The exile is the hinge of the Hebrew Bible and one of the best externally documented episodes in it. Twelve questions across three levels, every answer explained.
Before you start
Babylonian chronicle tablets date several of these events precisely, which makes this a rare stretch where the external record can be laid beside the biblical account line for line.
Related: the dossier on the fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE, the topic study on how we know when Jerusalem fell, and the overview of 2 Kings.
Open “Bible Trivia: Babylon and the Exile” 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.
Which Babylonian king took Jerusalem?
- Belshazzar
- Nebuchadnezzar II — correct
- Nabonidus
- Nabopolassar
Answer: Nebuchadnezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II. His campaigns against Judah are recorded both in Kings and Jeremiah and in Babylonian chronicle tablets, which is what makes the period unusually well documented.
In which year was the temple in Jerusalem destroyed?
- 587 BCE — correct
- 539 BCE
- 612 BCE
- 597 BCE
Answer: 587 BCE
587 BCE, in the second capture. The first, in 597, ended with the king deported and a replacement installed but the city and temple standing. The two are constantly merged in popular accounts.
Which empire ended Babylonian rule and allowed a return?
- Greece
- Assyria
- Egypt
- Persia — correct
Answer: Persia
Persia, under Cyrus, who took Babylon in 539 BCE. The Cyrus Cylinder records a policy of returning displaced peoples and their gods, though it does not mention Judah or Jerusalem.
Which book laments the destruction of Jerusalem in a series of poems?
- Lamentations — correct
- Song of Songs
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes
Answer: Lamentations
Lamentations, five poems on the fall of the city. Four of the five are acrostics, following the Hebrew alphabet — a formal constraint sitting inside the rawest grief in the Bible.
Medium
These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.
A Babylonian chronicle dates the first capture of Jerusalem to the day. Which regnal year?
- Nebuchadnezzar's first
- Nebuchadnezzar's eleventh
- Nebuchadnezzar's seventh — correct
- Nabopolassar's fourteenth
Answer: Nebuchadnezzar's seventh
The seventh year, the second day of the month of Addaru, which converts to March 597 BCE. Babylonian regnal years sit inside a chronology anchored by dated astronomical observations, so the conversion is computation rather than estimate.
How many people does 2 Kings 24:14 say were deported in 597?
- Seven thousand
- Eighteen thousand
- Ten thousand — correct
- Three thousand
Answer: Ten thousand
Ten thousand — and two verses later the same chapter gives seven thousand fighting men plus a thousand craftsmen, while Jeremiah 52:28 gives 3,023. The largest numerical disagreement about this event is inside the Bible, not between the Bible and the archive, which gives no figure at all.
Which king of Judah was deported in 597 and later released from prison in Babylon?
- Jehoiachin — correct
- Josiah
- Jehoiakim
- Zedekiah
Answer: Jehoiachin
Jehoiachin. His release, around 561 BCE, is the last event in 2 Kings, which is why the book in its received form cannot be earlier than the mid-sixth century.
What does the Babylonian chronicle say Nebuchadnezzar did after capturing the city in 597?
- Burned the temple
- Withdrew without tribute
- Executed the royal family
- Appointed a king of his own choosing — correct
Answer: Appointed a king of his own choosing
It records that he seized the city's king and appointed a king of his own choosing — almost a paraphrase of 2 Kings 24:17, which names the replacement as Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah.
Which chronicle tablet is most often cited for the destruction of 587, wrongly?
- The Jerusalem Chronicle — correct
- Chronicle 1
- The Fall of Nineveh Chronicle
- The Nabonidus Chronicle
Answer: The Jerusalem Chronicle
The Jerusalem Chronicle, which breaks off years before 587 and says nothing about the burning of the temple. Citing it for that event is not a disputed interpretation — it is a citation of an object that does not contain the passage.
Hard
These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.
Daniel 5 calls Belshazzar king of Babylon. What do the Babylonian records show?
- No such person existed
- He was the son of the reigning king and acted for him, but was not king — correct
- He was king for forty years
- He was a Persian governor
Answer: He was the son of the reigning king and acted for him, but was not king
Belshazzar was the son of Nabonidus and administered Babylon in his father's long absence, but the Babylonian documents do not give him the kingship. The record confirms a name that scholarship had once written off, and contradicts the chapter's description of his position.
Why does Belshazzar offer the third place in the kingdom rather than the second?
- Because he himself held the second place — correct
- Because Babylon had three kings
- Because the number three was sacred
- A copying error
Answer: Because he himself held the second place
With Nabonidus as king and Belshazzar acting for him, the highest place available to give away was the third. It is a detail that fits the Babylonian situation better than the surrounding narrative does, and it is one of the reasons the verdict on Daniel 5 is partial rather than simply negative.
The Cyrus Cylinder is routinely cited as external confirmation of the edict in Ezra 1. What is the problem?
- It is written in Hebrew
- It is a modern forgery
- It never mentions Judah, Jerusalem or the temple — correct
- It postdates Ezra by centuries
Answer: It never mentions Judah, Jerusalem or the temple
The cylinder records a general policy of restoring displaced peoples and sanctuaries; it names neither Judah nor Jerusalem. It supports the plausibility of the policy the biblical text describes without attesting the specific edict, and pages that quote it as confirmation of Ezra 1 are claiming more than the object says.
What this quiz draws on
Books in play: 2 Kings, Daniel, Ezra, Jeremiah, Lamentations. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.
Themes: Exile and return, Kings and empires.
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.