp.
Q 11In Gideon's first overnight test, what did he ask God to put only on the item he had laid out?
Dew
Dew lay so heavily on it that Gideon wrung out a bowlful of water, though the ground all around was dry.
Q 12Which second name did Gideon earn after he tore down his father's pagan altar under cover of darkness?
Jerubbaal
Jerubbaal was explained as 'let Baal contend with him', a dare for the god to defend his own altar against the man who wrecked it.
Q 13Which man, Gideon's own father, told an angry mob that an idol should be left to defend its own altar?
Joash
Joash owned the altar his son had wrecked, yet he warned that anyone who pleaded for the idol would be dead by morning.
Q 21Which group did Gideon send home first, a step that cut his army by more than two-thirds?
The fearful
The fearful were invited to leave, and twenty-two thousand men took the offer, leaving ten thousand in the camp.
Q 22What did each of Gideon's men blow, on his signal, as they stood around the Midianite camp?
Ram's horns
Ram's horns, called trumpets in the King James Version, had been collected from the thousands of men sent home, so every remaining soldier held one.
Q 23What did the panicked Midianite soldiers do inside their own camp once the alarm was raised around them?
Turned on each other
Q 14To which tribe of Israel did Gideon belong, though he called his own clan its weakest?
Manasseh
Manasseh supplied his first recruits, starting with his own clan of Abiezer, before Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali joined.
Q 15Under what kind of tree did the angel of the LORD sit down before speaking to Gideon for the first time?
An oak
An oak, or a terebinth in some translations, stood on his family's land, and Gideon later served the visitor a meal beneath it.
Q 16What did the angel of the LORD call Gideon in greeting, while he was hiding his grain from raiders?
Mighty man of valor
Mighty man of valor, or mighty warrior in newer translations, was the angel's name for a farmer who went on to ask how he could possibly save Israel.
Q 17What did Gideon name the altar he built after fearing he would die for seeing an angel?
The LORD Is Peace
The LORD Is Peace, or Jehovah-shalom in the King James Version, echoes what Gideon had just been told: not to be afraid, because he would not die.
Q 18What consumed the meat and bread Gideon set out as an offering when the angel touched them with his staff?
Fire from the rock
Fire from the rock swallowed the meal, the angel vanished, and only then did Gideon realise who his visitor had been.
Q 19What wooden object beside his father's altar did Gideon cut down and use as fuel for a sacrifice?
An Asherah pole
An Asherah pole, which the King James Version calls a grove, honoured a Canaanite goddess, and Gideon took ten servants to help bring it down.
Q 20Which animal did God tell Gideon to sacrifice on the new altar he built after wrecking a pagan one?
A bull
A bull seven years old was offered, an age that matched the years Midian had oppressed Israel.
The Midianites turned on each other with their own weapons, and the survivors fled toward the Jordan with Israel in pursuit.
Q 24Which servant crept down to the edge of the Midianite camp with Gideon to listen on the eve of battle?
Purah
Purah went along because God offered Gideon a companion if he was afraid to go alone, and what the pair overheard settled his nerves.
Q 25How did Gideon respond on the spot when he heard an enemy soldier's dream explained in his favour?
He worshipped
He worshipped where he stood, then went straight back to rouse his men with the news that the enemy camp was already theirs.
Q 26Which two Midianite princes fleeing from Gideon were captured and killed at sites that bear their names?
Oreb and Zeeb
Oreb and Zeeb were seized by a neighbouring tribe that Gideon had called down from the hills, and their heads were carried to him across the river.
Q 27Which tribe complained bitterly to Gideon that it had not been called to the fight against Midian sooner?
Ephraim
Ephraim was soothed when Gideon said its late catch of two enemy princes outshone everything his own clan had done.
Q 28Gideon calmed an angry tribe by comparing its leftover gleanings to his own clan's whole harvest of which fruit?
Grapes
Grapes were the image: the scraps the complaining tribe picked up after the harvest, he said, beat the full vintage of his own clan, Abiezer.
Q 29Which town's elders did Gideon punish with desert briers for refusing bread to his exhausted men?
Succoth
Succoth's leaders had sneered that Gideon had not caught the enemy kings yet; a captured youth later wrote down the names of every one of them.
Q 30What did Gideon tear down at Penuel after that town also refused to feed his troops?
Its tower
Its tower was the subject of a threat he made on the way out, and on his return in triumph he carried it out and killed the men of the town.