Job 1:1

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

PROLOGUE Chaps. 1, 2.

THE PIETY AND PROSPERITY OF JOB, Job 1:1-5.

1. There was a man These first words point to an historical basis for the ensuing work. Job bears the noble title of אישׁ , man, in contradistinction to אדם , “mean man.” Isaiah 2:9; Isaiah 5:15, etc. A similar distinction occurs in Latin between vir and homo; in Greek between ανηρ and ανθρωπος . In our own language man from the Sanscrit manu, originally a thinker, ( man, “to think,”) is, like אישׁ of the text, an honourable designation. “Human beings,” says Herodotus, “are many, but men are few.” Ezekiel (Ezekiel 14:14; Ezekiel 14:20) ranks Job, with Noah and Daniel, as highest types of our race.

The land of Uz So called, probably, from Uz, a son of Dishan, (Genesis 36:28,) and grandson of Seir. The translation of the word Uz by the Septuagint into Αυσιτις , Ausitis, has led some, on account of a supposed resemblance to the word Αισιται , AEsitae, the name of a tribe mentioned by Ptolemy, ( Geogr., Job 5:19,) and living in the Arabian desert west from Babylon, to fix upon the neighbourhood of Babylonia as the home of the patriarch. But little reliance, however, can be placed upon this fanciful philology, and as little upon Moslem traditions, which induce others to look for the country of Job in the Hauran, (Delitzsch,) or East Hauran, (Zockler,) a province east of the Jordan, and stretching southward from Damascus, being a part of the ancient kingdom of Bashan. The recent commentator Hitzig, after a long and laboured but unsatisfactory argument, based upon ancient idolatrous worship, locates Uz in the hill district of Tulul, which upon the west is bounded by the mountain range of Hauran.

We rather accord with the ancient opinion, according to which Uz lay in the northern part of Arabia, and, comprehending Edom, (as intimated in Lamentations 4:21,) extended toward the Euphrates, for the most part corresponding to the Arabia Petraea of classical geography. In support of this we may note, 1. That Job was the greatest of all the men of the East; that is, of the bene Kedem, one of the nations of Arabia. “The sons of the East,” says Gesenius, ( Thesaurus, page 1193,) “are the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta, which extends from the east of Palestine to the Euphrates.” (See note on Job 1:3.) The Scriptures help us in determining their residence, for we learn from Genesis 25:4; Genesis 25:6, that Abraham sent among others the sons of Midian “eastward unto the east country;” and from Judges 6:3, that subsequently the Midianites and the Amalekites were in confederacy with “the children of the East;” and from Isaiah 11:14, that God linked “them of the East” with Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, in one common though dissimilar doom. From the remarkable association of these nations with “the children of the East” in these and similar passages, we are justified in concluding that Job must have lived somewhere between Egypt and the Euphrates, and to the south or south-east of Palestine. 2. The sole scriptures, other than that of our text, that speak of Uz as a country, associate it with Edom, (Lamentations 4:21, and Jeremiah 25:20,) though in the latter case other nations are also mentioned. The latter of these passages does not conflict with the conclusion from the former, that Uz was the more extensive country and included Edom. Then, too, the grandson of Seir the Horite, whose descendants dwelt in Edom, was called Uz. (Genesis 36:20-21; Genesis 36:28; Genesis 36:30-31.) As the neighbouring mountains received and transmitted the name of the grandparent, Seir, it stands in reason that the country of Edom should take the name of the grandson, Uz, though subsequently displaced by the name of Edom, (Idumea.) This view is strengthened by Deuteronomy 2:12, “The HORIM also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them [margin, inherited them] when they had destroyed them,” etc. The relatives of this Uz evidently dwelt in Seir and the adjacent country, until driven out by the children of Esau. 3. This position agrees better with that of the countries where Job’s friends lived than any other hypothesis; nor is the objection of its distance from Chaldaea a serious difficulty. (See note on Job 1:17.) It would also account for the great knowledge of Egypt displayed by Job, since it also lay not far from one of the most ancient caravan routes, whose starting point was Egypt. It harmonizes, also, with the mention of Jordan in Job 40:23, and of Canaanitish merchants in Job 41:6. Job 41:4. If tradition be appealed to, the statement in the supplement to the Septuagint, on the authority of the Syriac Book, that Job “dwelt in the land of Ausis, (Uz,) on the borders of Idumea and Arabia,” is worthy of quite as much consideration as the sites of monasteries, (J.G. Wetzstein,) or the fact that the sepulchre of Job is also pointed out in the Hauran, since four other places also lay claim to his tomb.

Whose name was Job איוב , iyyob. The origin of this name is exceedingly uncertain. The more general view is that of our older lexicographers, who rendered it persecuted, on the supposition that the word is a passive form of the verb איב , ayab, to hate, or attack. A serious objection against such a derivation is, that the kittol form, in which the word is, has an active or a neuter signification, and exceedingly rarely a passive meaning, (such as, for instance, yillodh, born,) so that the probabilities would be quite as great that the word “iyob” would be rendered “persecutor” as “persecuted.” The more plausible view is that which finds in the word the idea of penitence, although Zockler (in Lange) thinks that both views are equally admissible. On the hypothesis that the book is of great antiquity, we should be justified in seeking the origin of the word in the Arabic, as in those ancient times this language was closely allied to the Hebrew, furnishing the latter language with many of its roots and archaic forms. The Arabic aba, to turn, return, is near akin to the Hebrew oub, (cognate with shoub,) signifying also to turn; thence as a noun, one who turns back (to God) or repents. This view is held by Eichhorn, Rosenmuller, Ewald, Delitzsch, and Dillmann, among others. A somewhat similar name, יוב , Job, was borne by the third son of Issachar, Genesis 46:13; and an Edomite king, Jobab, is spoken of in Genesis 36:33. This name corresponds with the Greek name of Job, as cited in the supplement to the Septuagint.

Perfect and upright תם וישׁר . These words express, as nearly as possible, the sense of the original. The Jewish idea, (for instance that of Rabbi Solomon, reappearing in Ewald and Henry,) that the perfection of Job consisted simply in “sincerity” or “innocency of heart,” is incomplete, presenting but one side of a many-sided prism. The word “perfect,” like the crystal of the prism, is generic, and contemplates the moral being as a whole, rather than in specific traits. Wherever this work of faith manifests itself, whether amid the mountains of Idumea or the distractions of camp-life, as with the two Roman centurions, or under Christ’s direct disclosure of himself, as to a Saul of Tarsus, it is the work of God, deep, radical, and superinduced upon the nature of man by the Spirit of God. This perfection was not inconsistent with infirmities, errors of judgment, and perhaps derelictions of the heart, as is exemplified in Job’s own case; for which, through accepted faith, the unknown mediation of Christ may as truly avail in behalf of a Job, as the known, avails for us. Thus saints may ripen for heaven in other folds than that of Israel or of Christendom, and the words of Peter be verified: “In every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10:35. Job’s perfection could not, more than ours, stand complete in the presence of the Absolute Perfection, and so needed, like ours, the mediation.