When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth on the river succeeded him as king.

• Genesis 36:37

Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

• 2 Kings 5:12

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.

• 2 Kings 17:6

I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

• Zechariah 9:10

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

• Acts 16:13

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
    we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
    may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
    if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
    my highest joy.
Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
    on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
    “tear it down to its foundations!”
Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
    happy is the one who repays you
    according to what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who seizes your infants
    and dashes them against the rocks.

• Psalm 137:1-9

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
    be pleasing in your sight,
    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

• Psalm 19:14

This quiz is about rivers.  The answers to the questions are the names of ten rivers that are mentioned in the Bible.  Although not all the rivers in the Garden of Eden are famous rivers, the four rivers, at least by name, are answers to questions in the quiz.  That should be a hint to get four of the answers, if, of course, you know what the four rivers are that are in the Garden of Eden, and you can tie those rivers to a question.  Okay, major hint:  The four rivers in the Garden of Eden, in alphabetical order, are the Euphrates, the Gihon, the Pishon, and the Tigris.  The other six rivers are mentioned 262 times in the Bible, but one of these rivers accounts for about 70 percent of those 262 times.

The Scriptures are an interesting collection.  In the genealogy of Edom (Esau), one of the kings is identified as Shaul from Rehoboth on the river.  The financial center of Germany is Frankfurt am Main, meaning of the many cities and towns named Frankfort, this is the one on the Main River.  It must have been the same in Biblical times.  The second scripture is Naaman’s refusal, at first, to wash in one of the rivers that is an answer in the quiz.  The rivers of Damascus are so much better.  The people of Samaria were exiled to the Habor River in Assyria.  In Zechariah 9:10, the word “river” is capitalized, meaning the Euphrates.  And the river is never named in Acts 16. There was no synagogue in Philippi, so Paul preached next to the river.  The river in Philippi is the Krenides River.

And as for the last two Scriptures, they form the lyrics of the Boney M song which will come later.  The Babylonians demanded a happy song, so they wrote one about taking the infants of our captors and dashing them on the rocks.  Of course, those words were not part of the Boney M song.

As for the quiz title, I try to come up with something cute or strange.  In this case, there are three reasons to pick this title.  I was trying to mimic a movie title with the word “river” in it.  There were many candidates, but this movie got Alec Guinness the Oscar for best actor that year.  But then, in the real bridge, my wife’s uncle was an Indonesian boy, caught doing things against the Japanese occupation rules, he was conscripted as a prisoner to work on the bridge along with the POWs, but he escaped, spending most of the rest of the war on the run in Thailand (the location of the River Kwai).  And on one rare occasion while working in Thailand, we had a day off and we visited an outdoor museum containing miniature replicas of famous structures around the world.  It is strange seeing an exact replica, in miniature, of the bridge on the River Kwai nestled next to such things as the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower.  But this was in Thailand.

The Questions:

#	Question	Bible Reference	Answer
1	What is the river that is often associated with the border of one of the nations descended from Lot, first mentioned when the Israelites camped next to the river and their king, Balak tried to get Balaam to curse them?
2	What river dries up after the angel pours out the sixth bowl?
3	While this place name is used as a region, spring, and river in the Garden of Eden, winding through Cush (thus possibly in Ethiopia and not the same as the spring), the spring is what Hezekiah blocked the outlet and channeled the water to the west side of Jerusalem.  What spring that is also a river in the Garden of Eden?
4	What river was forded by all Jacob’s family, servants and possessions, leaving Jacob to wrestle a man until the sun came up?
5	What river dried up for people to cross?  Actually three times, but the first led to the fall of Jericho soon after.
6	What river was Ezekiel next to when he saw his first vision?
7	In Deborah’s song, she claims this river, which is in the Valley of Jezreel washed away the enemy?
8	In Pharoah’s dream, he was beside what river?
9	In the only mention of this river and this place name, the river winds through Havilah.  Which of the rivers of the Garden of Eden was this?
10	Which river was Daniel beside when he had a dream of a great war?

Two bonus questions:

First bonus question: There are only two of these rivers mentioned by name in the New Testament, which of these rivers?

Second bonus question: Take the answers of the ten questions above and rearrange them in order of their number of mentions in the NIV.  Note: for one of these rivers, it is how many times the name is mentioned.  Once as a river.  Twice as a spring.  And thrice as a location, probably near the spring.

The second of the two bonus questions is important in considering the NIV.  If this were the KJV, or many of the English language Bibles of those centuries around the KJV translation, there will be no references to one of the often-mentioned rivers in the Bible.  The river was a false god for the people from there.  I heard a pastor preach about how the KJV had no mentions of the word, and he proposed that a false god getting several mentions should not be made, detracting from the One true God.  The verses are translated, but all references just say “the river.”  With the location of what is going on, it is obvious which river, and a little strange that the KJV could not print the word.

I suppose that these early English language translations were in denial.  Now if that is not a hint, I have no idea what a hint is!

