a patriarch celebrated for his patience, and the constancy of his
piety and virtue. That Job was a real, and not a fictitious, character,
may be inferred from the manner in which he is mentioned in the
Scriptures. Thus, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of him: “Though these three
men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their
own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God,” Ezek. xiv, 14.
Now since Noah and Daniel were unquestionably real characters, we must
conclude the same of Job. “Behold,” says the Apostle James, “we count
them happy which endure: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have
seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender
mercy,” James v, 11. It is scarcely to be believed that a divinely
inspired Apostle would refer to an imaginary character as an example of
patience, or in proof of the mercy of God. But, beside the authority of
the inspired writers, we have the strongest internal evidence, from the
book itself, that Job was a real person; for it expressly specifies the
names of persons, places, facts, and other circumstances usually related
in true histories. Thus, we have the name, country, piety, wealth, &c,
of Job described, Job i; the names, number, and acts of his children are
mentioned; the conduct of his wife is recorded as a fact, ii; his
friends, their names, countries, and discourses with him in his
afflictions are minutely delineated, Job ii, 11, &c. Farther: no
reasonable doubt can be entertained respecting the real existence of
Job, when we consider that it is proved by the concurrent testimony of
all eastern tradition: he is mentioned by the author of the book of
Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity; he is also repeatedly
mentioned by Arabian writers as a real character. The whole of his
history, with many fabulous additions, was known among the Syrians and
Chaldeans; and many of the noblest families among the Arabs are
distinguished by his name, and boast of being descended from him.
Since, then, says Horne, the book of Job contains the history of a real
character, the next point is the age in which he lived, a question
concerning which there is as great a diversity of opinion, as upon any
other subject connected with this venerable monument of sacred
antiquity. One thing, however, is generally admitted with respect to the
age of the book of Job, namely, its remote antiquity. Even those who
contend for the later production of the book of Job are compelled to
acquiesce in this particular. Grotius thinks the events of the history
are such as cannot be placed later than the sojourning of the Israelites
in the wilderness. Bishop Warburton, in like manner, admits them to bear
the marks of high antiquity; and Michaëlis confesses the manners to be
perfectly Abrahamic, that is, such as were common to all the seed of
Abraham, Israelites, Ishmaelites, and Idumeans. The following are the
principal circumstances from which the age of Job may be collected and
ascertained:--1. The Usserian or Bible chronology dates the trial of Job
about the year 1520 before the Christian era, twenty-nine years before
the departure of the Israelites from Egypt; and that the book was
composed before that event, is evident from its total silence respecting
the miracles which accompanied the exode; such as the passage of the Red
Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians, the manna in the desert, &c; all
of which happened in the vicinity of Job’s country, and were so apposite
in the debate concerning the ways of Providence that some notice could
not but have been taken of them, if they had been coeval with the poem
of Job. 2. That it was composed before Abraham’s migration to Canaan,
may also be inferred from its silence respecting the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain, which were still
nearer to Idumea, where the scene is laid. 3. The length of Job’s life
places him in the patriarchal times. He survived his trial one hundred
and forty years, Job xlii, 16, and was probably not younger at that
time; for we read that his seven sons were all grown up, and had been
settled in their own houses for a considerable time, Job i, 4, 5. He
speaks of the sins of his youth, Job xiii, 26, and of the prosperity of
his youth; and yet Eliphaz addresses him as a novice: “With us are both
the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than thy father,” Job xv,
10. 4. That he did not live at an earlier period, may be collected from
an incidental observation of Bildad, who refers Job to their forefathers
for instruction in wisdom:--
“Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:”
assigning as a reason the comparative shortness of human life, and
consequent ignorance of the present generation:--
“For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing;
Because our days upon earth are a shadow.”
Job viii, 8, 9.
But the fathers of the former age, or grandfathers of the present, were
the contemporaries of Peleg and Joktan, in the fifth generation after
the deluge; and they might easily have learned wisdom from the fountain
head by conversing with Shem, or perhaps with Noah himself; whereas, in
the seventh generation, the standard of human life was reduced to about
two hundred years, which was a shadow compared with the longevity of
Noah and his sons. 5. The general air of antiquity which pervades the
manners recorded in the poem, is a farther evidence of its remote date.
