Book of 2 Chronicles Quiz: The Temple, the Kings and the Exile

1. What was distinctive about Solomon's temple prayer at its dedication in 2 Chronicles 6?

1. Solomon focused his prayer entirely on forgiveness of Israel's past sins — clearing the spiritual debt before the new era began
2. Solomon prayed for permanent divine blessing on the temple building itself — that it would never be destroyed as long as Israel worshipped there
3. Solomon prayed for seven categories of people: those who sinned against neighbours, defeated armies, drought, famine, plague, foreigners, and exiles — the temple was to be a house of prayer for all who called on God
4. Solomon prayed only for the prosperity of the Davidic dynasty — the temple prayer was essentially a royal prayer

2. What did Solomon say about God's dwelling in the temple?

1. 'But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!'
2. 'If you will dwell in this house, O LORD, then Israel will be the greatest nation under heaven'
3. 'This temple is your footstool on earth — your true throne is in the highest heaven, but here you will meet with your people'
4. 'You have chosen this temple as your permanent home — your glory will never depart from this place as long as your people honour you'

3. What promise does 2 Chronicles 7:14 give, and in what context?

1. 'If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land'
2. 'If you walk before me as David your father walked and do all I command you and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with David your father'
3. 'The house you have built I will consecrate for my Name — my eyes and my heart will always be here'
4. God promises to heal the land if the Israelites maintain the temple — the promise is specifically about the physical land of Israel

4. Which king of Judah, described positively in Chronicles, was attacked by a large Ethiopian/Cushite army and prayed for deliverance?

1. Asa — who cried out 'LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, LORD our God, for we rely on you'
2. Hezekiah — who spread the Assyrian letter before the LORD and prayed for deliverance
3. Jehoshaphat — who stood before the assembled people and said 'Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us'
4. Josiah — who prayed before going to battle against Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo

5. Jehoshaphat faced a vast coalition army and responded in an unusual way. What did he do?

1. He appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him as they went out at the head of the army — 'Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.' The LORD set ambushes against the enemy and they destroyed each other
2. He called for a three-day fast and then led Israel's army in a dawn attack
3. He sent envoys to every surrounding nation to assemble a counter-coalition against the invaders
4. He sent for Isaiah the prophet to receive a divine strategy before engaging the enemy

6. What was the recurring evaluative formula Chronicles uses for the kings of Judah?

1. 'He did what was right / evil in the eyes of the LORD, though the high places were not removed'
2. 'He followed the LORD with all his heart / He turned away from the LORD and followed other gods'
3. 'He kept the law of Moses / He did not keep the law of Moses'
4. 'His heart was perfect toward the LORD / He was faithless in the sight of the LORD'

7. Hezekiah's great Passover in 2 Chronicles 30 was unusual in two ways. What were they?

1. It was held in summer rather than spring, and it lasted fourteen days rather than seven
2. It was held in the second month (not the prescribed first month) because the priests were not ready; and it included Israelites from the north (Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun) as well as Judah — a remarkable pan-Israel celebration
3. It was held outdoors rather than in homes — Hezekiah had all Jerusalem eat in the temple courts as a sign of national unity
4. It was the first Passover in forty years — held after a long period when the Passover had been completely neglected

8. What happened to Manasseh that Chronicles records but Kings does not?

1. Manasseh had a deathbed conversion and left a written confession that was placed in the temple treasury
2. Manasseh received a divine vision showing him the consequences of his sins — he repented privately but the text kept this hidden from the people
3. Manasseh was struck with leprosy for seven years as punishment for his idolatry — God healed him when he repented
4. Manasseh was taken prisoner to Babylon by the Assyrians; in his distress he humbled himself greatly before God; God restored him to Jerusalem; he then reversed many of his wicked acts

9. What was distinctive about Josiah's reform in 2 Chronicles compared to all previous reforms?

1. Josiah destroyed not only the Jerusalem high places but travelled through the former northern kingdom — Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon and Naphtali — tearing down altars and Asherah poles throughout what had been Israel
2. Josiah was the first king to involve the priests in reform — previous reformers had acted unilaterally without priestly cooperation
3. Josiah was the only king to involve the common people — holding public assemblies in every town to read the law
4. Josiah was the youngest reformer — beginning his purge of idolatry at age twelve, before any other king had started

10. What was unique about how 2 Chronicles evaluates Uzziah (Azariah)?

1. Uzziah was praised for his military and building successes but then struck with leprosy for the rest of his life because he entered the temple to burn incense — a priestly act that was not his to perform
2. Uzziah was the first king to receive both a positive military and spiritual evaluation — he was great in both dimensions equally
3. Uzziah was the first to build the temple's outer courts — his construction work earned him a positive verdict despite his later apostasy
4. Uzziah was the only king whose biography was written by a prophet — Isaiah wrote a separate account that is now lost

11. How does Chronicles explain the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile?

1. 'The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy'
2. The exile was caused by Manasseh's sin alone — the fifty-five years of his idolatry created a debt of judgment that no subsequent king could reverse
3. The exile was God's way of purging the corrupt priesthood — the people were collateral damage in a judgment primarily aimed at the temple leadership
4. The primary cause was military — Babylon was simply too powerful and God had not promised to protect Judah from all foreign powers

