Chapter III: The Descendants of Shem. Job

=1. The descendants of Shem= are next given: (a) ELAM was north of the Persian Gulf and east of the Tigris; Shushan was its capital in later times. (b) ASSHUR was the origin of the name Assyria. The Assyrian monuments show that Nineveh was built after Babylon, and that the Assyrians were a later people than the Babylonians and derived their literature from them, and also that they were a Shemitic nation. (c) ARPHAXAD was settled north of Assyria on the table-land between Oroomiah and Van. (d) LUD appears to be represented by Lydia in western Asia Minor, though at first it was a wider district. (e) ARAM settled in Syria near the Upper Euphrates, and as far west as the Upper Lebanon Mountains north of Palestine, which we learn from the Assyrian inscriptions. The four children of Aram are UZ, HUL, GETHER, and MASH. Uz is thought to be the district east of the Jordan known as the Hauran, parts of which are very fertile. This was the land of Job, and is reckoned in Arabia by Josephus.[38] The remaining three names are associated with the following lands: first, HUL, with el-Huleh, a region in Northern Palestine, at the head-waters of the Jordan; second, GETHER, with the district of Ituræa between the waters of the lake el-Huleh and Uz; third MASH, with a site known as Maisel Jebel. But these identifications are only probable.

=2. Arphaxad had a son= Salah who begat Eber, whose descendants were the ancestors of Abraham through Peleg, in whose days “was the earth divided.” Peleg appears to have settled near the Euphrates, since a city named Phaliga once existed at the place where the river Chaboras falls into the Euphrates from the east.

=3. The descendants of Peleg’s brother=, Joktan, thirteen in number, seem to have found their early settlements in Southern Arabia and as far south as Isfor on the southeast coast, which is supposed to represent the SEPHAR of the text, Gen. 10:30.

This closes a table which is generally considered to be the most important as well as the most ancient list of nations in existence.

THE HISTORY OF JOB.

=4. This history= is contained in the book of the same name. The author of this book is not known. It may have been written by Job himself. The history is that apparently of a chief who lived in the land of Uz, which was probably in the region we have already described. Many think that the land of Uz was in Northern Arabia or in Idumæa.

=5. Job=, according to one writer (Wamys) was an Arabian prince, who is represented as living in his family and enjoying a life of unalloyed prosperity, the consequence of his exemplary piety and rectitude. Suddenly the scene changes, and this excellent man is visited by a series of overwhelming calamities, which are the result of a transaction which passed in the council of the Most High, into the secret of which the reader is for the moment admitted, as stated in Job 1:8‒13. During his affliction Job is visited by his friends. Instead of comforting him, these friends ascribe his calamities to some great sin, for which he is now punished. Job’s friends affirm that great suffering is a proof of great guilt, and exhort him to _repent and confess_.[39] Job denies this, Job 4:5‒31:40. At the close of their dialogue another and younger friend of the patriarch intervenes to modify the view taken by the others.

=6.= At length the Lord condescends to interpose in the controversy. From the midst of a whirlwind, in words of incomparable grandeur and sublimity he silences the murmurings of his servant, bidding him reflect on the glory of creation and learn the stupendous power and wisdom of Him whose purposes are good, though unexplained, and with whom it is useless for a created being to contend. Thereupon Job acknowledges his error, and the whole party are convinced of forming false estimates of the Lord’s administration. Job is restored to prosperity and prays for his friends, who are accepted in their offering and received back into favor.

=7. The book of Job=, from internal evidence, is probably one of the earliest productions of Biblical literature. The names of his friends, the Temanite and the Shuhite, and the mention of the Sabæans, indicate the Idumæan parts of Northern Arabia as the scene of the history. The long life of Job, which appears to have been about 200 years, indicates a period in the second or third century following the Flood, or before the time of Abraham. But neither the date of the composition nor the location of Uz can be settled any further than we have already stated.

One of the proofs of the very early origin of this composition is found in its reference to the ancient seal, Job 38:14, which was rolled over the clay, covering it with figures; hence the illustration used in the above passage. The cylindrical seals were used in the early Babylonian era.