Book of Joshua Trivia
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99 free Book of Joshua trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Book of Joshua picks up the moment Moses dies and follows Israel across the Jordan into Canaan. It is a story of river crossings, marching armies, a treaty won by trickery and a long list of towns handed out tribe by tribe, told with a storyteller's eye for the odd detail. These 99 questions go past the walls of Jericho and the sun over Gibeon to the second tier: what the priests carried, who got which town, the rules for the cities of refuge, and what Joshua said in his last speech. Every answer comes from the NIV text, with the verse quoted in the explanation. It suits Sunday school teachers, youth groups and anyone working through the Old Testament who wants a quick check of what they remember.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who, holding a drawn sword near Jericho, answered 'Neither' when Joshua asked whose side he was on?
The commander of the Lord's army
The commander of the Lord's army told Joshua to take off his sandals because the ground was holy, the order Moses had heard at the burning bush. Joshua fell facedown and asked what message he had for his servant.
Q 02What event let a fugitive in Joshua's cities of refuge finally go home?
The death of the high priest
The death of the high priest opened every city of refuge at once, a rule Numbers 35 spells out as well. Joshua set towns apart on both sides of the Jordan for anyone who killed 'accidentally and unintentionally'.
Q 03What job did Joshua give the Gibeonites 'for the house of my God' after their ruse was exposed?
Woodcutters and water carriers
Woodcutters and water carriers was a curse that still honoured the oath: the Gibeonites lived on, serving the altar 'at the place the Lord would choose'. Saul's later attack on them brought a three-year famine in 2 Samuel 21.
Q 04What did the Lord hurl on the Amorites fleeing Gibeon, killing more of them than Israel's swords did?
Large hailstones
Large hailstones fell on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, on the same day Joshua asked the sun to stand still. The text calls it the one day the Lord 'listened to a human being'.
Q 05What did Joshua hold out toward Ai, not drawing back his hand until the city had fallen to the ambush?
A javelin
A javelin held out until the ambush was done recalls Moses' raised hands at Rephidim, where Israel won only while his arms stayed up. The men hidden west of Ai rushed in, took the town and set it on fire.
Q 06What did the Gibeonites show Joshua as proof of a long trip, with cracked wineskins and worn sandals?
Dry, moldy bread
Dry, moldy bread had been 'warm when we packed it', the Gibeonites claimed, and the Israelites sampled the provisions without asking the Lord. Three days later they learned the 'distant' visitors lived next door.
Q 07Which tribe received no territory from Joshua, the Lord's food offerings being its inheritance instead?
Levi
Levi got towns to live in but no tribal land, because 'the Lord, the God of Israel, is their inheritance'. The other tribes gave up those towns out of their own allotments.
Q 08Which tribes, given land east of the Jordan by Moses, still had to cross over armed?
Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh
Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh sent their fighting men across while wives and children stayed behind, then went home in Joshua 22 with a blessing and 'great wealth'. Joshua called it keeping Moses' command.
Q 09Which two kings east of the Jordan, beaten under Moses, open Joshua's roll call of conquered rulers?
Sihon and Og
Sihon and Og, the Amorite rulers of Heshbon and Bashan, had fallen to Moses, and their land went to the tribes that settled east of the river. Og is called one of the last of the Rephaites.
Q 10What did Joshua set up at Gilgal, Israel's first camp in Canaan, to mark the Jordan crossing?
Twelve stones
Twelve stones, one carried out of the riverbed by a man from each tribe, were meant to make children ask 'What do these stones mean?' and hear how Israel crossed on dry ground.
Q 11What did Joshua's priests carry into the Jordan, halting its flow the moment their feet touched the water's edge?
The ark of the covenant
The ark of the covenant went first, and the priests stood firm in the riverbed until the whole nation had crossed, with the river at flood stage.
Q 12What did the Lord tell Joshua to make to circumcise the men born in the wilderness, at Gibeath Haaraloth?
Flint knives
Flint knives did the job for a generation born on the march, since none of the boys born after Egypt had been circumcised. Gibeath Haaraloth means 'hill of the foreskins'.
Q 13What did Joshua's oath say it would cost the man who dared to rebuild Jericho's foundations and gates?
Q 21What was Joshua ordered to do to the horses of the northern kings, whose chariots he was to burn?
Hamstring them
Hamstring them was the order, crippling the animals rather than keeping them, a step commentators read as stopping Israel from trusting in a chariot force of its own. David did the same to Hadadezer's horses in 2 Samuel 8.
Q 22In which three Philistine cities alone did Anakites survive once Joshua had cleared them from the hill country?
Gaza, Gath and Ashdod
Gaza, Gath and Ashdod kept a remnant of the giants, a detail often linked to Goliath 'of Gath' in 1 Samuel. Caleb had driven the three sons of Anak out of his own hill-country city.
