PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. the hearts of the children of men?" Job says, "Man drinketh iniquity like water;" chap xг. 16. And Elihu charges him with "drinking up scorning like water;" chap. xxxiv. 7 The same image occurs in Solomon, Prov. xxvi. 6: "He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool drinketh damage." In Job xv. 34 it is said, "Fire shall consume the tabernacle of bribery." The same turt of thought occurs Prov. xv. 27: "He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live." Both speak of weighing the spirits or winds. See Job xxviii. 25; Prov. xvi. But to me the parallelism in these cases is not evident, as both the reason of the saying, and some of the terms in the original, are different. Job tells his friends, "If they would hold their peace, it would be their wisdom;" chap. xiii. 5. Solomon has the same sentiment in nearly the same words, Prov. xvii. 28: "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise; and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.' Solomon represents the rephaim or giants as in hell, or the great deep; Prov. ii. 18, ix. 18, vii. 27. The like sentiment is in Job xxvi. 5. See the Hebrew. In Job xxvii. 16, 17, it is said that " If the wicked heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver." The like sentiment is found, Prov. xxviii. 8: "He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather for him that will pity the poor." "Solomon says, Prov. xvi. 18: "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall:" and, "Before destruction the heart of man is haughty; and before honour is humility;" xviii. 12: and, “A man's pride shall bring him low; but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit." The same sentiment is expressed in Job xxii. 29: "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is a lifting up; and he shall save the humble person." Both speak nearly in the same way concerning the creation of the earth and the sea. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?-Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth as if it had issued from the womb?" Job xxxviii. 4-8. This seems a reference to the flood. In Prov. viii. 22-29 Wisdom says: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way—when as yet he had not made the earth-when he gave to the sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth." These are precisely the same kind of conceptions, and nearly the same phraseology. In Job xx. 7 it is said, "The wicked shall perish for ever, like his own DUNG." And in Prov. x. 7 it is said, "The name of the wicked shall ROT." It would not be difficult to enlarge this list of correspondences by a collation of passages in Job and in Proverbs; but most of them will occur to the attentive reader. There is, however, another class of evidence that appears still more forcible, viz.: There are several terms used frequently in the Book of Job and in the Books of Solomon which are almost peculiar to those books, and which argue an identity of authorship. The noun n tushiyah, which may signify essence, substance, reality, completeness, occurs in Job and Proverbs. See Job v. 12, vi. 13, xi. 6, xii. 16, xxvi. 3, and xxx. 22; Proverbs ii. 7, iii. 21, viii. 14, and xviii. 1. And it occurs only twice, as far as I can recollect, in all the Bible besides; viz., Isai. xxviii. 29, and Mic. vi. 9. The word n havvah, used in the sense of misfortune, ruinous downfal, calamity, occurs Job vi. 2, 30, xxx. 13, and in Prov. x. 3, xi. 6, xvii. 4, and xix. 13. It occurs nowhere else, except once in Ezek. vii. 26, once in Micah vii. 3, and a few times in the Psalms, v. 9, lii. 2, 7, Īv. 12, xci. 3, xciv. 20, xxxvii. 12, and 1xii. 3. The word mann tachbuloth, wise counsels, occurs only in Job xxxvii. 12, and in Prov. i. 5, xi. 14, xii. 5, xx. 18, and xxiv. 6; and nowhere else in the Bible in this form. And potheh, the silly one, simpleton, fool, is used precisely in the same sense in Job v. 2, Prov. xix. 7, and in various other parts of the same Book. The word 8, abaddon, destruction, Job xxvi. 6, xxviii. 22, xxxi. 12, connected sometimes with 8 sheol, hell, or the grave; and maveth, death, occurs as above, and in Prov. xv. 11, and xxvii. 20. Calmet, who refers to several of the above places, adds: It would be easy to collect a great number of similar parallel passages; but it must make a forcible impression in favour of this opinion when we observe in Job and Proverbs the same principles, the same sentiments, the same terms, and some that are found only in Job and Solomon. We may add farther, the beauty of the style, the sublimity of the thoughts, the dignity of the matter, the form and order in which the materials of this writer are laid down, the vast erudition and astonishing fecundity of genius, all of which perfectly characterize Solomon. Besides the above, we find many forms of expression in this book which prove that its PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. author had a knowledge of the law of God, and many which show that he was acquainted with the Psalms of David, and a few very like what we find in the writings of the prophets. I shall insert a few more: Job xv. 27: Because he covereth his face with fatness. Job xxxiv. 14: If he set his heart upon man, he shall gather unto himself his spirit and his breath. Job. xxi. 9: Their houses are safe from fear; neither is the rod of God upon them. Job xxi. 10: Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. Job xxi. 18: They (the wicked) are as stubble before the wind; and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. Job xxii. 19: The righteous see it, and are glad; and the innocent laugh them to scorn. Job xxxviii. 