Book of Numbers Trivia Quiz

Answer: In the wilderness

The Hebrew title comes from the first line of the book: "And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinaļ ... " The Greek Septuagint used the name of Numbers, and this is how the title has come down to us in the English version. In both chapters 1 and 26, the Israelites are "numbered" via a census, and this probably accounts for the title's origin.

Answer: It does not exist today

No copy of this book survives today, and it is unknown who wrote it or why it was never preserved and included in the Hebrew canon. Other lost books mentioned in the Old Testament include the Book of Jashar (mentioned in Joshua) and The Acts of Solomon (mentioned in Kings).

Answer: The Aaronic Benediction

Found in Numbers 6:24-26, these words are still used as the benediction in many modern Christian liturgical churches. The Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9--"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

Answer: two

The other ten spies discouraged the Israelites from taking the land, resulting in another 38 years of wilderness wandering. Caleb was among those who gave a good report of the land.

Answer: Korah

The story is told in Numbers 16. Korah led 250 men to oppose Moses and Aaron, saying, "You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD's assembly?" (16:3). The Lord, however, sent an earthquake to open the earth and swallow the rebels.

Answer: For the manner in which he brought water from the rock

Moses was instructed by God to bring forth water from the rock. "Take the staff," said the Lord, "and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water" (20:8). But instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck it, and he took the credit for the miracle: "'Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?' Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank" (20:10-11).

As a consequence for this sin, God declared, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them" (20:12). It was Aaron, not Moses, who fashioned the golden calf. Though Moses did marry an Ethiopian, he was not punished for it.

Answer: A Brass Serpent

In Numbers 21, the Israelites murmured against God and were punished by fiery serpents. They fell sick from the bites, but were healed when they looked toward the brass serpent Moses raised: "And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (21:9). Later, however, the Israelites began to actually worship this serpent as an idol, and King Hezekiah had to destroy it: "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan" (2 Kings 18:4). For Christians, the raising of the brass serpent is a type of Christ's being raised up on the cross for the healing of the lost. Christ Himself interprets the symbol in this manner in John 3:14.

Answer: Balaam

Balaam, however, did not curse the Israelites as desired. He said, rather, "Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (23:7-9).

Answer: Miriam

Aaron and Miriam murmured against their brother Moses for marrying the Ethiopian woman and suggested that Moses should not be the one leader: "And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?: (12:2). For this sin, Miriam was struck with leprosy. Moses pleaded with God to heal her, but she was first shut out of the camp for seven days.

Answer: Phinehas

"And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel" (25:7-8).