The manners and customs, indeed, critically correspond with that early
period. Thus, Job speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, by
sculpture, Job xix, 24; his riches also are reckoned by his cattle, Job
xlii, 12. Farther: Job acted as high priest in his family, according to
the patriarchal usage, Gen. viii, 20; for the institution of an
established priesthood does not appear to have taken place any where
until the time of Abraham. Melchizedec, king of Salem, was a priest of
the primitive order, Gen. xiv, 18; such also was Jethro, the
father-in-law of Moses, in the vicinity of Idumea, Exod. xviii, 12. The
first regular priesthood was probably instituted in Egypt, where Joseph
was married to the daughter of the priest of On, Gen. xli, 45. 6. The
slavish homage of prostration to princes and great men, which prevailed
in Egypt, Persia, and the east in general, and which still subsists
there, was unknown in Arabia at that time. Though Job was one of the
greatest men of all the east, we do not find any such adoration paid to
him by his contemporaries, in the zenith of his prosperity, among the
marks of respect so minutely described in the twenty-ninth chapter:
“When the young men saw him, they hid themselves,” (rather, _shrunk
back_, through respect or rustic bashfulness,) “the aged arose and stood
up” in his presence, (more correctly, _ranged themselves about him_,)
“the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand upon their
mouth; the nobles held their peace,” and were all attention while he
spoke. All this was highly respectful, indeed, but still it was manly,
and showed no cringing or servile adulation. With this description
correspond the manners and conduct of the genuine Arabs of the present
day, a majestic race, who were never conquered, and who have retained
their primitive customs, features, and character, with scarcely any
alteration. 7. The allusion made by Job to that species of idolatry
alone, which by general consent is admitted to have been the most
ancient, namely, Zabianism, or the worship of the sun and moon, and also
to the exertion of the judicial authority against it, Job xxxi, 26–28,
is an additional and most complete proof of the high antiquity of the
poem, as well as a decisive mark of the patriarchal age. 8. A farther
evidence of the remote antiquity of this book is the language of Job and
his friends; who, being all Idumeans, or at least Arabians of the
adjacent country, yet conversed in Hebrew. This carries us up to an age
so early as that in which all the posterity of Abraham, Israelites,
Idumeans, and Arabians, yet continued to speak one common language, and
had not branched into different dialects.
The country in which the scene of this poem is laid, is stated, Job i,
1, to be the land of Uz, which by some geographers has been placed in
Sandy, and by others in Stony, Arabia. Bochart strenuously advocated the
former opinion, in which he has been powerfully supported by Spanheim,
Calmet, Carpzov, Heidegger, and some later writers; Michaëlis and Ilgen
place the scene in the valley of Damascus; but Bishops Lowth and Magee,
Dr. Hales, Dr. Good, and some later critics and philologers, have shown
that the scene is laid in Idumea. In effect, nothing is clearer than
that the history of an inhabitant of Idumea is the subject of the poem
which bears the name of Job, and that all the persons introduced into it
were Idumeans, dwelling in Idumea, in other words, Edomite Arabs. These
characters are, Job himself, of the land of Uz; Eliphaz, of Teman, a
district of as much repute as Uz, and which, it appears from the joint
testimony of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Obadiah, Jer. xlix, 7, 20;
Ezek. xxv, 13; Amos i, 11, 12; Obadiah 8, 9, formed a principal part of
Idumea; Bildad, of Shuah, who is always mentioned in conjunction with
Sheba and Dedan, the first of whom was probably named after one of the
brothers of Joktan or Kahtan, and the two last from two of his sons, all
of them being uniformly placed in the vicinity of Idumea, Gen. xxv, 2,
3; Jer. xlix, 8; Zophar of Naama, a city importing pleasantness, which
is also stated by Joshua, xv, 21, 41, to have been situate in Idumea,
and to have lain in a southern direction toward its coast, on the shores
of the Red Sea; and Elihu, of Buz, which, as the name of a place, occurs
only once in Sacred Writ, Jer. xxv, 23, but is there mentioned in
conjunction with Teman and Dedan; and hence necessarily, like them, a
border city upon Uz or Idumea. Allowing this chorography to be correct,
(and such, upon a fair review of facts, we may conclude it to be,) there
is no difficulty in conceiving that hordes of nomadic Chaldeans as well
as Sabeans, a people addicted to rapine, and roving about at immense
distances for the sake of plunder, should have occasionally infested the
defenceless country of Idumea, and roved from the Euphrates even to
Egypt.
The different parts of the book of Job are so closely connected
together, that they cannot be detached from each other. The exordium
prepares the reader for what follows, supplies us with the necessary
notices concerning Job and his friends, unfolds the scope, and places
the calamities full in our view as an object of attention. The epilogue,
or conclusion, again, has reference to the exordium, and relates the
happy termination of Job’s trials; the dialogues which intervene flow in
regular order. Now, if any of these parts were to be taken away, the
poem would be extremely defective. Without the prologue the reader would
be utterly ignorant who Job was, who were his friends, and the cause of
his being so grievously afflicted. Without the discourse of Elihu, Job
xxxii-xxxvii, there would be a sudden and abrupt transition from the
last words of Job to the address of God, for which Elihu’s discourse
prepares the reader. And without the epilogue, or conclusion, we should
remain in ignorance of the subsequent condition of Job. Hence it is
evident, that the poem is the composition of a single author; but who
that was, is a question concerning which the learned are very much
divided in their sentiments. Elihu, Job, Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, an
anonymous writer in the reign of Manasseh, Ezekiel, and Ezra, have all
been contended for. The arguments already adduced respecting the age of
Job, prove that it could not be either of the latter persons. Dr.