41: Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God. Job xii. 21: He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty. Job iii. 3: Let the day perish in which I was born; and the night in which it was said, There is a manchild conceived. See also chap. x. 18. Job xxi. 7: Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, and are mighty in power? Job xxviii. 12: But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding? 13: Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. Ps. xvii. 10: They are inclosed in their own fut. lxxiii. 7: Their eyes stand out with fatness. Ps. civ. 29: Thou hidest thy face, and they are troubled thou takest away their breath; they die, and return to their dust. Ps. lxxiii. 5: They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Ps. cxliv. 13, 14: Let our sheep bring forth thousands;-and our oxen be strong to labour. Ps. i. 4: The ungodly are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Ps. lviii. 10: The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Ps. cxlvii. 9: He giveth to the beast his food; and to the young ravens which cry. Ps. cvii. 40: He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness. Jer. xv. 10: Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me, a man of strife. xx. 14, 15: Cursed be the day wherein I was born-let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. Jer. xii. 1, 2: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? they grow; yea, they bring forth fruit. Collate these verses with Baruch iii. 14, 15, 29, and see Prov. i. 20-23, ii. 2—7, iii. 13—18, iv. 5—9, viii. 10—35. The remarkable sentiment that "God, as Sovereign of the world, does treat the righteous and the wicked, independently of their respective merits, with a similar lot in this life, and that like events often happen to both," is maintained in the Book of Job and the Ecclesiastes of Solomon. Job ix. 22-24: "He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where and who is he?" x. 15: “If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head." ix. 15: "Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer; I would make supplication to my Judge." xii. 6: "The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.' xxi. 7-9: Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them." Similar sentiments, with a great similarity of expression, are found in the following passages from Solomon. Eccles. vi. 8: "For what hath the wise more than the fool?" viii. 14: "There be just men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked. Again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous." ix. 2: "All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not. As is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath." vii. 15: "There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness." I may conclude this with the words of a learned translator of the Book of Job, and apply in reference to Solomon what he applies to Moses: "The specimens of resemblance now produced have an equal claim to originality, and seem very powerfully to establish an unity of authorship." I think the argument much stronger in favour of Solomon as its author than of Moses and while even here I hesitate, I must enter my protest against the conclusions drawn by others; and especially those who profess to show where David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, &c., have copied and borrowed from Job? Some of them, in all probability, never saw the book; and those who did had an inspiration, dignity, manner, and power of their own, that rendered it quite unnecessary to borrow from him. Such plagiarism would appear, in common cases, neither requisite nor graceful. I have a high opinion of the Book of Job, but God forbid that I should ever bring it on a level with the compositions of PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. the sweet singer of Israel, the inimitable threnodies of Jeremiah, or the ultra-sublime effusions of the evangelical prophet. Let each keep his place, and let God be acknowledged as the inspirer of all. Thus, by exactly the same process, we come to different conclusions; for the evidence is now as strong that Job lived posterior to the days of Moses; that he was acquainted with the Law and the Prophets; that either he took much from the Psalms and Proverbs, or that Darid and Solomon borrowed much from him; or that Solomon, the son of David, wrote the history; as it is that he lived in the days of Moses. For my own part, I think the later date by far the most probable; and although I think the arguments that go to prove Solomon to be the author are weightier than those so skilfully brought forth by learned men in behalf of Moses, yet I think it possible that it was the work of neither, but rather of some learned Idumean, well acquainted with the Jewish religion and writers; and I still hold the opinion which I formed more than thirty years ago, when I read over this book in the Septuagint, and afterwards in the Hebrew, that it is most probable the work was originally composed in Arabic, and afterwards translated into Hebrew by a person who either had not the same command of the Hebrew as he had of the Arabic, or else purposely affected the Arabic idiom, retaining many Arabic words and Arabisms; either because he could not find appropriate expressions in the Hebrew, or because he wished to adorn and enrich the one language by borrowing copiously from the other. The Hebrew of the Book of Job differs as much from the pure Hebrew of Moses and the early prophets, as the Persian of Ferdoosy differs from that of Saady. Both these were Persian poets; the former wrote in the simplicity and purity of his elegant native language, adopting very few Arabic words; while the latter labours to introduce them at every turn, and has thus produced a language neither Persian nor Arabic. And so prevalent is this custom become with all Persian writers, both in prose and verse, that the pure Persian becomes daily more and more corrupted, insomuch that there is reason to fear that in process of time it will