Q 01/05

On Mordecai's instructions, what secret did Esther keep from the Persian king after she was taken into the palace?

A) Her ability to read

B) Her Jewish identity

C) Her true age

D) Her poor health

Answer · why

B) Her Jewish identity

Her Jewish identity stayed secret through twelve months of beauty treatments and her coronation, and Esther 2 notes twice that she told no one.

Q 02/05

Which Jewish festival, kept with costumes and a festive meal, celebrates the rescue told in the Book of Esther?

A) Hanukkah

B) Sukkot

C) Shavuot

D) Purim

Answer · why

D) Purim

Purim centres on the book itself: the whole story is read aloud from a handwritten scroll twice, once in the evening and again the next morning.

Q 03/05

What did Haman have built fifty cubits high, on the advice of his wife and friends, in the Book of Esther?

A) A gallows

B) A watchtower

C) A bronze statue

D) An altar

Answer · why

A) A gallows

A gallows about 75 feet tall was meant for Mordecai, but the very next day the king had Haman himself hanged on it.

Q 04/05

Which queen lost her throne at the start of the Book of Esther, opening the way for Esther to be crowned?

A) Jezebel

B) Athaliah

C) Vashti

D) Bathsheba

Answer · why

C) Vashti

Vashti was hosting her own banquet for the women of the palace while the king feasted his officials and the men of the capital.

Q 05/05

Which famous phrase ends Mordecai's challenge that Esther may have become queen for a purpose?

A) The saving of many lives

B) A day of great trouble

C) The hour of our need

D) Such a time as this

Answer · why

D) Such a time as this

'Such a time as this' closes Esther 4:14, where Mordecai also warns that help for the Jews would come from elsewhere if she stayed silent.