Exodus Trivia
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110 free Exodus trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Exodus is the Bible's great escape story: a baby in a basket, a bush that burns without burning up, ten plagues, a sea that opens and closes, and a mountain that shakes while the law is given. This quiz covers the whole book, from the store cities of Pithom and Rameses to the finished Tabernacle, plus the people around Moses — Aaron, Miriam, Zipporah and Jethro — who tend to get skipped in Sunday school. The early questions are the ones any Passover guest or Bible-study regular should manage: what the plagues were, why the bread is unleavened, what was written on the tablets. Later ones get harder — the Hebrew name of the book, which craftsman built the Ark, what the wilderness bread was said to taste like, and what became of the calf. A short closing section covers the films and the album that took the name, from Cecil B. DeMille to Bob Marley. Every answer is checked against the biblical text as summarised in standard reference works and each question links to its source.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Exodus is which book of the Bible?
The second
Exodus is the second book of the Bible, following Genesis; it opens with Jacob's descendants multiplying in Egypt and a new pharaoh enslaving them.
Q 02In Exodus 4, what does Moses' staff become when he throws it on the ground?
A snake
At the burning bush God tells Moses to throw down his staff, and it becomes a snake (Exodus 4:3); he flees from it until told to grasp its tail.
Q 03What is the traditional Hebrew title of the Book of Exodus?
Shemot ('Names')
The Hebrew title is Shemot, 'Names', taken from the book's opening verse: 'These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt'.
Q 04According to Exodus, the enslaved Israelites were forced to build which two store cities?
Pithom and Rameses
Exodus 1:11 names Pithom and Rameses as the store cities the enslaved Israelites built; the name Rameses is one reason Ramesses II is often proposed as the story's unnamed pharaoh.
Q 05Who found the infant Moses hidden in an ark among the reeds of the Nile?
Pharaoh's daughter
Pharaoh's daughter found the basket while bathing in the Nile (Exodus 2:5); she named the child Moses and unknowingly hired his own mother to nurse him.
Q 06Why did Moses first flee to the land of Midian?
He killed an Egyptian
He killed an Egyptian he saw beating a Hebrew and hid the body in the sand; when Pharaoh heard of it and sought his life, he fled to Midian.
Q 07What was the name of Moses' wife?
Zipporah
Zipporah met Moses at a well in Midian, where he defended her and her six sisters from shepherds who drove them off; their father then gave her to him as his wife.
Q 08Which priest of Midian, whose daughter Moses married, later advised him to appoint judges?
Jethro
Jethro watched Moses judge every dispute alone from morning to evening and warned that he would wear himself out; the Druze revere Jethro as their chief prophet.
Q 09What was Moses doing when he encountered God in the burning bush?
Tending his father-in-law's flock
Exodus 3:1 says Moses was tending his father-in-law's flock in the wilderness when he saw the bush burning yet not consumed and was told to remove his sandals on holy ground.
Q 10On which mountain does Exodus place the burning bush?
Horeb
Horeb, 'the mountain of God' in Exodus 3:1, is usually identified with Sinai; centuries later Elijah fled there and met God not in an earthquake or fire but in the quiet sound that followed.
Q 11What name does God give when Moses asks who is sending him?
I Am Who I Am
'I Am Who I Am' is the reply, and God at once shortens it into a name Moses can deliver, telling him to say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'
Q 12After Moses first asked for the Israelites' release, Pharaoh made them gather which brickmaking material themselves?
Straw
Straw had been supplied until then; Pharaoh cut it off but kept the daily brick quota unchanged, which is where the phrase 'bricks without straw' comes from.
Q 13What does Exodus say happened to Pharaoh's heart during the plagues?
Hardened
It was hardened, and the phrasing shifts as the plagues go on: early on Pharaoh hardens his own heart, and not until the sixth plague, boils, does the narrative say the Lord hardened it.
Q 21What is the name of the book read at the Seder meal that retells the story of Exodus?
