Questions and answers
Easy Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
What Jewish festival celebrates the events of the book of Esther?
- APurim.Correct
- BPassover.
- CTabernacles.
- DHannukah.
Answer: Purim.
Esther 9:26 · ESV
Purim takes its name from the pur, the lot Haman cast to fix the date of the slaughter. Mordecai wrote to the Jews in every province of Ahasuerus that the fourteenth and fifteenth of Adar were to be kept yearly with feasting, gladness, and gifts to the poor. The feast is named for the enemy's dice, which fell to the ruin of the man who threw them.
Esther 9:20–26
Why not this one. Hanukkah is the other festival not commanded in the Law of Moses, which puts it in the same category and makes it a natural guess. It commemorates the rededication of the temple under the Maccabees in the second century BC, centuries after Esther.
Medium Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Nehemiah 2 and 6 name a third opponent who joined Sanballat and Tobiah in mocking and threatening the wall-builders. Who was he?
- AGeshem the ArabCorrect
- BRehum the commander
- CShimshai the scribe
- DTattenai the governor of Beyond the River
Answer: Geshem the Arab
Nehemiah 2:19; 6:1–2 · ESV
Geshem the Arab stands with Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant when they jeer at the builders and accuse them of rebelling against the king. He is also one of the two men who repeatedly invite Nehemiah down to the plain of Ono, an invitation Nehemiah refuses four times before the open letter arrives.
Nehemiah 2:19–20 and 6:1–7.
Why not this one. Rehum genuinely did write against Jerusalem, but in Ezra 4, in an earlier reign, and unlike the mockery aimed at Nehemiah his letter actually succeeded in stopping the work by force.
Hard Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Which king did Nehemiah hold up as a warning to the men who had married foreign women?
- ASolomonCorrect
- BAhab
- CJeroboam
- DManasseh
Answer: Solomon
Nehemiah 13:26 · ESV
Nehemiah asked whether Solomon king of Israel had not sinned on account of such women. Among many nations there was no king like him, he was loved by his God and made king over all Israel, and foreign wives still made even him sin. If that man could be turned aside, the argument runs, so could the men standing in front of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah 13:23–27, looking back to 1 Kings 11:1–8.
Why not this one. Ahab's marriage to Jezebel is the more notorious case of a foreign wife leading a king astray, but Nehemiah reaches instead for Solomon, precisely because Solomon was the wisest and most favored.
Easy Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Over how many provinces did King Ahasuerus reign, from India to Ethiopia?
- A127Correct
- B120
- C70
- D12
Answer: 127
Esther 1:1 · ESV
The book opens by measuring the empire: 127 provinces reaching from India to Ethiopia. The number sets the scale of the danger, since Haman's edict goes out to every one of them in its own script and language, and the counter-edict has to travel the same distance by couriers mounted on swift royal horses.
Esther 1:1, with the two empire-wide edicts of 3:12–15 and 8:9–14.
Why not this one. 120 is the number of satraps Darius set over his kingdom in Daniel 6:1, a different king, a different administrative unit, and a different book, which makes it the most tempting miss.
Medium Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Which Persian king allowed the Jews to return from exile and rebuild the temple?
- ACyrus.Correct
- BDarius.
- CArtaxerxes.
- DXerxes.
Answer: Cyrus.
Ezra 1:1–2 · ESV
The decree comes in the first year of Cyrus over Babylon, around 539 BC, and Ezra opens by saying the LORD stirred up his spirit so that the word spoken through Jeremiah would be fulfilled. Cyrus is the first of the four Persian kings in these books, and the whole sequence runs Cyrus, then Darius, then Xerxes (the Ahasuerus of Esther), then Artaxerxes.
Ezra 1:1–2, with Jeremiah 29:10
Why not this one. Darius has a real claim on the temple, which is what makes him tempting: the building was actually finished in his reign after he found Cyrus's original scroll in the archives and ordered the work funded. But he confirmed a permission already granted rather than granting it himself.
Hard Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Which man stood up in the assembly and urged Ezra to make a covenant requiring those who had taken foreign wives to send them away?
- AZerubbabel son of Shealtiel
- BShecaniah son of JehielCorrect
- CMalchijah son of Harim
- DMeshullam son of Bani
Answer: Shecaniah son of Jehiel
Ezra 10:2–3 · ESV
Shecaniah, of the sons of Elam, spoke for the assembly while Ezra was still lying prostrate. He acknowledged the offense, said there was yet hope for Israel in this matter, and urged that a covenant be made and carried out according to the Law. Ezra then rose and put the leaders under oath. A Jehiel of the sons of Elam appears in the list of offenders, so Shecaniah may have been speaking against his own household.
Ezra 10:1–5, 26
Why not this one. The patronymic is correct, which makes this look well informed, and Zerubbabel is the best known lay leader of the return. But he belongs to the first wave under Cyrus and Darius, decades before Ezra arrived under Artaxerxes.