be swallowed up in the language of the conquerors of that country, in which it was formerly esteemed the most polished language of Asia. Such influence has the language of a conqueror on the country he has subdued; witness our own, where a paltry French phraseology, the remnant of one of the evils brought upon us by our Norman conqueror and tyrant, has greatly weakened the strong current of our mother tongue; so that, however amalgamated, filed, and polished by eminent authors, we only speak a very tolerable jargon, enriched, as we foolishly term it, by the spoils of other tongues. The best specimen of our ancient language exists in the Lord's prayer, which is pure English, or what is called Anglo Saxon, with the exception of three frenchified words, trespasses, temptation, and deliver. But to return to the Book of Job. The collections of Mr. Good, Dr. Magee, and others, if they do not prove that Moses was the author of the book, prove that the author was well acquainted with the Mosaic writings; and prove that he was also acquainted with the ninetieth Psalm; and this last circumstance will go far to prove that he lived after the days of David, for we have no evidence whatever that the ninetieth Psalm was published previously to the collection and publication of the Psalms now generally termed the Psalms of David, though many of them were written by other hands, and not a few even after the Babylonish captirity. And, as to the inscription to this Psalm, non non tephillah Mosheh ish haelohim, "A prayer of Moses, the man of God;" 1. We know not that Moses the Jewish Lawgiver is meant: it might be another person of the same name. 2. And even in that case it does not positively state that this Moses was the author of it. 3. The inscriptions to the Psalms are of dubious, and many of them of no authority: some of them evidently misplaced; and others either bearing no relation to the matter of the Psalms to which they are prefixed, or evidently contradictory to that matter. Hence our translators have considered these inscriptions as of no authority; and have not admitted them, in any case, into the body of their respective Psalms. The parallelism, therefore, drawn from this Psalm, will not help much to prove that Moses was the author of the Book of Job; but it will go far to prove, as will be seen in other cases, that the author of this book was acquainted with the Book of Psalms, as several of the preceding collections testify; and that there is a probability that he had read the Prophets that lived and wrote in the time, and after the time, of the Babylonish captivity, which appears to me the only thing that shakes the argument in favour of Solomon; unless we take the converse of the question, and say that Moses, David, Salomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, all knew and borrowed from the Book of Job. But this supposition will, in its turn, be shaken by the consideration that there are several things in the Book of Job which evidently refer to the Law as already given, and to some of the PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. principal occurrences in the Israelitish history, if such references can be made out. These considerations have led me to think it probable that the book was written after the captivity by some unknown but highly eminent and inspired man. We may wonder, indeed, that the author of such an eminent work has not been handed down to posterity; and that the question should be left at the discretion of the whole limbus of conjecture; but we find, not only several books in the Bible, but also other works of minor importance and a later date, similarly circumstanced. We have no certain evidence of the author of the Books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, or Esther; we can, in reference to them, make probable conjectures, but this is all. Even in the New Testament the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is still unknown; though a pretty general tradition, and strong internal evidence, give it to St. Paul; yet this point is not so proved as to exclude all doubt. The finest poems of heathen antiquity, the Iliad and Odyssey, cannot be certainly traced to their author. Of the person called Homer, to whom they have been attributed, no one knows any thing. He is still, for aught we know, a fabulous person; and the relations concerning him are entitled to little more credit than is due to the Life of Esop by Planudes. Seven different cities have claimed the honour of being his birth-place. They are expressed in the following distich: Επτα πολεις διερίζουσι περὶ ῥιζαν ̔Ομηρου, Σμύρνα, Ρόδος, Κολοφων, Σαλαμις, Χιος, Άργος, Αθηναι. Nor have these claims ever been adjusted. Some have gone so far as to attribute the work to Solomon, king of Israel, composed after his defection from the true religion to idolatry! that the word Homer, 'Ounpos, Homeros, is merely Hebrew, omerim, with a Greek termination, signifying the sayings or discourses, from 8 amar, he spoke; the whole work being little more than the dialogues or conversations of the eminent characters of which it is composed. Even the battles of Homer are full of parleys; and the principal information conveyed by the poem is through the conversation of the respective chiefs. The Makamaton, or assemblies, of the celebrated Arabic author Hariri, show us how conversations were anciently carried on among the Arabs; and even in the same country in which the plan of the poem of Job is laid; and were we closely to compare the sex concessus of that author, published by Schultens, we might find many analogies between them and the turn of conversation in the Book of Job. But the uncertainty relative to the author detracts nothing from the merit and excellency of the poem. As it is the most singular, so it is the best, as a whole, in the Hebrew canon. It exhibits a full view of the opinions of the