The Haggadah
The Haggadah exists because Exodus 13:8 commands 'You shall tell your son in that day'; by custom the youngest person at the table asks the Four Questions that set the telling going.
Q 22How many Israelite men on foot does Exodus 12:37 say left Egypt?
About 600,000
About 600,000 men on foot, 'besides children', is the count in Exodus 12:37, and they did not leave alone: a 'mixed multitude' of others went up with them, along with great herds of livestock.
Q 23Whose bones does Exodus 13 say Moses carried out of Egypt to keep an old oath?
Joseph
Q 14What was the first plague on Egypt?
The Nile turned to blood
In the first plague the Nile turned to blood (Exodus 7:20): the fish died, the river stank, and Egypt's magicians matched the feat with their secret arts.
Q 15Which plague followed the first on Egypt, swarming into bedrooms, ovens and kneading bowls?
Frogs
Frogs came next; Egypt's magicians conjured more of them, and when the frogs died they were piled in heaps until the land stank.
Q 16Which three-day plague does Exodus say could be felt?
Darkness
Darkness so thick that people could not see one another or leave their places lay on Egypt for three days, while the Israelites had light where they lived.
Q 17What was the tenth and final plague on Egypt?
Death of the firstborn
Death of the firstborn struck every Egyptian household from Pharaoh's to the prisoner's in the dungeon, and Pharaoh sent the Israelites away that same night.
Q 18How did the Israelites mark their homes to escape the final plague?
With a lamb's blood on the doorframe
With a lamb's blood on the doorframe: it was daubed on the doorposts and lintel with a bunch of hyssop, and the lamb itself was roasted and eaten in haste that night.
Q 19Which Jewish festival commemorates the escape from Egypt described in Exodus?
Passover
Passover lasts seven days in Israel but eight in many diaspora communities, a habit from the days when distant communities could not be sure when the new month had been declared in Jerusalem.
Q 20Why is unleavened bread eaten to commemorate the Israelites' escape from Egypt?
The dough had no time to rise
The dough had no time to rise: driven out of Egypt in a hurry, the Israelites carried it off in kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks and baked flat cakes on the way.
Joseph had made the Israelites swear to take his bones with them when God brought them out of Egypt; they were finally buried at Shechem.
Q 24In what form did God lead the Israelites through the wilderness by day?
A pillar of cloud
God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21), so the people could travel at any hour.
Q 25The Hebrew name of the sea the Israelites crossed, Yam Suph, is often translated as what?
Sea of Reeds
Yam Suph is commonly rendered 'Sea of Reeds' (suph means reeds or rushes), which has led scholars to look at marshy lakes along the Suez isthmus rather than the Red Sea proper.
Q 26In Exodus 14, what natural force drives the sea back overnight so the Israelites can cross?
A strong east wind
Exodus 14:21: when Moses stretched his hand over the sea, the Lord drove it back 'by a strong east wind all that night' and turned the seabed into dry ground.
Q 27Who led the Israelite women in song and dance with timbrels after the sea closed over the Egyptians?
Miriam
Miriam, called 'the prophetess' in Exodus 15:20, took a timbrel and led the women in song and dance; in Numbers 12 she was struck with a skin disease for speaking against her brother.
Q 28What food did God provide each morning in the wilderness when the people complained of hunger?
Manna
Manna came with the morning dew and had to be gathered before the sun melted it; it stopped for good once Israel began eating the produce of its new land.
Q 29Exodus says the wilderness bread was white like coriander seed and tasted like what?
Wafers made with honey
Exodus 16:31 describes the wilderness bread as 'like coriander seed, white', with a taste 'like wafers made with honey'; a double portion fell on the sixth day for the Sabbath.
Q 30The Hebrew name of the wilderness bread is traditionally explained as a question meaning what?
What is it?
'What is it?' is what the Israelites asked one another on first seeing the flakes on the ground, 'for they did not know what it was'; tradition traces the bread's name to that question.