Easy Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
What position did Mordecai hold at the close of the book of Esther?
- ASecond in rank to King AhasuerusCorrect
- BHigh priest in Jerusalem
- CGovernor of the province of Judah
- DKeeper of the king's forest
Answer: Second in rank to King Ahasuerus
Esther 10:3 · ESV
The book closes with Mordecai second only to the king, great among the Jews, popular with the multitude of his brothers, seeking the welfare of his people and speaking peace to all his descendants. The man who would not bow at the gate ends up holding the office once held by the man he refused to bow to.
Esther 10:1–3, and the signet ring given him in 8:2.
Why not this one. Mordecai never leaves the Persian court, and the governor of Judah in this era is Nehemiah, who serves twelve years under Artaxerxes without taking the governor's food allowance.
Medium Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
According to Ezra 1:1, the decree of Cyrus fulfilled the word of the LORD spoken by which prophet?
- AJeremiahCorrect
- BIsaiah
- CEzekiel
- DDaniel
Answer: Jeremiah
Ezra 1:1 · ESV
Ezra opens by saying that the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that the word spoken by Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The seventy years of exile Jeremiah had announced were running out, and a pagan king's proclamation, published throughout the empire, is the means by which God keeps his own promise.
Ezra 1:1–4, fulfilling Jeremiah 25:11–12 and 29:10.
Why not this one. Isaiah names Cyrus by name long before his birth and calls him the LORD's shepherd, which makes him the tempting answer, but Ezra 1:1 credits the word of Jeremiah about the seventy years.
Hard Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Why do the Jews of Susa keep Purim on the fifteenth of Adar while those in the provinces keep the fourteenth?
- AThe Jews in Susa were granted a second day of fighting and rested only on the fifteenthCorrect
- BThe counter-edict reached Susa a full day later than the provinces
- CThe provincial Jews began fighting a day earlier than those in Susa
- DSusa lay beyond the point the royal couriers could reach in time
Answer: The Jews in Susa were granted a second day of fighting and rested only on the fifteenth
Esther 9:16–19 · ESV
In the provinces the Jews defended themselves on the thirteenth and rested on the fourteenth with feasting and gladness. In Susa, Esther asked the king for one more day, so the fighting there ran on into the fourteenth and the rest fell on the fifteenth. The two days of the festival preserve that difference exactly.
Esther 9:13–19, with Mordecai's letters fixing the days in 9:20–22.
Why not this one. Both began on the same day, the thirteenth of Adar, which was the date Haman's lot had fixed and the date named in both edicts; only the ending of the fighting differed.
Easy Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
How did the old men who had seen the first temple react when the foundation of the second temple was laid?
- AThey wept aloud while others shouted for joyCorrect
- BThey refused to enter the temple court
- CThey demanded that Zerubbabel halt the work
- DThey tore down the new foundation and began again
Answer: They wept aloud while others shouted for joy
Ezra 3:10–13 · ESV
When the builders laid the foundation, the priests with trumpets and the Levites with cymbals praised the LORD, and the people gave a great shout. But the old men who had seen the first house wept with a loud voice, so that no one could tell the weeping from the joy, and the sound was heard far away.
Ezra 3:10–13; compare the promise about the later glory in Haggai 2:3–9.
Why not this one. The demand to halt the work came from the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin in the next chapter, not from the old men, whose grief was over the smaller house rather than over the project.
Medium Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
What was Queen Esther’s Hebrew name?
- AHadassah.Correct
- BMiriam.
- CDeborah.
- DAbigail.
Answer: Hadassah.
Esther 2:7 · ESV
Hadassah means myrtle, a Hebrew name for a Hebrew girl. Esther is the name she carried in the Persian court, most likely from a Persian or Babylonian root connected to a star or to the goddess Ishtar. The double name fits her situation exactly, since Mordecai had told her not to make her people or her kindred known.
Esther 2:7, 10
Why not this one. Miriam is the best known Hebrew woman's name in the Old Testament, which is why it draws the eye here. But she is Moses's sister, roughly a thousand years earlier, and the book of Esther never uses the name.
Hard Old Testament — Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther
Which Persian official demanded to know who had authorised the temple rebuilding, then wrote to Darius about it?
- ATattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the RiverCorrect
- BRehum the commander, writing from Samaria
- CSanballat the Horonite and his associates
- DMithredath, the treasurer of King Cyrus
Answer: Tattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River
Ezra 5:3–6 · ESV
Tattenai came with Shethar-bozenai and asked who had given the builders a decree to finish this structure. The eye of God was on the elders of the Jews, so the work continued while the letter travelled to Darius, and an inquiry meant to stop the building ended by securing royal funds and royal protection for it.
Ezra 5:3–17, answered by the decree of Darius in 6:6–12.
Why not this one. Rehum wrote a hostile letter of his own, but to Artaxerxes and about the city walls, and unlike Tattenai's inquiry his letter did succeed in halting the work by force of arms.