Who Said It? -- Old Testament Quotes Quiz

Answer: Cain

The question "am I my brother's keeper?" was asked by Cain when Scripture says the LORD wanted to know the whereabouts of Abel. Cain, of course, had murdered his brother after a severe case of jealousy. Cain's statement is often used to reflect the view no one should be responsible for the welfare of others.

However, the statement has also been turned around and has given birth to the term 'my brother's keeper'. The term 'my brother's keeper' has been incorporated into everything from the title of a movie to a Christian organization involved in helping the impoverished.

Answer: Abraham

Abraham made the statement to his son Isaac when they were ascending a mountain to make an offering to the LORD, even though they did not have an offering with them. According to Scripture, the LORD had commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as an offering and this is exactly what Abraham had planned to do. Just as Abraham was preparing to sacrifice Isaac, Scripture reports an angel of the LORD called out and told him to spare his son because it was evident Abraham feared God.

After the angel called out, Abraham spotted a ram in the thicket and used it as his sacrificial offering.

The story is told in the 22nd chapter of Genesis. Many Christians compare this episode to God's sacrifice of His own son, Jesus, in the New Testament.

Answer: Sarah

Sarah made the statement after she gave birth to her son Isaac. According to Genesis 17:7, Abraham was one hundred years old and Sarah was ninety. After making the statement, "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me," Sarah is quoted as saying in Genesis 21:7, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age."

The account of the birth of Isaac is followed by the abandonment and departure of Hagar and Ishmael. According to Scripture, Hagar was a maid for Sarah and she had given permission to Abraham to sleep with her to produce children as she was unable to conceive at the time.

Answer: Moses

The statement was made by Moses, who was selected by the LORD to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. The LORD knew Moses would be an ideal leader of the people, but Moses had a totally different opinion, it seems. When Moses protested his selection by saying he was "slow of speech and slow of tongue", the LORD replied in Exodus 4:11, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."

Answer: Job

Job is the correct answer with the quote coming from Job 1:21. Job, of course, is synonymous with patience and long suffering. His world was turned upside down and inside out when a series of severe calamities beset him, as documented in the book of Job. Scripture tells of Job being visited by his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu. And while the friends had intended to comfort Job, it appears they only succeeded in making things worse with their pointing of fingers. Job, however, refused to point fingers at God for his predicament.

The book ends with Job's fortunes changing dramatically for the better. Job 42:12-13, in the NKJV, states: "Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.

He also had seven sons and three daughters."

Answer: Esther

The correct answer is Esther. She made the statement after her cousin Mordecai asked her to intervene and to convince the king to stop Haman from carrying out a diabolical plan to kill all the Jews in the kingdom. (The king is known as Ahasuerus in the KJV and the NKV and as Xerxes in the NIV.)

In Esther 4:14, Mordecai is quoted as telling Esther about the consequences if she does not intervene: "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

In Esther 4:15-16, the queen responds: "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!"

Esther and Mordecai were successful in their mission and Haman, the evil mastermind of the planned genocide, ended up being hanged on gallows he had constructed to kill Mordecai.

Answer: Joshua

Joshua made the statement in Joshua 24:15. According to Scripture, Joshua was advanced in age when he made the statement. The Israelites had officially taken ownership of Canaan, known as The Promised Land, and Joshua had called the tribes together for a key meeting in Shechem. To put the verse in context, here's how it reads with the preceding verse, Joshua 24:14: "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Answer: Nathan

Nathan, a prophet of God, told the parable to David. According to the 12th chapter of 2 Samuel, Nathan used the parable to make David aware of the seriousness of his sinning when he had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and then made arrangements for the murder of her husband. Nathan than made the pronouncement that the child who would be born as a result of the adulterous affair would die, and sure enough it came to pass.

Incidentally, it was Nathan who told an elderly and frail David of the plot of Adonijah to become king.

The end result is that Solomon became king, as per 1 Kings 1:8-45. Solomon, of course, was a son of David and Bathsheba.

Answer: David

David uttered the statement when he battled Goliath with a slingshot. His slaying of the Philistine giant is one of the best known stories of the Old Testament. David's triumph over Goliath appears in the 17th chapter of 1 Samuel. Prior to battle, Scripture states David chose five smooth stones for his slingshot, but it appears all he needed was one. 1 Samuel 17:49, in the NKJV Bible states: "Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth."

Here's the entire statement David made as he entered battle with Goliath, as per 1 Samuel 17:45-47: "Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD'S, and He will give you into our hands."

Answer: Solomon

Solomon, of course, is the correct answer. According to the third chapter of 1 Kings, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream when the request was made.

The request was answered and then some. 1 Kings 3:10-14, states: "God said to him: 'Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."