Jacob and Esau
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40 free Jacob and Esau trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Few family stories in the Bible are as tangled as that of Jacob and Esau. The twins are rivals before they are born, and the Book of Genesis follows them through a hungry bargain, a disguise, a long exile and a meeting neither brother could be sure he would survive. This quiz covers the whole arc in Genesis 25 to 36: the birth and the birthright, the blessing and the flight, Jacob's night of wrestling and the reunion, plus the family around the twins and the places they settled. A few questions follow the brothers into later books of the Bible, where prophets and New Testament writers return to their story. The questions start with the scenes most people remember from Sunday school and build toward details that reward a close reading, so the quiz suits Bible study groups, youth classes and anyone brushing up on the patriarchs. Every answer comes with a short explanation tied to the text.
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Q 01Which dish did Jacob hand over to a famished Esau as payment for the birthright?
Lentil stew
Lentil stew, served with bread, was the whole price. Esau ate, drank and walked off, and Genesis says he despised his birthright.
Q 02Which part of Esau's body was the newborn Jacob holding when the twins were delivered?
Heel
Heel in hand, Jacob arrived second. Years later Esau said his twin was rightly named, having supplanted him twice.
Q 03What did Jacob wear on his hands and neck to fool his father's touch and pass as Esau?
Goatskins
Goatskins came from the two kids his mother had just cooked, so the same animals supplied both the meal and the disguise.
Q 04Which skill made Esau, a man of the open country, the favorite son of his father?
Hunting
Hunting kept his father supplied with the game he loved, while Jacob, the quieter twin, was his mother's favorite.
Q 05Which frailty of old age let Jacob pose as Esau before his father and take the blessing?
Blindness
Blindness forced the old man to rely on touch and smell, and he stayed uneasy because the speaker did not sound like Esau.
Q 06What did God tell the mother of Jacob and Esau she was carrying before the twins were born?
Two nations
Two nations, God said, adding that one would be stronger than the other and that the elder would serve the younger.
Q 07What did Esau do on first reaching Jacob, the twin who had cheated him twenty years before?
Embraced him
Embraced him, and warmly: Esau ran to meet Jacob and fell on his neck, though Jacob had spent the night bracing for an attack.
Q 08What new name did Jacob receive after wrestling all night, just before he faced Esau again?
Israel
Israel was the name his opponent gave him, explained in Genesis as fitting a man who had struggled with God and with men and prevailed.
Q 09What color does Genesis say the newborn Esau was all over when he arrived ahead of Jacob?
Red
Red at birth, Esau later begged his brother for a dish of the same color, a pun Genesis uses to explain his nickname.
Q 10What did a furious Esau resolve to do to Jacob once the mourning for their father began?
Kill him
Kill him was the plan, but word reached the twins' mother, who sent Jacob away until his brother's anger cooled.
Q 11Which patriarch was sixty years old when his wife gave birth to the twins Jacob and Esau?
Isaac
Isaac had waited twenty years for children, having married at forty. He went on to favor Esau, the elder of the two boys.
Q 12Which woman, the mother of Jacob and Esau, planned the trick that won her favorite the blessing?
Rebekah
Rebekah overheard her husband promise the blessing to Esau, cooked the meal herself and told Jacob that any curse would fall on her.
Q 13To which uncle, his mother's brother, did Jacob flee to escape the anger of Esau?
Laban
Laban lived far away in Haran, and the stay that was meant to last a few days stretched to twenty years.
Q 21What did Jacob send ahead in separate waves as a present to win over Esau before they met?
Livestock
Livestock made up the whole gift, from sheep and cattle to camels and donkeys, with each drove spaced apart so Esau met present after present.
Q 22Which reason did Esau give Jacob for letting his birthright go so cheaply?
He was about to die
He was about to die, or so he claimed on coming in hungry from the field, asking what good a birthright would be to him then.
Q 23What did the father ask of the disguised Jacob just before blessing him in place of Esau?
A kiss
A kiss brought Jacob close enough for the old man to catch the outdoor scent of garments borrowed from Esau, and that settled it.
Q 14Which name, later that of his descendants' kingdom, did Esau earn by craving Jacob's cooking?
Edom
Edom echoes the color of the dish he begged for, and Genesis later lists the kings who ruled the land of that name.
Q 15While fleeing from Esau, what did Jacob see in a dream with angels going up and down it?
A ladder
A ladder, or a stairway in newer translations, stretched from earth to heaven, and God stood above it promising Jacob the land he slept on.
Q 16How did Esau react when his father had no blessing left to match the one given to Jacob?
Wept aloud
Wept aloud, after begging twice to be blessed too. The lesser blessing he then received said he would serve his brother but one day break free.
Q 17Which part of Jacob's body was injured as he wrestled, leaving him limping to his meeting with Esau?
Thigh
Thigh, at the hollow where the leg joins the body: Genesis says Jacob's descendants do not eat that sinew in memory of the injury.
Q 18What did Jacob make the famished Esau do to seal the birthright bargain before he served the food?
Swear an oath
Swear an oath came first: Jacob refused to serve anything until his brother had sworn, and only then does Genesis say the sale was made.
Q 19Which name did Jacob give the place where he slept with a stone for a pillow while fleeing Esau?
Bethel
Bethel had been called Luz until then. The next morning Jacob stood his stone pillow upright as a pillar and poured oil over it.
Q 20Where does Genesis say the quiet Jacob lived while Esau roamed the open country?
Among the tents
Among the tents, close to home, Jacob had a pot simmering on the day his brother came in hungry and bargained away his birthright.
Q 24How did the father of Jacob and Esau react when the real Esau arrived with a meal of his own?
Trembled violently
Trembled violently, Genesis says, as he asked who had served him the earlier meal. Even then he spoke no curse over Jacob.
Q 25By which weapon did the father of Jacob and Esau foretell that Esau would have to live?
Sword
Sword in hand was to be Esau's way of life, and the same words promised that he would one day shake his brother's yoke from his neck.
Q 26What did Jacob do seven times as he walked toward Esau and the four hundred men with him?
Bowed to the ground
Bowed to the ground again and again, Jacob went ahead of his whole family, a reversal of the blessing that had made him the one to be bowed to.
Q 27Which wife did Jacob place at the very back with her son Joseph as Esau and his men approached?
Rachel
Rachel and her boy were kept furthest from danger, behind Leah and the servants, though Jacob himself walked out in front of them all.
Q 28How did Jacob arrange his camp on hearing that Esau was coming with four hundred men?
Split it in two
Split it in two, he reasoned, and if Esau attacked one half the other could still escape; then he prayed to be delivered from his brother.
Q 29From which people did Esau take his first two wives, a choice that grieved both of his parents?
Hittites
Hittites lived locally in Canaan, and the twins' mother later used her dread of another such match as the reason for sending Jacob away.
Q 30Whose daughter Mahalath did Esau marry, hoping to please parents who disliked his local wives?
Ishmael
Ishmael was Esau's own uncle, so the bride was a cousin from inside the family, the kind of match Jacob had just been sent away to find.