Moses Trivia
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108 free Moses trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Moses trivia quiz follows the prophet from the basket in the bulrushes to the summit of Mount Nebo. The easy questions cover the story most people know from Sunday school or the movies: who found the baby, the burning bush, the first and last plagues, the golden calf, the smashed tablets and how old Moses was when he died. The medium questions dig into the details that get forgotten: his wife Zipporah and their sons, the Song of the Sea, manna, the bronze serpent, Korah's rebellion and Miriam's punishment. The harder end goes beyond the Book of Exodus. There are questions on Moses in the Quran and Islamic tradition (Samiri, Al-Khidr, the fifty prayers), on rabbinic legends, on the meaning of his name, on Michelangelo's horned statue and Freud's strange last book, and on Hollywood's two great Moses films, The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Moses, the plagues, the crossing of the sea, the Ten Commandments and the films, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you want more, our Exodus, Ten Commandments and Bible quizzes pick up where this one leaves off.
30 of 108 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01As a baby, Moses was hidden by his mother in a basket among the bulrushes of which river?
The Nile
Pharaoh had ordered every newborn Hebrew boy thrown into the Nile, so Moses' mother hid him in a basket at the river's edge.
Q 02In Exodus, who found the infant Moses in the river and raised him?
Pharaoh's daughter
Exodus never names Pharaoh's daughter, though Josephus and the Book of Jubilees call her Thermouthis.
Q 03Moses' birth mother, who was later hired to nurse her own son, was named what?
Jochebed
Jochebed hid her baby for three months before setting him afloat in a basket, and Numbers calls her a daughter of Levi.
Q 04Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian who was doing what?
Beating a Hebrew
After killing the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, Moses fled to Midian and sat down by a well, where he met his future wife.
Q 05Moses' wife Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of which Midianite priest?
Jethro
Jethro is also called Reuel in Exodus and Hobab in Judges, a puzzle that has kept commentators busy for centuries.
Q 06On the road back to Egypt, Zipporah saves Moses' life by doing what?
Circumcising their son
In the strange 'incident at the inn', God sought to kill Moses until Zipporah saved him by circumcising their son with a flint.
Q 07What were the names of Moses' two sons?
Gershom and Eliezer
Moses named Gershom for being 'a stranger in a strange land', later Heinlein's novel title, and Eliezer because God saved him from Pharaoh's sword.
Q 08God first called to Moses from a burning bush on which mountain?
Horeb
On Horeb the bush burned without being consumed, and its Hebrew name, seneh, may be a deliberate pun on Sinai.
Q 09What did God tell Moses to do before approaching the burning bush?
Remove his sandals
God told Moses to remove his sandals because he stood on holy ground, and anyone entering the Chapel of the Burning Bush still removes their shoes.
Q 10What reason did Moses give for not wanting to be God's spokesman before Pharaoh?
He could not speak eloquently
Moses protested that he could not speak eloquently, being 'slow of speech, and of a slow tongue', and God's anger flared against him.
Q 11Which sign was Moses given at the burning bush involving his staff?
It turned into a snake
It turned into a snake when Moses threw the staff down, and back into a staff when he caught it by the tail.
Q 12What was the first of the ten plagues of Egypt?
The Nile turned to blood
The Nile turned to blood and its fish died, yet Pharaoh's magicians copied the trick, so Pharaoh still refused to listen.
Q 13Which plague came second, with Pharaoh's magicians conjuring a second wave of their own?
Frogs
Frogs even got into Pharaoh's bedroom, and when Moses let him choose when they would go, Pharaoh said 'tomorrow'.
Q 21The Israelites defeated which people at Rephidim while Moses held up his hands?
The Amalekites
Whenever Moses lowered his hands the Amalekites began winning, so two companions held his arms up until sunset.
Q 22The Hebrew name for the Ten Commandments literally means what?
The Ten Words
Aseret ha-Dibrot means 'the Ten Words', and the Greek dekalogos translates it directly, giving the name Decalogue.
Q 23How long was Moses on Mount Sinai before coming down with the tablets?
Forty days and forty nights
Moses stayed forty days and forty nights on the mountain, and Deuteronomy says he ate no bread and drank no water the whole time.
Q 14The tenth and final plague was what?
Death of the firstborn
The death of the firstborn passed over Israelite homes with marked doorposts, which is how Passover got its name.
Q 15The Hebrew name of the sea the Israelites crossed, Yam Suph, is often translated as what?
Sea of Reeds
Yam Suph literally means Sea of Reeds, but the Greek Septuagint rendered it as the Red Sea, and that name stuck.
Q 16Why did God bar Moses from entering the Promised Land?
He struck a rock
He struck a rock twice at Meribah instead of speaking to it, so God said Moses would not bring Israel into the land.
Q 17Which sister of Moses leads the women in song and dance after the crossing of the sea?
Miriam
Exodus calls Miriam a prophetess, and the Talmud names her among the seven major female prophets of Israel.
Q 18Some scholars consider Exodus 15's Song of the Sea to be what?
The oldest surviving text about the escape
Some scholars see the Song of the Sea as the oldest surviving text about the escape, while others think it was written in a deliberately archaic style.
Q 19What did the Israelites call the food that appeared each morning in the wilderness?
Manna
Manna's name is said to come from the Israelites' question 'man hu?', roughly 'what is it?'
Q 20Exodus says the wilderness food tasted like wafers made with what?
Honey
Honey is the flavour Exodus gives the wilderness food, and one theory traces it to sweet honeydew left by scale insects on tamarisk trees.
Q 24Who fashioned the golden calf while Moses was on the mountain?
Aaron
Aaron collected the people's golden earrings, then told Moses he threw the gold into the fire 'and there came out this calf'.
Q 25In Exodus, what did Moses do with the golden calf after burning it?
Made the people drink it
Made the people drink it: Moses ground the calf to powder and scattered it on water first, and about three thousand men died that day.
Q 26What did Moses do with the first tablets on seeing the golden calf?
Smashed them at the foot of the mountain
Moses smashed them at the foot of the mountain, and God later had him cut two new tablets to replace them.
Q 27Moses' brother and sister criticised him for marrying a woman described as what?
A Cushite
His sister was struck with a skin disease for a week as punishment; midrash insists the 'Cushite' was really Zipporah.
Q 28Who led a revolt against Moses' leadership and was punished for it?
Korah
The earth swallowed Korah's allies and their households, while fire consumed 250 of his followers offering incense, whose bronze censers were hammered into an altar covering.
Q 29Moses set a bronze image on a pole to heal Israelites bitten by what?
Fiery serpents
God sent fiery serpents to punish the people's complaints, and anyone bitten who looked at Moses' bronze serpent lived.
Q 30Which prophet was hired to curse Israel but blessed them instead during the wilderness years?
Balaam
Balaam is best remembered for his talking donkey, which saw an angel blocking the road before he did.