Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)
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50 free Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Tanakh, also spelled Tanach, is the Hebrew Bible: the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. Its stories of floods, plagues, giants and kings are some of the best known ever told, and the way its text was copied and guarded over the centuries is a story of its own. This quiz moves through the whole collection. Expect the families of Genesis, the journey out of Egypt, the judges and the first kings, the prophets, the exile in Babylon and the books read in synagogue through the Jewish year. A few questions cover Hebrew names, scribes and famous manuscripts. It suits Hebrew school students, Bible study groups and anyone who wants to test how much they remember. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even from the ones you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which bird does Noah send out first after the flood in Genesis, before he tries a dove?
A raven
A raven goes out first and flies to and fro until the waters dry up. The dove sent after it comes back with an olive leaf, the sign that land has reappeared.
Q 02What does Lot's wife turn into when she looks back at the burning city of Sodom?
A pillar of salt
A pillar of salt is her fate for ignoring the angels' warning not to look behind her. She is never named in the Bible, though some Jewish traditions call her Edith.
Q 03Which grandfather of Noah is said in Genesis to have lived 969 years, the longest lifespan in the Bible?
Methuselah
Methuselah dies in the very year of the flood, if the ages listed in Genesis are added up. His name has become a byword for extreme old age.
Q 04In the dream Joseph interprets for Pharaoh in Genesis, which seven fat animals are eaten by seven thin ones?
Cows
Cows stand for years in Joseph's reading: seven of abundance, then seven of famine. He advises Pharaoh to store the surplus grain and rises to second-in-command of Egypt.
Q 05Which hairy elder twin sells his birthright to his brother Jacob for a bowl of red lentil stew?
Esau
Esau comes home famished from the fields and trades away his rights as firstborn on the spot. The Hebrew Bible makes him the ancestor of the Edomites, Israel's neighbours and rivals.
Q 06Which manuscripts, found by Bedouin shepherds in caves near Qumran, hold the oldest known copies of biblical books?
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls pushed the date of the earliest Hebrew biblical manuscripts back by more than a millennium. Before the find, the oldest known Hebrew copies dated from the Middle Ages.
Q 07Which woman from the Valley of Sorek betrays Samson to the Philistines by having his hair cut?
Delilah
Delilah is offered 1,100 silver coins by each of the Philistine lords for the secret of his strength. Samson fools her three times before he admits that it lies in his hair.
Q 08Which prophet boards a ship for Tarshish to avoid preaching in Nineveh and is swallowed by a great fish?
Jonah
Jonah spends three days and three nights inside the fish before God has it vomit him out. Nineveh then repents so thoroughly that the prophet is displeased.
Q 09Which wife of Abraham laughs to herself in a tent on overhearing that she will bear a son at ninety?
Sarah
Sarah's laugh does not go unnoticed: the visitor asks Abraham why she laughed, since her age is nothing to God. The son she bears a year later is given a Hebrew name that means laughter.
Q 10Which food, said in Exodus to taste like wafers made with honey, feeds the Israelites in the wilderness?
Manna
Manna rots overnight if hoarded, except before the Sabbath, when twice the usual amount is gathered and keeps fresh. None at all appears on the seventh day.
Q 11Which third section of the Tanakh, whose name means 'Writings', includes Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Ruth?
Ketuvim
Ketuvim supplies the final letter of the acronym Tanakh, after Torah and Nevi'im. It was the last of the three sections to be accepted as canon.
Q 12By the traditional Jewish count, which treats the twelve Minor Prophets as one, how many books make up the Tanakh?
24
24 is the traditional rabbinic count found in the Talmud. It reaches that figure by treating Kings as a single book and joining Ezra with Nehemiah.
Q 13Which Hebrew name, taken from its opening word meaning 'in the beginning', do Jews use for the Book of Genesis?
Bereshit
Bereshit follows the Jewish convention of titling each book of the Torah by one of its opening words. The English name Genesis comes instead from the Greek for 'origin'.