eastern sages on the most important points; not only their religion and system of morals are frequently introduced, but also their philosophy, astronomy, natural history, mineralogy, and arts and sciences in general; as well those that were ornamental, as those which ministered to the comforts and necessities of life. And on a careful examination, we shall probably find that several arts, which are supposed to be the discoveries of the moderns, were not unknown to those who lived in a very remote antiquity, and whom it is fashionable to consider as unlettered and uncultivated barbarians. As the person, family, time, and descendants of Job are so very uncertain, I shall not trouble my readers with the many genealogical tables which have been constructed by chronologists and commentators; yet it might be considered a defect were I not to notice what is inserted at the end of the Greek and Arabic Versions relative to this point; to which I shall add Dr. Kennicott's Tables, and the substance of a letter which contains some curious particulars. "And he (Job) dwelt in the land of Ausitis, in the confines of Idumea and Arabia; and his former name was Jobab. And he took to wife Arabissa, and begat a son whose name was Ennon. And his (Jobab's) father's name was Zarith, one of the sons of the children of Esau; and his mother's name was Bosora; and thus he was the fifth from Abraham." "And these are the kings who reigned in Edom; which region he also governed; the first was Balck, the son of Beor, the name of whose city was Dennaba. And after Balak reigned Jobab, who is also called Job. And after him Assom, the governor of the country of the Temanites. After him Adad, the son of Basad, who cut off Madian in the plain of Moab; and the name of his city was Gethaim." "The friends who came to visit him were Eliphaz, son of Sophan, of the children of Esau, king of the Temanites. Baldad, the son of Amnon, of Chobar, tyrant of the Sauchites. Sophar, king of the Minaites. Thaiman, son of Eliphaz, governor of the Idumeans.". PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. "This is translated from the Syriac copy. He dwelt in the land of Ausitis, on the borders of the Euphrates; and his former name was Jobab; and his father was Zareth, who came from the East." This is verbatim from the Codex Alexandrinus. The Arabic is not so circumstantial, but is the same in substance. "And Job dwelt in the land of Auz, between the boundaries of Edom and Arabia; and he was at first called Jobab. And he married a strange woman, and to her was born a son called Anun. But Job was the son of Zara, a descendant of the children of Esau, his mother's name was Basra, and he was the sixth from Abraham. Of the kings who reigned in Edom, the first who reigned over that land was Balak, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Danaba. And after him Jobab, the same who is called Job. And after Job, he (Assom) who was prince of the land of Teman. And after him (Adad) the son of Barak, he who slew and put to flight Madian, in the plains of Moab; and the name of his city was Jatham. And of the friends of Job who visited him was Eliphaz, the son of Esau, king of the Temanites." Dr. Kennicott says, When Job lived seems deducible from his being contemporary with Eliphaz, the Temanite, thus: The late Miss Mary Freeman Shepherd, well known for her strong masculine genius, and knowledge of various languages, sent me the following genealogy and remarks, which she thought would clearly ascertain the time of Job. I faithfully transcribe them from her letter to me, a short time before her death. "Shem, two years after the flood, begat Arphaxad and Uz, and also Aram Arphaxad begat Salah at Salah begat Eber at Eber begat Peleg at Peleg, in whose time the earth was divided, begat Reu at Reu begat Serug at Serug begat Nahor at Nahor begat Terah at Terah begat Abraham at Abraham begat Ishmael at eighty-six, Israel at Isaac married at forty, soon after, probably at forty-three, Esau and Jacob born 70 100 43 Jacob married at forty, had Reuben his first-born, and Levi born of Leah, by the time he was forty-four 44 Levi begat Kohath, suppose at Kohath begat Amram, suppose at After the deluge 40 40 40 599 "Shem was the father of Aram, who gave his name to the Aramites, i. e., the Syrians; and he was the father of Uz, who gave his name to the land of Uz, in which JOB dwelt, not was born, for the text says, There was a man in the land of Uz, called Job. "In Gen. xlvi. 13, one of the sons of Issachar is named Job. In the genealogies of Numb. xxvi. 24, and in 1 Chron. vii. 1, he is called Jashub. It is remarkable that there is no mention in Chronicles of the sons of Jashub, or of any of the sons of Issachar, among the thousands of Israel, sons of Tola, where, might not Job be called Jashub? Mitzraim, i. e. Egypt, was a son of Ham; Uz and Aram, sons of Shem; Ishmael, by Hagar and Midian by Keturah, both sons to Abram. How well does this account for the nearness of the languages of these people, being scions from the same mother tongue! "Ishmael, the father of the tribes of Arabia; Arabic was, therefore, not their mother tongue. The roots of these languages germinated from the Hebrew roots, and so a new language sprang up, afterwards formed according to grammatic rules, and enriched as arts and sciences, and cultivated genius, added new inventions. Things new and unknown before gave rise to new words or names. Nouns, and the action, operation, and effects of arts and sciences, produced verbs or roots. Thus the Arabic became so copious and rich, and has roots not in the pure original Hebrew. All this considered, might not Moses have written the book of Job, as parts of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel were written, after the captivity, in a mixed language, in order that it might be the better understood by those for whom it was written; those of |