Bible References:

#	Question	Bible Reference	Answer
1	What is the river that is often associated with the border of one of the nations descended from Lot, first mentioned when the Israelites camped next to the river and their king, Balak tried to get Balaam to curse them?	Numbers 21:13-Numbers 22
2	What river dries up after the angel pours out the sixth bowl?	Revelation 16:12
3	While this place name is used as a region, spring, and river in the Garden of Eden, winding through Cush (thus possibly in Ethiopia and not the same as the spring), the spring is what Hezekiah blocked the outlet and channeled the water to the west side of Jerusalem.  What spring that is also a river in the Garden of Eden?	2 Chronicles 32:30
4	What river was forded by all Jacob’s family, servants and possessions, leaving Jacob to wrestle a man until the sun came up?	Genesis 32:22
5	What river dried up for people to cross?  Actually three times, but the first led to the fall of Jericho soon after.	Joshua 3:1
6	What river was Ezekiel next to when he saw his first vision?	Ezekiel 1:1
7	In Deborah’s song, she claims this river, which is in the Valley of Jezreel washed away the enemy?	Judges 5:21
8	In Pharoah’s dream, he was beside what river?	Genesis 41:1
9	In the only mention of this river and this place name, the river winds through Havilah.  Which of the rivers of the Garden of Eden was this?	Genesis 2:11
10	Which river was Daniel beside when he had a dream of a great war?	Daniel 10:4

While I recognize the names of these rivers when mentioned, I would have a hard time with this quiz.  As a river, two of the rivers in the Garden of Eden are only mentioned once, with the one of them naming a spring, probably receiving the name in honor of the river.

One of the rivers was mentioned in connection with another of these rivers in Sunday school classes from the time I was born until I was an adult.  It was like the two rivers are twins and always mentioned together.  Yet, the two rivers are only connected once.  And while one of these rivers is mentioned many times, the other of the two rivers is only mentioned one other time.  I was shocked after hearing the two rivers mentioned together so often in my youth.

Another of these rivers is mentioned eight times, but all eight times in one book of the Bible.

Oh, and another hint, the answers are in alphabetical order as spelled in the NIV.  One of the rivers starts with a “K” in the NIV while other translations use “Ch.”

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

#	Question	Bible Reference	Answer
1	What is the river that is often associated with the border of one of the nations descended from Lot, first mentioned when the Israelites camped next to the river and the king of that country, Balak tried to get Balaam to curse them?	Numbers 21:13-Numbers 22	Arnon
2	What river dries up after the angel pours out the sixth bowl?	Revelation 16:12	Euphrates
3	While this place name is used as a region, spring, and river in the Garden of Eden, winding through Cush (thus possibly in Ethiopia and not the same as the spring), the spring is what Hezekiah blocked the outlet and channeled the water to the west side of Jerusalem.  What spring that is also a river in the Garden of Eden?	2 Chronicles 32:30	Gihon
4	What river was forded by all Jacob’s family, servants and possessions, leaving Jacob to wrestle a man until the sun came up?	Genesis 32:22	Jabbok
5	What river dried up for people to cross?  Actually three times, but the first led to the fall of Jericho soon after.	Joshua 3:1	Jordan
6	What river was Ezekiel next to when he saw his first vision?	Ezekiel 1:1	Kebar, but some translations use Chebar.
7	In Deborah’s song, she claims this river, which is in the Valley of Jezreel, washed away the enemy?	Judges 5:21	Kishon
8	In Pharoah’s dream, he was beside what river?	Genesis 41:1	Nile
9	In the only mention of this river and this place name, the river winds through Havilah.  Which of the rivers of the Garden of Eden was this?	Genesis 2:11	Pishon
10	Which river was Daniel beside when he had a dream of a great war?	Daniel 10:4	Tigris

Bonus questions:

First bonus question: The two rivers from this quiz that are mentioned in the New Testament are the Jordan River and the Euphrates River.  Being a significant river in the ministry of Jesus, the Jordan is obvious.  The Euphrates, the answer to question 2, using Revelation, is only mentioned twice in the New Testament, both times in the book of Revelation.

Second bonus question: The list of rivers in order of most mentioned in the NIV:

Jordan (186 times)
Euphrates (52 times)
Nile (33 times)
Arnon (23 times)
Kebar (8 times)
Jabbok (7 times)
Gihon (6 times)
Kishon (5 times)
Tigris (2 times)
Pishon (once)

And the mystery river never mentioned in the KJV?  The KJV was in denial about … the Nile.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, not so well, here is The River sung by the David Wesley Virtual Choir, featuring Brian Doerksen.  Brian Doerksen is a composer of the song.

And then we have the Gaither Vocal Band (in this video: Guy Penrod, Russ Taff, David Phelps, and Bill Gaither – maybe 2001-2004), There is a River.

Or maybe The Rivers of Babylon, sung and ‘performed’ by Boney M.

Here is One More River sung by the Gaither Homecoming crowd with solos by Woody Wright, Bob Cain, Stephen Hill, and Guy Penrod.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.