Q 01/05

When the new temple's foundation was laid in Ezra 3, how did the old men who had seen the first one react?

A) They wept aloud

B) They sang psalms

C) They walked away

D) They fell silent

Answer · why

A) They wept aloud

They wept aloud while others shouted for joy, and the two sounds mixed so thoroughly that nobody could tell the gladness from the grief.

Q 02/05

Which Persian king's proclamation, letting the exiles go home to rebuild God's house, opens the Book of Ezra?

A) Darius

B) Cyrus

C) Artaxerxes

D) Xerxes

Answer · why

B) Cyrus

Cyrus not only freed the exiles but handed back the gold and silver vessels that had been looted from Jerusalem and kept in a pagan shrine.

Q 03/05

On hearing the princes' report in Ezra 9, Ezra tore his garment and robe and did what else to himself?

A) Shaved off his beard

B) Put on sackcloth

C) Pulled out his hair

D) Poured ashes on himself

Answer · why

C) Pulled out his hair

Ezra pulled out his hair, from head and beard alike, then sat down confounded while those who trembled at God's words gathered round him.

Q 04/05

What weather left the men of Judah trembling as they sat in the open square before God's house in Ezra 10?

A) Fierce heat

B) A dust storm

C) Thick fog

D) Heavy rain

Answer · why

D) Heavy rain

Heavy rain soaked the crowd, and the people pleaded that they could not stand outside in such a season while every case was heard.

Q 05/05

The Book of Ezra originally shared one scroll with which book, named after a rebuilder of Jerusalem's wall?

A) Esther

B) Nehemiah

C) Daniel

D) Zechariah

Answer · why

B) Nehemiah

Nehemiah and Ezra stayed a single book in Hebrew Bibles until the first printed rabbinic editions split them in the early 16th century.