Bible Trivia: Kings of Israel and Judah — printable

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.

1. Who does 1 Samuel name as the first king of Israel?

   • David
   • Saul — correct
   • Samuel
   • Gideon

   Answer: Saul

   1 Samuel 10:1, where Samuel anoints him, and 10:24, where the people acclaim him. Samuel is the prophet who anoints the first two kings but never reigns himself, and Gideon in Judges 8:23 explicitly refuses the crown.

2. Which king does 1 Kings credit with building the temple in Jerusalem?

   • David
   • Solomon — correct
   • Hezekiah
   • Josiah

   Answer: Solomon

   1 Kings 6:1–14. David gathered the materials and wanted to build it, but 2 Samuel 7:12–13 tells him his offspring will do it instead — which is why his name is so often attached to the building by mistake.

3. In whose reign did the northern tribes break away and form a separate kingdom?

   • Solomon
   • Abijam
   • Jehoshaphat
   • Rehoboam — correct

   Answer: Rehoboam

   1 Kings 12:16–20, after Rehoboam answers the northern delegation at Shechem with threats. The grievance is older than his reign — 1 Kings 11:11 already announces the tearing away — but the break itself happens under him.

4. Which king took Bathsheba and arranged for her husband Uriah to be killed in battle?

   • David — correct
   • Solomon
   • Saul
   • Absalom

   Answer: David

   2 Samuel 11:2–4 for the taking and 11:14–17 for the letter Uriah carries to his own death. Solomon is Bathsheba’s son by David, born after the affair in 12:24, which is why the two names travel together.

Medium

These need a detail held in place — a name, a sequence, a number that only means something next to another number.

1. Who became the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel after the division?

   • Omri
   • Baasha
   • Jeroboam — correct
   • Nadab

   Answer: Jeroboam

   1 Kings 12:20. He is also the king who sets up the two golden calves at Bethel and Dan in 12:28–29, the act that the book measures every later northern king against.

2. Which king of Judah was hidden in the temple as an infant and crowned as a child after the queen seized power?

   • Uzziah
   • Manasseh
   • Josiah
   • Joash — correct

   Answer: Joash

   2 Kings 11:2–3, where Jehosheba hides him from Athaliah for six years, and 11:12 for the crowning; the text gives his age as seven. Josiah came to the throne at eight and Manasseh at twelve, which is why all three get confused.

3. Which king of Israel wiped out the house of Ahab and is described as driving furiously?

   • Joram
   • Jehu — correct
   • Menahem
   • Pekah

   Answer: Jehu

   2 Kings 9:20 for the driving and 10:11 for the slaughter at Jezreel. Joram is the king Jehu kills to take the throne in 9:24, so he belongs to the same scene — on the receiving end of it.

4. Which king of Judah was struck with a skin disease after burning incense in the temple?

   • Ahaz
   • Jotham
   • Uzziah — correct
   • Amaziah

   Answer: Uzziah

   2 Chronicles 26:16–21, where it breaks out on his forehead at the altar. 2 Kings 15:5 reports the disease without the incense, and Jotham — his son — runs the palace for him afterwards, which is how the two reigns overlap.

Hard

These turn on what the evidence actually supports, which is not always what the story is remembered as saying.

1. Which king of Israel bought the hill on which Samaria was built?

   • Omri — correct
   • Ahab
   • Baasha
   • Zimri

   Answer: Omri

   1 Kings 16:24, where he buys it from Shemer for two talents of silver and names the city after him. Ahab is his son and does the building the city is remembered for, which is why the purchase is usually credited to the wrong man.

2. Which king of Judah is said to have broken in pieces the bronze serpent Moses had made?

   • Josiah
   • Asa
   • Hezekiah — correct
   • Jehoshaphat

   Answer: Hezekiah

   2 Kings 18:4, where it is called Nehushtan because people had been burning incense to it. Josiah’s purge in 2 Kings 23 is longer and better known, but the serpent had already gone a century earlier.

3. Which king of Israel reigned seven days before dying in the burning palace at Tirzah?

   • Zimri — correct
   • Elah
   • Shallum
   • Tibni

   Answer: Zimri

   1 Kings 16:15–18. Elah is the king he murdered to take the throne, and Shallum in 2 Kings 15:13 managed a full month — the two shortest reigns in the book, and easily swapped.

4. Which king of Judah does 2 Chronicles say was taken to Babylon in bronze fetters and later restored to his throne?

   • Amon
   • Jehoiakim
   • Zedekiah
   • Manasseh — correct

   Answer: Manasseh

   2 Chronicles 33:11–13, where he prays in captivity and is brought back to Jerusalem. 2 Kings 21 gives him the same long reign and the same catalogue of sins but reports no deportation and no return at all.

What this quiz draws on

Books in play: 1 Kings, 1 Samuel, 2 Chronicles, 2 Kings, 2 Samuel. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.

Themes: 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.