Bible Quiz

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Test yourself about David

Prepared by Bill Ickes, Berlin, Pennsylvania.

1. Who were three prophets who communicated God’s will to David?

2. A score of David’s children are mentioned by name, but only one girl. What was her name?

3. Where was God at the second battle in the Valley of Rephaim?

4. Why did David weep on eight occasions recorded in the books of Samuel and Chronicles.?

5. Which experience of David’s life does Jesus cite?

6. Why was David angry at his nephews, Joab and Abishai, sons of Zeruiah?

7. What parable prompted David to pronounce judgment on himself?

8. How did David escape from Gath?

9. Several foreign kings aided David, including Nahash, king of the Ammonites. But what did Nahash’s ungrateful son do to David’s envoys who came to console him on the death of his father?

10. A woman’s vigil preceded the restoration of God’s aid to the famine-stricken land during the reign of David. What happened?

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Answers

1. Samuel, who anointed and protected David (1 Samuel 16:12–13; 1 Samuel 19:18). Nathan, who delivered God’s promise of an everlasting dynasty (2 Samuel 7:11–16; 1 Chronicles 17:11–14). Gad, who warned David to flee from his cave stronghold lest Saul come upon him (1 Samuel 22:5); who told him he must choose among three terrible punishments after he had offended the Lord by numbering the people of Israel (2 Samuel 24:11–14, 1 Chronicles 21:9–13), and who told David to “Go up, rear an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite” (later the site of the Jerusalem Temple) (2 Samuel 24:18–19).

2. Tamar. She and her brother Absalom were the children of Maacah, the daughter of King Talmai of Geshur (2 Samuel 3:3; 13:1). Amnon, another son of David’s and Tamar’s half brother, raped her. Two years later, her brother Absalom murdered Amnon.

3. God provided “tactical air support.” When the Philistines came to attack David, he asked God what to do. God responded, “Go around to their rear and come upon them opposite the balsam trees. And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then bestir yourself, for then the Lord has gone out before you to smite the army of the Philistines” (2 Samuel 5:22–25).

4. The eight occasions David wept were:

• Fleeing from Saul’s wrath, David wept at his forced parting from Jonathan the king’s son (1 Samuel 20:41–42).

• When David came to Ziklag (which had been given to him by the Philistine commander), David found it burned by the Amalekites and the “wives and sons and daughters [of his people) taken captive.” Then David and all the people with him wept (1 Samuel 30:1–5).

• David lamented the death of Saul and Jonathan who fell in battle with the Philistines at Mt. Gilboa (2 Samuel 1:11–12).

• After Saul’s death, Abner, the commander of Saul’s army, pledged himself to serve David. Joab, one of David’s nephews, murdered Abner. Later, “the king wept aloud by Abner’s grave and spoke a eulogy” (2 Samuel 3:32). Then “all Israel knew that it was not by the king’s will that Abner, son of Ner was killed” (2 Samuel 3:37).

• David fasted and wept when his child by Bathsheba became gravely ill. The prophet Nathan declared that the illness was David’s punishment for sending Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, to his death in battle (2 Samuel 12:14–16, 21–22).

• David wept for his son Amnon after Absalom (one of David’s favorites) ordered the murder of Amnon in revenge for Amnon’s rape of Tamar, Absalom’s sister, (2 Samuel 13:36).

• When Absalom conspired to take over the government, David and his servants fled Jerusalem; David “went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went” (2 Samuel 15:30).

• When David’s rebellious but beloved son Absalom was slain David cried out: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. If only I had died instead of you!” (2 Samuel 18:33).

5. Jesus said, “Have you never read what David did when he and his men were hungry [referring to 1 Samuel 21:2–6]? He went into the House of God … and ate the bread of the Presence … and even gave it to his men” (Matthew 12:1–4; Mark 2:25–26; Luke 6:3–4). When the Pharisees criticized the disciples for eating grain from a field on the Sabbath, Jesus said, using David’s act as an example, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

6. Joab murdered two men, Abner and Amasa; and Abishai sought to kill a third, Shimei, a relative of Saul. Part 4 of answer four describes the murder of Abner. After Absalom perished, David chose Amasa, the commander of Absalom’s army, as his commander. Joab killed Amasa treacherously (2 Samuel 20:4–10; 1 Kings 2:5).

Fleeing Absalom’s revolt, David was cursed by Shimei. After the rebellion failed, when David was re-crossing the Jordan, Shimei asked him for mercy. Abishai 007wanted to put Shimei to death, but David granted him his life (2 Samuel 16:5–14, 19:16–23). David berated, “These ruthless sons of Zeruiah; they are too much for me” (2 Samuel 3:39).

7. Nathan the prophet told a tale to David of the rich man with large flocks and the poor man who had one little ewe lamb that “was like a daughter to him.” The rich man took the poor man’s pet ewe lamb to feed a traveler. David exclaimed, “The man who did this deserves to die!” But Nathan said, “That man is you!” because he was telling an allegory of David’s treatment of Uriah’s wife (2 Samuel:1–12).

8. Fleeing from Saul’s jealousy and anger, David sought refuge in Gath. He feared King Achish and to escape him David “feigned madness … and scratched marks on the doors of the garden” and “let his saliva run down his beard.” Achish said, “The man is mad,” and David was permitted to make his escape (1 Samuel 21:12–15).

9. Hanun, son of Nahash, shaved off half the beard of each of David’s emissaries and cut off their garments in the middle and sent them away, because the princes of Ammon told him that David’s envoys had really come to spy (2 Samuel 10:1–5; 1 Chronicles 19:1–5).

10. Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, watched over the unburied bodies of Saul’s seven sons. David allowed the execution of the seven because of Saul’s attempt to exterminate the Gibeonites. The seven sons of Saul were impaled on a mountain before the Lord in the first days of the barley harvest. Rizpah “ … stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until rain fell [approximately six months] … she did not let the birds … or the wild beasts” approach (2 Samuel 21:10; Deuteronomy 21:22, 23). Impressed with Rizpah’s devotion, David arranged a proper burial for Saul’s sons and for the bones of Saul and Jonathan who had died on Mt Gilboa. Only then was God willing to accept Israel’s prayers and end the famine (2 Samuel 21:1–14).

Test yourself about David

Prepared by Bill Ickes, Berlin, Pennsylvania.
1. Who were three prophets who communicated God’s will to David?
2. A score of David’s children are mentioned by name, but only one girl. What was her name?
3. Where was God at the second battle in the Valley of Rephaim?
4. Why did David weep on eight occasions recorded in the books of Samuel and Chronicles.?