Will This Bible Quiz Put You Up Against a Wall?

Answer: Joshua

Joshua was the leader of the Israelites when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, enabling the Israelites to easily conquer the city, according to the sixth chapter of Joshua.

Joshua 6:2-5 tells of the LORD giving instructions to Joshua on how to bring down the walls of Jericho. As part of the instructions, the Israelites were to march around the city once for six consecutive days, with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns.

Instructions for the seventh day were distinctly different. Scripture goes on to tell of the LORD instructing the Israelites to march around the city seven times and for the seven priests to blow their seven trumpets. After the priests blew the trumpets, all the people were "to shout with a great shout" and the walls would come tumbling down, the LORD is quoted as saying.

Sure enough, that's exactly what happened, according to Scripture. As documented in Joshua 6:17-25, only Rahab the prostitute and her parents, as well as her brothers and sisters, were spared when the Israelites took possession of Jericho.

Answer: Balaam

The correct answer is Balaam, best known for having a donkey speak to him. However, in Numbers 22:22-39, a passage telling of a donkey speaking to Balaam, details are also given about the prophet being trapped against a wall by an angel armed with a sword.

In other words, the account of Balaam and the wall as well as the talking donkey are intertwined. See Numbers 22:24-35 for details.

Answer: Mesha

Mesha is the correct answer, as per 2 Kings 3:4. According to 2 Kings 3:24-27, the king sacrificed his son as a "burnt offering upon the wall". The king's son is not named, but according to Verse 27 he was the king's oldest son and would'be been next in line to ascend to the throne.

Verse 26 states Mesha attempted to escape by taking seven hundred soldiers with him to break through Isrealite lines but they were unsuccessful.

Verse 27 goes on, in the NKJV, to state: "Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall."

Answer: Saul

Saul is the correct answer. Scripture tells of Saul being mortally wounded in battle against the Philistines and committing suicide. Later, the Philistines took Saul's body, as well as the bodies of three of his sons, and fastened them to the wall of Beth-shan. (According to 1 Samuel 31:2, Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua were also killed in the battle.)

News apparently quickly spread about the indignity done to the bodies of Saul and his sons, with the men of Jabesh Gilead "traveling all night" and taking the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth Shan.

According to 1 Samuel 31:12-13, the men of Jabesh Gilead took their bodies and then burned them before burying their bones "under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh." They then fasted for seven days.

See 1 Samuel 31:1-13 for details.

(In the KJV, Beth Shan is known as Bethshan.)

Answer: Ezekiel

Ezekiel 42:15-20 tells of Ezekiel measuring the outer dimensions of the temple. According to the passage, all four sides of the wall were "five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around."

Ezekiel is a major prophet in the Old Testament, with the book that bears his name containing forty-eight chapters.

Answer: Sheba

After staging a rebellion against David, Sheba apparently had his supporters turn against him. Scripture states the people not only beheaded him, but also tossed his head over a wall of Abel to Joab, the commander of David's military.

The incident is told in 2 Samuel 20:1-2 and 16-22.

According to the passage, an unnamed wise woman promised Sheba's head would be thrown over the wall if Joab ceased hostilities.

Verse 22 states: "Then the woman in her wisdom went to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. Then he blew a trumpet, and they withdrew from the city, every man to his tent. So Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem."

Answer: Nehemiah

Nehemiah broke down and wept when he learned the walls of Jerusalem had not been rebuilt, as per Nehemiah 1:2-4. Scripture tells of Hanani informing Nehemiah the situation in Jerusalem was bleak. He is quoted as saying, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."

Upon hearing Hanani's account, Scripture tells of Nehemiah sitting down and weeping and mourning "for many days". As a result, Nehemiah states he fasted and prayed "before the God of heaven".

Answer: Samaria

As gruesome as it sounds, Scripture states Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, was walking along the wall of Samaria when a woman cried out to him, stating she had boiled her son and eaten him. The macabre event took place while the army of Syria was besieging Samaria, sparking a severe famine.

2 Kings 6:25 states food was so scarce a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and "one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver."

Verses 26 to 30 go on to tell of the king encountering the distraught woman while he walking on the wall. Scripture quotes the unnamed woman as telling the king: "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.' So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son."

Answer: Damascus

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, was let down in a basket through the wall of Damascus to escape people who were trying to kill him. According to Scripture, people in Damascus were plotting to kill Paul, who was known as Saul at the time, because he had become a follower of Jesus Christ. Acts 9:23-25 states those seeking to kill Paul watched the gates of the city day and night. To enable Paul to escape, Scripture tells of the disciples lowering Paul in a large basket over the city wall. No further details are given in Scripture.

Answer: New Jerusalem

According to Scripture, the New Jerusalem will be a place like no other. Just reading about the walls of the city gives an idea of the opulence. Revelation 21:18-19 states the construction of its wall will be of jasper while the foundations of the wall of the city will be "adorned with all kinds of precious stones". In addition to jasper, the precious stones included sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. Scripture goes on state the streets of the city were "pure gold, like transparent glass".

While the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem will be in ecstasy, Revelation indicates the residents of Babylon will face a horrible future.