12. What does Chronicles say about the land during the Babylonian exile?

1. 'The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfilment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah'
2. The land remained productive but without Israelite stewards — foreign workers farmed it and sent tribute to Babylon
3. The land was immediately occupied by other nations — Israel's territory was divided between Edom, Ammon and Moab during the seventy-year exile
4. The land was left desolate and barren — no crops grew during the exile as a sign of God's judgment

13. How does 2 Chronicles end, and why is this significant?

1. With a list of the returning exiles — hundreds of thousands named as proof that God preserved every family
2. With a prophecy of the coming Messiah from the Davidic line — Chronicles ends where the New Testament begins
3. With Cyrus king of Persia's decree allowing the Jews to return and rebuild the temple — 'Let him go up' — the same three words that begin the book of Ezra, suggesting hopeful continuity
4. With the death of the last Davidic king — ending on a note of tragic finality that awaits future resurrection

14. What does Chronicles teach about the relationship between seeking God and success?

1. Chronicles repeatedly shows: as long as a king 'sought the LORD' he prospered; when he abandoned God he declined — this is stated most explicitly about Uzziah: 'As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success'
2. Seeking God produces spiritual success — physical and military success is separate and may or may not accompany it
3. Success is always temporary — Chronicles shows that even the most faithful kings eventually failed, teaching humility
4. Success proves faithfulness — every prosperous king was faithful and every poor king was unfaithful without exception

15. What does Abijah's speech in 2 Chronicles 13 argue about the legitimacy of the Jerusalem-based worship?

1. He argues that all Israel should pay taxes to Jerusalem — the temple required financial support from all twelve tribes
2. He argues that David was never properly anointed — only Solomon's accession marked the true beginning of the Davidic dynasty
3. He argues that the northern kingdom had abandoned God by rejecting the Aaronic priesthood and driving out the Levites — Judah had the legitimate worship; the golden calves of Jeroboam could not substitute for the true God and his ordained priests
4. He argues that the northern kingdom had no legitimate army — all twelve tribes were obligated to fight under the Davidic king's command

16. What unique feature does 2 Chronicles include about the musical worship system that Kings largely ignores?

1. Chronicles details the financial support system for the musicians — how they were paid and what they received as temple income
2. Chronicles provides the words to specific liturgical songs — expanding the worship vocabulary of the returned exiles
3. Chronicles records the instruments used in each service — distinguishing weekday, Sabbath, festival and special occasions
4. Chronicles repeatedly references the musical guilds of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun by name — showing that the praise patterns David established were maintained through Hezekiah's and Josiah's revivals, creating a continuous tradition

17. What happened when Rehoboam humbled himself before Shishak's invasion of Jerusalem?

1. God completely reversed the invasion and drove Shishak back to Egypt — total deliverance for full humility
2. Shishak took the treasures of the temple and palace but was not allowed to destroy the city — the humbling of the king and leaders led to partial deliverance
3. Shishak was killed by a plague before he could take Jerusalem — the humbling was vindicated by a miraculous divine intervention
4. The invasion was cancelled — Shishak turned back at the border when he received news of rebellion at home

18. What does the story of Jehoshaphat's fleet disaster teach in 2 Chronicles 20?

1. Commercial partnerships with ungodly kings will always fail — even legitimate business ventures are tainted by wicked partners
2. Jehoshaphat allied with Ahaziah of Israel (described as wicked) to build ships at Ezion Geber — the ships were wrecked; the prophet Eliezer announced it was because of the alliance with Ahaziah
3. Naval power is incompatible with Israel's covenant calling — the fleet disaster was God's warning that Israel must remain a land power
4. The disaster showed that Jehoshaphat trusted in commerce rather than God — material success was the temptation that led to his only recorded failure

19. What does Chronicles emphasise about Hezekiah that makes him the most positively presented king in Judah?

1. Hezekiah reopened and cleansed the temple, restored proper worship and the Levitical service, held the greatest Passover since Solomon, and trusted God in the face of Sennacherib's invasion — 'There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah'
2. Hezekiah wrote more of the Psalms than any other king after David — his contribution to Scripture is his greatest legacy
3. Hezekiah's economic administration was perfect — under him Israel's commerce reached the height of Solomon's era
4. Hezekiah's military victories — he defeated Assyria, which no other king achieved

20. What unique structural feature of 2 Chronicles shows its post-exilic purpose?

1. It ends with a prayer for exile to end — an unambiguous call to return that was recited at every post-exilic Passover
2. It ends with Cyrus's decree and begins with the same audience (post-exilic Israel) — the whole book is framed as instruction for the community rebuilding the temple and re-establishing worship
3. It includes footnotes citing the source documents used — the 'chronicles of the kings' that authenticate the historical record
4. It is written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew — indicating it was composed for the Diaspora communities rather than those who returned to the land