Bible Trivia: The Prophets

Bible Trivia: The Prophets — printable

Name: ______________________________ Date: ____________ Score: ______

1. Which prophet was sent to Nineveh and went the other way? Easy
1. A Nahum
2. B Jonah
3. C Amos
4. D Micah
2. Which prophet saw the Lord “high and lifted up” in the year King Uzziah died? Easy
1. A Ezekiel
2. B Isaiah
3. C Jeremiah
4. D Daniel
3. Which prophet saw a valley of dry bones? Easy
1. A Isaiah
2. B Zechariah
3. C Joel
4. D Ezekiel
4. Which prophet is called to speak although he says he is only a youth? Easy
1. A Jeremiah
2. B Samuel
3. C Elisha
4. D Habakkuk
5. Which prophet describes himself as a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs? Medium
1. A Hosea
2. B Micah
3. C Amos
4. D Obadiah
6. Which is the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible? Medium
1. A Haggai
2. B Nahum
3. C Joel
4. D Obadiah
7. Which prophet asks God why the wicked prosper and receives an answer about Babylon? Medium
1. A Malachi
2. B Habakkuk
3. C Zephaniah
4. D Joel
8. Which prophet is told his wife will die and that he must not mourn publicly? Medium
1. A Hosea
2. B Jeremiah
3. C Ezekiel
4. D Isaiah
9. Which prophet’s book opens with a vision of a man among the myrtle trees? Hard
1. A Zechariah
2. B Haggai
3. C Malachi
4. D Amos
10. Which prophet announces a coming figure from Bethlehem Ephrathah? Hard
1. A Isaiah
2. B Zechariah
3. C Micah
4. D Malachi
11. Which book ends with the question “should I not have compassion on Nineveh?” Hard
1. A Jonah
2. B Nahum
3. C Zephaniah
4. D Obadiah
12. Which prophet is commanded to lie on his side for a set number of days? Hard
1. A Isaiah
2. B Jeremiah
3. C Hosea
4. D Ezekiel

Answer key — teacher’s sheet

Print pages separately: hand out the worksheet, keep this one.

1. B — Jonah

Jonah 1:3 — told to go to Nineveh, he books passage for Tarshish, in the opposite direction. Nahum is the other Nineveh book, but he writes roughly a century later and announces the city's fall rather than being sent to warn it. Amos and Micah address Israel and Judah, not Assyria.
2. B — Isaiah

Isaiah 6:1 dates the vision to the year King Uzziah died, which is why it is one of the few prophetic visions tied to a named reign rather than left floating. Ezekiel's throne vision comes by the Chebar canal in exile, and Daniel's are dated to Babylonian and Persian kings.
3. D — Ezekiel

Ezekiel 37. The prophet is set down in a valley full of dry bones and told to prophesy over them; they come together, take flesh, and are given breath. The text supplies its own reading — the bones are the house of Israel, and the sign is about return from exile.
4. A — Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:6–7 — 'I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth', answered by the instruction to go wherever he is sent. Samuel is called as a boy too, in 1 Samuel 3, but that is a narrative book and the objection there is not about age.
5. C — Amos

Amos 7:14. Challenged by Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, Amos answers that he is no prophet nor a prophet's son but a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. The point is professional: he is not paid to prophesy, so he cannot be told to take his living elsewhere.
6. D — Obadiah

Obadiah is a single chapter of twenty-one verses, the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible, and the whole of it is directed against Edom. Haggai runs to two chapters and Nahum to three. Length is not a measure of weight here — Obadiah is quoted and reworked in Jeremiah 49.
7. B — Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1. The prophet asks why violence goes unanswered, and is told that God is raising up the Chaldeans — an answer that produces a second and harder complaint. The book is built as complaint and reply rather than as delivered oracle, which sets it apart from most of the Twelve.
8. C — Ezekiel

Ezekiel 24:15–18. The delight of his eyes is taken from him at a stroke and he is forbidden the ordinary signs of mourning. It is a sign-act: what he may not grieve, the exiles will not be allowed to grieve either when the temple falls. Hosea's marriage is a sign-act of a different kind.
9. A — Zechariah

Zechariah 1:8 — a man on a red horse standing among the myrtle trees, the first of a run of night visions. That density of visionary material is what separates Zechariah from Haggai, which sits beside it, is dated to the same rebuilding, and is almost entirely plain address.
10. C — Micah

Micah 5:2 names Bethlehem Ephrathah, least among the clans of Judah, as the origin of a coming ruler. Isaiah's Immanuel passage at 7:14 is a different text making a different argument, addressed to Ahaz about a nearer crisis. Matthew 2:6 quotes Micah, not Isaiah, on the birthplace.
11. A — Jonah

Jonah 4:11. God asks whether he should not have compassion on a city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left — and the book stops there, the prophet's answer never given. Almost nothing else in the canon ends on an unanswered question.
12. D — Ezekiel

Ezekiel 4:4–6 — three hundred and ninety days on his left side for the iniquity of Israel, then forty on his right for Judah, a day for each year. Isaiah has his own sign-act in Isaiah 20, going stripped and barefoot for three years as a sign against Egypt and Cush.