Q 23Which city, formerly Kiriath Arba and once home of the Anakites, did Joshua give Caleb as his inheritance?
His firstborn and youngest sons
His firstborn and youngest sons were exactly what Hiel of Bethel lost when he rebuilt Jericho in Ahab's day: Abiram as he laid the foundations, Segub as he set up the gates, 1 Kings 16 reports.
Q 14Where, at a spot whose name means 'trouble', was Achan punished for taking Jericho's devoted things?
The Valley of Achor
The Valley of Achor takes its name, the book says, from Joshua's words 'Why have you brought this trouble on us?', and Hosea later promises God will turn it into 'a door of hope'. A pile of rocks marked the spot 'to this day'.
Q 15What did the Lord permit at Ai that he had forbidden at Jericho, once Achan's theft had been punished?
Keeping plunder and livestock
Keeping plunder and livestock was now allowed 'for yourselves', unlike at Jericho, where everything was devoted to the Lord and Achan's hidden robe, silver and gold cost him his life. Ai itself was burned to a heap of ruins.
Q 16On which mountain did Joshua build an altar that no iron tool had touched, and copy out the teaching of Moses?
Mount Ebal
Mount Ebal was the mountain of the curses, with Mount Gerizim opposite for the blessings, and half the people stood facing each as Joshua read every word of the law. Women, children and foreigners were all there.
Q 17The Gibeonites who tricked Joshua into a treaty belonged to which of the peoples Israel was told to drive out?
The Hivites
The Hivites of Gibeon were the one people who made peace, the book notes, because the Lord hardened every other city's heart to fight. Gibeon itself was 'an important city, like one of the royal cities', larger than Ai.
Q 18Where did the five Amorite kings hide after Gibeon, until Joshua had large rocks rolled over the entrance?
A cave at Makkedah
A cave at Makkedah held the kings while Joshua finished the pursuit, and afterwards it became their tomb, sealed with large rocks that remained 'to this day'. Makkedah itself fell the same day.
Q 19Where did Jabin's northern alliance, 'as numerous as the sand on the seashore', camp before Joshua struck?
The Waters of Merom
The Waters of Merom is where Joshua fell on 'a huge army' with horses and chariots without warning, then chased the survivors all the way to Greater Sidon.
Q 20Which city, formerly 'the head of all these kingdoms', was the only one built on a mound that Joshua burned?
Hazor
Hazor was singled out for burning while the other mound cities were looted and left standing, yet Judges 4 has another Jabin reigning in Hazor in Deborah's day. Its ruins, Tel Hazor, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hebron
Hebron went to Caleb, who at eighty-five claimed he was as strong as the day Moses sent him to spy out the land. Arba, the city's namesake, 'was the greatest man among the Anakites'.
Q 24Who captured Kiriath Sepher and so won Caleb's daughter Aksah, later becoming the first judge of Israel?
Othniel
Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took the town also called Debir and reappears in Judges 3 as the deliverer who beat Cushan-Rishathaim. The land then had peace for forty years.
Q 25What did Aksah ask her father Caleb to add to her Negev land, getting both the upper and lower ones?
Springs of water
Springs of water were the 'special favor' she asked for after getting off her donkey, and the scene is repeated almost word for word in Judges 1. A field in the dry south was little use without them.
Q 26Which people did the tribe of Judah fail to dislodge from Jerusalem, where they still lived 'to this day'?
The Jebusites
The Jebusites held Jerusalem until David captured the fortress of Zion in 2 Samuel 5 and made it his capital. The city sat right on the border between Judah's land and the next tribe's.
Q 27Whose five daughters, with no brothers to inherit, won land of their own from Joshua and the priest?
Zelophehad
Zelophehad's daughters, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah, had first won their case before Moses in Numbers 27, and Joshua honoured the ruling with tracts of land west of the Jordan. Numbers 36 then made them marry within their tribe.
Q 28What did Joshua tell Joseph's tribes to do when they complained one allotment was too small?
Clear the forested hill country
Clear the forested hill country was the answer, and Joshua added that they could drive out the Canaanites of the plain even though those had 'chariots fitted with iron'. Their numbers, he said, were their strength.
Q 29At which town did Joshua set up the tent of meeting and parcel out land to the seven tribes still without any?
Shiloh
Shiloh stayed Israel's sanctuary for generations, until the Philistines captured the ark in Samuel's day. Three surveyors from each tribe first walked the land and wrote it up 'town by town, in seven parts'.
Q 30Which tribe's lot fell between Judah and the tribes of Joseph, its towns including Jericho, Bethel and Jerusalem?
Benjamin
Benjamin drew the first lot cast at the tent of meeting and got a narrow strip of twenty-six towns, among them Gibeah, Saul's future home, and Mizpah. Paul later boasted of belonging to it.