This painting forms part of a series of panels of Old Testament characters that also include Adam and Eve, Joshua and the prophets Ezekiel and and Elias. It may originally have decorated the screen or gallery of a church or private house. It is typical of the plainer style of church decoration that prevailed after the Reformation from about 1540 onwards. The surface was no longer embellished with rich gilding and intricate two-dimensional patterns. The purpose of such panels was didactic rather than devotional. Simple images, large text and the use of English rather than Latin made the stories accessible to a wide range of people, many of whom were neither well- educated nor literate.

The panels almost certainly come from the south-west of England. The figures are similar to those on a painted ceiling at Muchelney Abbey and in plasterwork at Montacute House, both in Somerset. The lettering is similar to inscriptions on walls of the Dorset churches of Puddletown and Cerne Abbas. The panels were purchased in 1914 from a dealer from Lynmouth, Devon, by the name of T. Charbonnier. There was a strong tradition in south-western England in the early 17th century of portraying figures of this kind with associated texts in plasterwork. This panel, one of a group of 25 in the V&A, is a rare surviving example of the tradition executed in paint on panel.

From about 1590 stories from the Old Testament supplied popular decorative themes in domestic and church settings in the West Country. Examples include Prideaux Place (1590s -1630s) and Lanydrock (1630s), Cornwall, and the parish church of Widecombe in the Moor, Devon.