Job is quoted more often than it is read, and the quoting tends to stop at the first two chapters. The frame story, the long middle of speeches and the ending are three quite different things. Twelve questions on what the book actually contains.
Open “Bible Trivia: The Book of Job” on its own page — if the module does not load.
Every question, with the answer and the reason
The interactive module above runs in a sandbox of its own, which means its text is not part of this page. So here is the whole thing in full: all 12 questions, the options as they appear, the answer, and why that answer and not the one beside it. Nothing is held back to make you play first.
Easy
These turn on something stated outright in the text. If you have read the book, you have met the answer.
In what land does the book say Job lived?
- Edom
- Midian
- Haran
- Uz — correct
Answer: Uz
Job 1:1. Edom is a reasonable guess because Eliphaz is called a Temanite and Teman is Edomite territory, but the text places Job himself in Uz.
How many friends come to sit with Job after he is afflicted?
- Three — correct
- Four
- Two
- Seven
Answer: Three
Job 2:11 names Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. Four is the common wrong answer because Elihu also speaks, but he arrives only at chapter 32 and is not part of this group.
What affliction strikes Job in the second test?
- Blindness
- A withered hand
- Sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head — correct
- Leprosy that turns his skin white
Answer: Sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head
Job 2:7. The text describes sores and Job scraping himself with a potsherd; it never uses the language of the skin diseases regulated in Leviticus.
From what does God finally answer Job?
- From a burning bush
- In a dream at night
- Through an angel at the gate
- Out of the whirlwind — correct
Answer: Out of the whirlwind
Job 38:1, repeated at 40:6. The burning bush belongs to Exodus 3, and Job has already complained in chapter 7 that dreams only terrify him.
Medium
These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.
Which of Job’s three friends is called the Temanite?
- Bildad
- Eliphaz — correct
- Zophar
- Elihu
Answer: Eliphaz
Job 2:11. Bildad is the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; Elihu, who comes later, is the Buzite. Eliphaz is also the one who speaks first, in chapter 4.
What does Job’s wife tell him to do?
- Flee the land of Uz
- Send for the elders
- Curse God and die — correct
- Offer a sacrifice for his sons
Answer: Curse God and die
Job 2:9. The sacrifices for his sons are something Job already does on his own initiative in Job 1:5, before any of the disasters, which is where that confusion comes from.
How long do the three friends sit with Job before anyone speaks?
- Seven days and seven nights — correct
- Three days
- A single night
- Forty days
Answer: Seven days and seven nights
Job 2:13, and the text says no one spoke a word because they saw his suffering was very great. Forty days is a span the Bible uses often, but not here.
Who speaks at length after the three friends and before God answers?
- Bildad, a fourth time
- Job’s wife
- Elihu — correct
- A messenger from Uz
Answer: Elihu
Job 32:2–6 introduces Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, angry that the three friends had found no answer. His speeches run from chapter 32 to chapter 37.
Hard
These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.
What does Job do when he first breaks the silence in chapter 3?
- He curses the day of his birth — correct
- He curses God
- He confesses a hidden sin
- He demands that his friends leave
Answer: He curses the day of his birth
Job 3:1–3. The distinction matters: the accuser had predicted Job would curse God, and the book is careful that he curses the day instead.
What are the names of Job’s three daughters born at the end of the book?
- Mahlah, Noah and Hoglah
- Leah, Rachel and Bilhah
- Naomi, Orpah and Ruth
- Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-happuch — correct
Answer: Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-happuch
Job 42:14, and 42:15 adds that their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. Mahlah, Noah and Hoglah are three of the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27.
Which creature does God describe in Job 40 as eating grass like an ox?
- Leviathan
- Behemoth — correct
- The wild donkey
- The ostrich
Answer: Behemoth
Job 40:15. Leviathan is the subject of the following chapter, Job 41, and is a creature of the water rather than the grass; the wild donkey and the ostrich appear earlier, in chapter 39.
What does God tell Eliphaz and the other two friends to offer at the end?
- A single lamb without blemish
- Seven bulls and seven rams — correct
- Two turtledoves
- Nothing — they are simply forgiven
Answer: Seven bulls and seven rams
Job 42:8, with Job told to pray for them. The turtledoves belong to the offerings of Leviticus 5 and 12, not to this scene, which is set outside Israel’s sacrificial system entirely.
What this quiz draws on
Books in play: Job. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.
Themes: Wisdom and poetry.
Answers here are drawn from the biblical text and, where an external record bears on the question, from the artefact or publication that carries it. How this site reads a text and how this site is written set out the rules, so you can check the reasoning rather than take the answer on trust.