In their own words — 2791 recorded sayings
The recorded words of the people of scripture. Search by speaker or by what they said.
“Then the king made answer and said to the man of God, Make a prayer now for the grace of the Lord your God, and for me, that my hand may be made well. And in answer to the prayer of the man of God, the king's hand was made well again, as it was before. And the king said to the man of God, Come with me to my house for food and rest, and I will give you a reward.”— Jeroboam, 1 Kings 13:6-7
“And Jeroboam said to his wife, Now come, put on different clothing so that you may not seem to be the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; see, Ahijah is there, the prophet who said I would be king over this people. And take with you ten cakes of bread and dry cakes and a pot of honey, and go to him: he will give you word of what is to become of the child.”— Jeroboam, 1 Kings 14:2-3
“Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your children here? And he said, There is still the youngest, and he is looking after the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and make him come here: for we will not take our seats till he is here.”— Jesse, 1 Samuel 16:11
“And Jesse said to his son David, Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dry grain and these ten cakes of bread, and go quickly with them to the tents to your brothers; And take these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are and come back with a sign to say how they are.”— Jesse, 1 Samuel 17:17-18
“And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that you have come back so quickly today?”— Jethro, Exodus 2:18
“And he said to his daughters, Where is he? why have you let the man go? make him come in and give him a meal.”— Jethro, Exodus 2:20
“And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.”— Jethro, Exodus 4:18
“And he said to Moses, I, your father-in-law, have come to you, with your wife and your two sons.”— Jethro, Exodus 18:6
“And Jethro said, Praise be to the Lord, who has taken you out of the hand of Pharaoh and out of the hand of the Egyptians; freeing the people from the yoke of the Egyptians. Now I am certain that the Lord is greater than all gods, for he has overcome them in their pride.”— Jethro, Exodus 18:10-11
“And when Moses' father-in-law saw all he was doing, he said, What is this you are doing for the people? why are you seated here by yourself, with all the people waiting before you from morning till evening?”— Jethro, Exodus 18:14
“And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good. Your strength and that of the people will be completely used up: this work is more than you are able to do by yourself. Give ear now to my suggestion, and may God be with you: you are to be the people's representative before God, taking their causes to him: Teaching them his rules and his laws, guiding them in the way they have to go, and making clear to them the work they have to do. But for the rest, take from among the people able men, such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly made; and put such men…”— Jethro, Exodus 18:17-23
“Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”— Jezebel, 1 Kings 19:2
“But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is your spirit so bitter that you have no desire for food?”— Jezebel, 1 Kings 21:5
“Then Jezebel, his wife, said, Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, take food, and let your heart be glad; I will give you the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite.”— Jezebel, 1 Kings 21:7
“And in the letter she said, Let a time of public sorrow be fixed, and put Naboth at the head of the people; And get two good-for-nothing persons to come before him and give witness that he has been cursing God and the king. Then take him out and have him stoned to death.”— Jezebel, 1 Kings 21:9-10
“Then Jezebel, hearing that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, said to Ahab, Get up and take as your heritage the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he would not give you for money, for Naboth is no longer living but is dead.”— Jezebel, 1 Kings 21:15
“And when Jehu was coming into the town, she said, Is all well, O Zimri, taker of your master's life?”— Jezebel, 2 Kings 9:31
“And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men give a test of their strength before us. And Joab said, Let them do so.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 2:14
“And Joab said, By the living God, if you had not given the word, the people would have gone on attacking their countrymen till the morning.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 2:27
“Then Joab came to the king, and said, What have you done? when Abner came to you why did you send him away and let him go? Is it not clear to you that Abner, the son of Ner, came with deceit to get knowledge of your going out and your coming in and of all you are doing?”— Joab, 2 Samuel 3:24-25
“And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then you are to come to my help; but if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help. Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for the towns of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 10:11-12