Q 21Which son does Abraham bind on an altar in the land of Moriah in Genesis before an angel stops him?
Isaac
Isaac is spared when a ram appears and is offered in his place. The story is traditionally read in synagogue on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.
Q 22Which brother of Moses collects the Israelites' gold earrings and fashions them into the golden calf?
Aaron
Aaron still goes on to serve as Israel's first high priest. Moses burns the idol, grinds it to powder, scatters it on water and makes the people drink it.
Q 23Which creatures swarm out of the Nile into Egyptian homes in the second of the ten plagues in Exodus?
Frogs
Frogs emerge from the river and jump around almost everywhere in Egypt. Pharaoh's magicians try to match the feat and only conjure up a second wave of them.
Q 14What name is given to the selection from the Prophets read in synagogue after the Torah portion each Sabbath?
Haftarah
Haftarah means 'parting' or 'taking leave', and the passage is typically linked by theme to the Torah portion read just before it.
Q 15On which festival, whose name means 'Weeks', is the Book of Ruth traditionally read in synagogues?
Shavuot
Shavuot is harvest time, and the events of the story unfold during a harvest too, as Ruth gleans barley and wheat in the fields of Boaz.
Q 16Which book of the Tanakh, traditionally attributed to Jeremiah, is recited on the fast day of Tisha B'Av?
Lamentations
Lamentations is a set of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Its Hebrew title, Eikhah, is simply its opening word, meaning 'how'.
Q 17Which Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is traditionally credited to seventy-two Jewish scholars in Alexandria?
Septuagint
The Septuagint takes its name from the Latin for seventy and is abbreviated LXX. Tradition says Ptolemy II of Egypt wanted the Torah in Greek for the Library of Alexandria.
Q 18Besides Hebrew, in which related language are long passages of the Book of Ezra written?
Aramaic
Aramaic served as a lingua franca across the ancient Near East, and the passages in question quote official documents about restoring the Temple in Jerusalem.
Q 19Which sister of Moses, called a prophetess, leads the Israelite women in song after the sea crossing?
Miriam
Miriam is later shut out of the camp for seven days with a skin disease, after she speaks against Moses over his marriage.
Q 20Which book of the Hebrew Bible, called Tehillim or 'praises' in Hebrew, gathers 150 sacred poems?
Psalms
Psalms carries the name of King David in the headings of 73 of its poems, though modern scholars do not accept that he wrote them.
Q 24Which Canaanite city's walls collapse after the Israelites circle it for seven days with priests blowing horns?
Jericho
Jericho is circled once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh, and the walls fall when the people shout. It is the first battle after the crossing of the Jordan.
Q 25Which successor of Moses leads the Israelites across the Jordan and asks for the sun to stand still?
Joshua
Joshua asks for the sun and moon to halt at Gibeon so that he can finish a battle in daylight. Rabbinic tradition adds that Moses had expected one of his own sons to succeed him instead.
Q 26Which gold-covered furnishing of the Tabernacle holds the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments?
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant is a chest of acacia wood gilded all over with gold. When Solomon's Temple is dedicated, it is placed in the inner room called the Holy of Holies.
Q 27Which prophetess, the only female judge in the Hebrew Bible, gives her rulings beneath a date palm?
Deborah
Deborah summons the general Barak to lead ten thousand men against the Canaanites, and Barak refuses to go into battle without her.
Q 28Which Philistine giant from Gath does the young David bring down with a single stone from his sling?
Goliath
Goliath falls face down when the stone strikes his forehead, and David beheads him with the giant's own sword. David had turned down the king's armour for the fight.
Q 29Which prophet, dedicated as a boy at Shiloh by his mother Hannah, anoints both Saul and David as kings?
Samuel
Samuel first anoints Saul in secret, at a time when Saul is out looking for his father's lost donkeys.
Q 30Which wife of Uriah the Hittite does King David spot from his palace roof and later marry?
Bathsheba
Bathsheba goes on to become the mother of Solomon, David's successor. David has Uriah killed in battle so that he can marry her.