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 prophet was sent to Nineveh and went the other way?
- Nahum
- Jonah — correct
- Amos
- Micah
Answer: Jonah
Jonah 1:3 — told to go to Nineveh, he books passage for Tarshish, in the opposite direction. Nahum is the other Nineveh book, but he writes roughly a century later and announces the city's fall rather than being sent to warn it. Amos and Micah address Israel and Judah, not Assyria.
Which prophet saw the Lord “high and lifted up” in the year King Uzziah died?
- Ezekiel
- Isaiah — correct
- Jeremiah
- Daniel
Answer: Isaiah
Isaiah 6:1 dates the vision to the year King Uzziah died, which is why it is one of the few prophetic visions tied to a named reign rather than left floating. Ezekiel's throne vision comes by the Chebar canal in exile, and Daniel's are dated to Babylonian and Persian kings.
Which prophet saw a valley of dry bones?
- Isaiah
- Zechariah
- Joel
- Ezekiel — correct
Answer: Ezekiel
Ezekiel 37. The prophet is set down in a valley full of dry bones and told to prophesy over them; they come together, take flesh, and are given breath. The text supplies its own reading — the bones are the house of Israel, and the sign is about return from exile.
Which prophet is called to speak although he says he is only a youth?
- Jeremiah — correct
- Samuel
- Elisha
- Habakkuk
Answer: Jeremiah
Jeremiah 1:6–7 — 'I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth', answered by the instruction to go wherever he is sent. Samuel is called as a boy too, in 1 Samuel 3, but that is a narrative book and the objection there is not about age.

Medium

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

Which prophet describes himself as a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs?
- Hosea
- Micah
- Amos — correct
- Obadiah
Answer: Amos
Amos 7:14. Challenged by Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, Amos answers that he is no prophet nor a prophet's son but a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. The point is professional: he is not paid to prophesy, so he cannot be told to take his living elsewhere.
Which is the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible?
- Haggai
- Nahum
- Joel
- Obadiah — correct
Answer: Obadiah
Obadiah is a single chapter of twenty-one verses, the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible, and the whole of it is directed against Edom. Haggai runs to two chapters and Nahum to three. Length is not a measure of weight here — Obadiah is quoted and reworked in Jeremiah 49.
Which prophet asks God why the wicked prosper and receives an answer about Babylon?
- Malachi
- Habakkuk — correct
- Zephaniah
- Joel
Answer: Habakkuk
Habakkuk 1. The prophet asks why violence goes unanswered, and is told that God is raising up the Chaldeans — an answer that produces a second and harder complaint. The book is built as complaint and reply rather than as delivered oracle, which sets it apart from most of the Twelve.
Which prophet is told his wife will die and that he must not mourn publicly?
- Hosea
- Jeremiah
- Ezekiel — correct
- Isaiah
Answer: Ezekiel
Ezekiel 24:15–18. The delight of his eyes is taken from him at a stroke and he is forbidden the ordinary signs of mourning. It is a sign-act: what he may not grieve, the exiles will not be allowed to grieve either when the temple falls. Hosea's marriage is a sign-act of a different kind.

Hard

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

Which prophet’s book opens with a vision of a man among the myrtle trees?
- Zechariah — correct
- Haggai
- Malachi
- Amos
Answer: Zechariah
Zechariah 1:8 — a man on a red horse standing among the myrtle trees, the first of a run of night visions. That density of visionary material is what separates Zechariah from Haggai, which sits beside it, is dated to the same rebuilding, and is almost entirely plain address.
Which prophet announces a coming figure from Bethlehem Ephrathah?
- Isaiah
- Zechariah
- Micah — correct
- Malachi
Answer: Micah
Micah 5:2 names Bethlehem Ephrathah, least among the clans of Judah, as the origin of a coming ruler. Isaiah's Immanuel passage at 7:14 is a different text making a different argument, addressed to Ahaz about a nearer crisis. Matthew 2:6 quotes Micah, not Isaiah, on the birthplace.
Which book ends with the question “should I not have compassion on Nineveh?”
- Jonah — correct
- Nahum
- Zephaniah
- Obadiah
Answer: Jonah
Jonah 4:11. God asks whether he should not have compassion on a city of more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left — and the book stops there, the prophet's answer never given. Almost nothing else in the canon ends on an unanswered question.
Which prophet is commanded to lie on his side for a set number of days?
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Hosea
- Ezekiel — correct
Answer: Ezekiel
Ezekiel 4:4–6 — three hundred and ninety days on his left side for the iniquity of Israel, then forty on his right for Judah, a day for each year. Isaiah has his own sign-act in Isaiah 20, going stripped and barefoot for three years as a sign against Egypt and Cush.

What this quiz draws on

Books in play: Major Prophets, Minor Prophets. Each of those leads to what the book contains, who has been proposed as its author, and how it is dated.

Themes: Judgment of the nations.

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.