“And he gave orders to the man who took the news, saying, After you have given the king all the news about the war, If the king is angry and says, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall? Who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall? Then say to him, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is among the dead.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 11:19-21
“And Joab sent men to David, saying, I have made war against Rabbah and have taken the water-town. So now, get the rest of the people together, and put them in position against the town and take it, for if I take it, it will be named after my name.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 12:27-28
“And Joab sent to Tekoa and got from there a wise woman, and said to her, Now make yourself seem like one given up to grief, and put on the clothing of sorrow, not using any sweet oil for your body, but looking like one who for a long time has been weeping for the dead: And come to the king and say these words to him. So Joab gave her words to say.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 14:2-3
“Then Joab, falling down on his face on the earth, gave the king honour and blessing; and Joab said, Today it is clear to your servant that I have grace in your eyes, my lord king, because the king has given effect to the request of his servant.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 14:22
“Then Joab came to Absalom in his house and said to him, Why have your servants put my field on fire?”— Joab, 2 Samuel 14:31
“And Joab said to the man who had given him the news, If you saw this, why did you not put your sword through him, and I would have given you ten bits of silver and a band for your robe?”— Joab, 2 Samuel 18:11
“Then Joab said, I would have made it safe for you. And he took three spears in his hand, and put them through Absalom's heart, while he was still living, in the branches of the tree.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 18:14
“And Joab said, You will take no news today; another day you may give him the news, but you will take no news today, because the king's son is dead. Then Joab said to the Cushite, Go and give the king word of what you have seen. And the Cushite, making a sign of respect to Joab, went off running. Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said to Joab again, Whatever may come of it, let me go after the Cushite. And Joab said, Why have you a desire to go, my son, seeing that you will get no reward for your news?”— Joab, 2 Samuel 18:20-22
“Whatever may come of it, he said, I will go. Then he said to him, Go. So Ahimaaz went running by the lowland road and overtook the Cushite.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 18:23
“And Joab came into the house to the king and said, Today you have put to shame the faces of all your servants who even now have kept you and your sons and your daughters and your wives and all your women safe from death; For your haters, it seems, are dear to you, and your friends are hated. For you have made it clear that captains and servants are nothing to you: and now I see that if Absalom was living and we had all been dead today, it would have been right in your eyes. So get up now, and go out and say some kind words to your servants; for, by the Lord, I give you my oath, that if you do…”— Joab, 2 Samuel 19:5-7
“And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well, my brother? And with his right hand he took him by the hair of his chin to give him a kiss.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 20:9
“And he came near, and the woman said, Are you Joab? And he said in answer, I am. Then she said, Give ear to your servant's words. And he said, I am giving ear.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 20:17
“And Joab, answering her, said, Far, far be it from me to be a cause of death or destruction; Not so: but a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, Sheba, son of Bichri, by name, has taken up arms against the king, against David: give up this man only, and I will go away from the town. And the woman said to Joab, His head will be dropped over the wall to you.”— Joab, 2 Samuel 20:20-21
“And Joab said to the king, Whatever the number of the people, may the Lord make it a hundred times as much, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this thing?”— Joab, 2 Samuel 24:3
“And at the end of their days of feasting, Job sent and made them clean, getting up early in the morning and offering burned offerings for them all. For, Job said, It may be that my sons have done wrong and said evil of God in their hearts. And Job did this whenever the feasts came round.”— Job, Job 1:5
“With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; let the Lord's name be praised.”— Job, Job 1:21
“And he said to her, You are talking like one of the foolish women. If we take the good God sends us, are we not to take the evil when it comes? In all this Job kept his lips from sin.”— Job, Job 2:10
“Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world. That day--let it be dark; let not God take note of it from on high, and let not the light be shining on it; Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it. That night--let the thick dark take it; let it not have joy among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be sounded in it; Let it be cursed by those who…”— Job, Job 3:3-26
“If only my passion might be measured, and put into the scales against my trouble!”— Job, Job 6:2
Speaker attribution: Clear Bible MACULA (CC BY 4.0). Wording: Bible in Basic English (public domain).