hath been ennobled by unfhaken conftancy, amidst the most preffing and violent temptations to lewdnefs. After fo high authorities, I need scarce add, he is spoken of by the author of the Apocryphal book of Tobit as a real perfon, whom God permitted to fall into great distresses, and to be insulted by kings, that he might fhew him to pofterity as an example of patience; Tobit ii. 11.-15. And likewife by Ariftaeas in his hiftory of the Jews. For, according to a paffage of it preferved by Alexander Polyhiftor, he fays, he was a defcendent of Efau by Baffarah his wife, as we will fee presently, with whofe account alfo agrees in fome particulars, the addition to the book of Job in the Septuagint. We may therefore confider Job as a real, ‡ rather than an allegorical or fabulous perfon.

This indeed is only true according to the Latin version thereof. However, Jerome fays he made this from the Chaldee copy of the book, in his preface to it. See Vulg. Bibl. fub fin. The words are, Contigit autem ut ex nido hirundinum dormienti illi (Tobiae) calida ftercora inciderent fuper oculos ejus, fieretque caecus. Hanc autem tentationem ideo permifit Dominus evenire illi, ut pofteris daretur * exemplum patientiae ejus, ficut et fancti Job.-Nam ficut beato Job • infultabant reges, ita ifti parentes et cognati ejus irridebant vitam e

jus, &c.' In the Greek version of the book, and in the English trans lation of it, which I have, and which I believe is that printed in our bibles which have the Apocrypha, there is no mention of Job at all.

The late Dr. Sherlock, in the second Differtation annexed to his book on Prophecy, hath formed an argument for the reality of the history contained in the book of Job, and against its being a mere poetical fiction, from Job xix. 25. which I leave to be perused there, if the reader fhall incline; as its force depends upon the fuppofition that that much difputed paffage expreffes Job's faith of a refurrection, whilst it was a fecret to all his friends. See pages 245, 246. Edit. 6.To his being a real perfon, fome objections have been made; but they

Of Job's Country.

*

WHEN, however, Mr. Voltaire fays he is repre✦ fented to have been an Arabian pastor,' I have no difference with him, if by paftor he mean a great proprietor of cattle. For I alfo think it likely the real Job, who is described to have poffeffed very numerous flocks and herds, refided in Arabia, The land where he dwelt is called indeed in scripture, the land of Uz, or y Gnutz, perhaps from Uz, or Gnutz, the first born fon of Nahor, Abraham's brother, who fettled here, Gen. xxii. 20. But this feems to have been the region of Aufitis, which was a part of Arabia the Desert, according to the common acceptation of this name, though according to the addition in the Seventy abovementioned, appear to me to have little weight in them. Is all explicite mention of him omitted by the writer to the Hebrews in his catalogue of worthies? In like manner, Joshua, Elijah, Elifha, Hezekiah, Jofiah, and others very illustrious, are paffed over. Is Jofephus filent about him? This ought to create no prejudice against his existence; for he intended only to comprehend in his history the affairs of the Jews, and things connected with them. But Job was a foreigner, whofe changes and viciffitudes of fortune did not affect their interest. Thus, in his preface to his Antiquities, fect. 2. he gives this account of the work. MexλEL Γαρ περιέξειν άπασαν την παρ' ήμιν αρχαιολονίαν, και την διαταξιν το πολιτεύματος εκ των Εβραικων μεθερμηνευομένην Γραμμάτων.

* This will appear more eafy, when the manner in which the Greeks expreffed the letter y Hgain or ajin of the Hebrews is attended to. I have obferved that, in the second column of Origen's Hexapla, which represented the Hebrew text in Greek characters, the Hebrew bygnal is an twice over in Genefis i. 2. ibid v. 5. y gnereb is EPEC, and so on.

