Someone asked me this and I’m stumped:
Son, “here I am”. This is a famous biblical quote. Where is it from and who said it to whom.
It is stated in several conversations (it’s repeated at least twice) between Abraham and Isaac. Abraham calls for Isaac and he responds “here I am.”
I saw that one but I also found other passages that qualify. Like when Isaac is blind and calls for Esau and realizes he blessed the wrong child, when God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and when God first speaks to Moses.
Does anyone know if that quote is most commonly ascribed to a particular passage and why?
What’s the quote? Can you put the actual quote in quotation marks?
That’s exactly what was emailed to me.
That would be my assumption as well.
Note that Son, “here I am”. is not grammatically correct any way you look at it. The emailer either:
a) got the quotation mark in the wrong place and it’s supposed to be “Son, here I am”
b) meant “[Son,] here I am.”
The NIV version of the Abraham/Isaac thing says “My son.” “Here I am”
If the emailer meant option “a”, he may be referring to a different version of the bible or he may have gotten the quote slightly wrong.
Option “b” would work.
I don’t think it is any of the Samuel passages. The only time “son” appears before “here I am”, is in 1 Samuel 16: but Eli called him and said, Samuel, my son." Samuel answered, “Here I am.” That could work, but it’s a bit more of a stretch.
From Genesis 22:
- Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
- Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
-
But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
Verse 7 is probably what you want.
Forgive my ignorance, but is the significance of any of these quotes related to the idea that the name of Abraham’s God means “I am”?
No, all of the proffered quotes here are from humans, who are essentially trying to say, “Present and attentive, Dude!”
Yeah, but in some cases those humans are speaking to the Big Dude. Could they be saying, in fact, “Here, I am” the way Bart might say, “Yo, Homer.”
There’s also Isaiah 6:8:
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
I’m not sure I get your point there. I was being a bit snappy there. I assume that the actual person was using a more reverent tone.