+ This addition at the end of the Greek verfion of Job (which, fay

t

which places Job therein, and according to Ariftaewho gives him † the fame fituation, it was upon the confines of it. Accordingly we may observe Terah, the father of Nahor, and Abram lived in that neigbourhood at Harran, or Harrae, on the oppofite bank of the Euphrates. Nigh this also had the Chaldeans, or Chafdim, the defcendents of Chefed, another fon of Nahor, Gen. xxii. 2 2. fixed their habitation, which agrees well to their being faid to have carried away Job's camels. Nor were the Sabeans, who forcibly feized his oxen and affes, far diftant, provided we do not understand by them, a people of this name inhabiting Arabia Felix, as Pf. lxxii. 10. the riches and fruitfulness of which country forbids our thinking it was a neft of perfons who made incurfions for the fake of booty; but a people fo dethe authors of the Univerfal History, 3. 350. is to be found alfo at the end of the Arabic and Vulgate verfions, but is not to be met with in the vulgate of Sixtus and Clement at all) is pretended, by the writer of it, to be a tranflation from a Syriac book, ex τng Zupiauns Bibar, and reprefents Job to have lived in the country of Aufitis, on the ⚫ borders of Idumea and Arabia,' says, 'his name was before, Jobab; ⚫ that he married an Arabian woman, by whom he begat a fon named • Ennon; that his father was Zareh, of the fons of Efau, and his mother ⚫ Bofforah; fo that he was the fifth from Abraham; that he reigned in ⚫the country of Edom;' (which account of his being a king, was perhaps a tale founded on Gen. xxxvi. 33.) and describes Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, as kings of the Temanites, Zauchaeans and Minaeans, refpectively.

+Ariftaeas, as his words are quoted, Eufeb. praep. Evang lib. 9. c. 25. fays, he was born to Efau by his wife Baffarah, in the country of Edom, that he dwelt in the territory called Aufitis, on the confines of Idumea and Arabia, that he was formerly named Jobam; tells the fame story of the three kings; and adds, that Elious, the son of Barashiel the Zobite, alfo came to vifit him in diftrefs.

P. III. nominated from their refidence in Saba, a town of Arabia the Defert, according to Ptolemy, which hath been conjectured to have received its appellation from Sheba, grandson of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 3. as it is affirmed his father went from Canaan, in queft of a new settlement, into the east country, Gen. xxiii. 6. For this is a common expreffion for Arabia in fcripture, because it was fituated to the eaft of Canaan; whence also its inhabitants are called the children of the east, Judges vi. 3.-In this vicinity also we may suppose we find Job's friends, Elihu the Bufite, and Eliphaz the Temanite. For Bufitis was a territory adjoining, perhaps fo called from Buz, Nahor's fecond fon, Gen. xxii. 2 1. And Teman, perhaps so named from Teman, Efau's grandfon, Gen. Xxxvi. II. 15. is mentioned at the fame time with Buz, Jerem, xxv. 23. as a place contiguous. Nor need we be at a lofs about Bildad the Shuhite, if he derived this title from Shuh, or Shuah, another of Abraham's children by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2. fince he, like his brother, departed also eastward from Canaan, that he might search out a commodious habitation.

That the book of Job was written, in Arabic, according to Mr. Voltaire's fenfe of the expression, is denied.

BUT though I agree with Mr. Voltaire, that Job was an Arabian * paftor, I cannot admit that the

Some, indeed, on the authority of the addition in the 70, and of the genealogy of Jobab, Gen. xxxvi. 33. 1 Chron. i. 44. whom they fuppofe to be the fame with Job, make him an Idumean, and argue from Lament, iv. 21. ' Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that

book of Job was written in Arabic. So, indeed, fays Mr. Voltaire, with whom the Hebrew and Greek copies of it are equally verfions, becaufe both have retained several Arabic terms. Has he, however, rea fon on his fide? The celebrated Frederic Spanheim, I own, fuppofed that the ground of this book, i. e. that the facts and difcourfes in it were, as to their fubftance or material part, firft extant in Arabic; they having been recorded originally in that tongue, either by Job himself at his leisure, after his reftoration to an easy and comfortable state, for the benefit of himself and his pofterity; as it hath been usual for many religious and good men, fuch as he was, to keep an account or journal of the most memorable transactions of their lives; or elfe by one of his friends, whether Elihu, or fome other who was a witness to his affliction, and heard, or bore himself a part in the dialogues holden on that occafion*. Nevertheless, he reckoned that the book itself, in its prefent form, was firft written in Hebrew, and almost wholly in Hebrew metre or verse, upon this Arabic groundwork, by fome Jewish prophet in the land of Canaan, (wherefore he fays, Job, the Arabian, is fitly denominated by him there, one of the children of ⚫ dwelleft in the land of Uz.' But allowing this to be a right verfion, it will only prove, that in Jeremiah's time, the Edomites were become masters of the land of Uz, not that it was their original and ancient abode. Bochart, however, will have the land of Uz, in Lamentations, but another name for Idumea, and fancies it got this appellation from Uz, a defcendent of Efau, Gen. xxxvi. 28. The authors of the Ansient Univerfal Hiftory, appear to have thought Job an Idumaean, 2. 170. and 3. 350. though he, as will afterwards be obferved, did not. See Boch. Phaleg. lib 2. cap. 8.

* See Spanhemii Historia Jobi. cap. 16.