Lightfoot, from an erroneous version of Job xxxii, 16, 17, has
conjectured that it is the production of Elihu; but the correct
rendering of that passage refutes this notion. Ilgen ascribes it
probably to a descendant of Elihu. Another and more generally received
opinion attributes this book to Moses; this conjecture is founded on
some apparent striking coincidences of sentiment, as well as from some
marks of later date which are supposed to be discoverable in it. But,
independently of the characters of antiquity already referred to, and
which place the book of Job very many centuries before the time of
Moses, the total absence of even the slightest allusion to the manners,
customs, ceremonies, or history of the Israelites, is a direct evidence
that the great legislator of the Hebrews was not, and could not have
been, the author. To which may be added, that the style of Job, as
Bishop Lowth has remarked, is materially different from the poetical
style of Moses; for it is much more compact, concise, or condensed, more
accurate in the poetical conformation of the sentences; as may be
observed also in the prophecies of Balaam the Mesopotamian, a foreigner,
indeed, with respect to the Israelites, but not unacquainted either with
their language, or with the worship of the true God. Upon the whole,
then, we have sufficient ground to conclude that this book was not the
production of Moses, but of some earlier age. Bishop Lowth favours the
opinion of Schultens, Peters, and others, which is adopted by Bishop
Tomline and Dr. Hales, who suppose Job himself, or some contemporary, to
have been the author of this poem; and there seems to be no good reason
for supposing that it was not written by Job himself. It appears,
indeed, highly probable that Job was the writer of his own story, of
whose inspiration we have the clearest evidence in the forty-second
chapter of this book, in which he thus addresses the Almighty: “I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.”
It is plain that in this passage some privilege is intended which he
never had enjoyed before, and which he calls the sight of God.
The book of Job contains the history of Job, a man equally distinguished
for purity and uprightness of character, and for honours, wealth, and
domestic felicity, whom God permitted, for the trial of his faith, to be
suddenly deprived of all his numerous blessings, and to be at once
plunged into the deepest affliction, and most accumulated distress. It
gives an account of his eminent piety, patience, and resignation under
the pressure of these severe calamities, and of his subsequent elevation
to a degree of prosperity and happiness, still greater than that which
he had before enjoyed. How long the sufferings of Job continued, we are
not informed; but it is said, that after God turned his captivity, and
blessed him a second time, he lived one hundred and forty years, Job
xlii, 16. Its style is in many parts peculiarly sublime; and it is not
only adorned with poetical embellishments, but most learned men consider
it as written in metre. Through the whole work we discover religious
instruction shining forth amidst the venerable simplicity of ancient
manners. It every where abounds with the noblest sentiments of piety,
uttered with the spirit of inspired conviction. It is a work unrivalled
for the magnificence of its language, and for the beautiful and sublime
images which it presents. In the wonderful speech of the Deity, Job
xxxviii, xxxix, every line delineates his attributes, every sentence
opens a picture of some grand object in creation, characterized by its
most striking features. Add to this, that its prophetic parts reflect
much light on the economy of God’s moral government; and every admirer
of sacred antiquity, every inquirer after religious instruction, will
seriously rejoice that the enraptured sentence of Job, xix, 23, is
realized to a more effectual and unforeseen accomplishment; that while
the memorable records of antiquity have mouldered from the rock, the
prophetic assurance and sentiments of Job are graven in Scriptures that
no time shall alter, no changes shall efface.
piety and virtue. That Job was a real, and not a fictitious, character,
may be inferred from the manner in which he is mentioned in the
Scriptures. Thus, the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of him: “Though these three
men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their
own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God,” Ezek. xiv, 14.
Now since Noah and Daniel were unquestionably real characters, we must
conclude the same of Job. “Behold,” says the Apostle James, “we count
them happy which endure: ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have
seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender
mercy,” James v, 11. It is scarcely to be believed that a divinely
inspired Apostle would refer to an imaginary character as an example of
patience, or in proof of the mercy of God. But, beside the authority of
the inspired writers, we have the strongest internal evidence, from the
book itself, that Job was a real person; for it expressly specifies the
names of persons, places, facts, and other circumstances usually related
in true histories. Thus, we have the name, country, piety, wealth, &c,
of Job described, Job i; the names, number, and acts of his children are
mentioned; the conduct of his wife is recorded as a fact, ii; his
friends, their names, countries, and discourses with him in his
afflictions are minutely delineated, Job ii, 11, &c. Farther: no
reasonable doubt can be entertained respecting the real existence of
Job, when we consider that it is proved by the concurrent testimony of
all eastern tradition: he is mentioned by the author of the book of
Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity; he is also repeatedly
mentioned by Arabian writers as a real character. The whole of his
history, with many fabulous additions, was known among the Syrians and
Chaldeans; and many of the noblest families among the Arabs are
distinguished by his name, and boast of being descended from him.
Since, then, says Horne, the book of Job contains the history of a real
character, the next point is the age in which he lived, a question
concerning which there is as great a diversity of opinion, as upon any
other subject connected with this venerable monument of sacred
antiquity. One thing, however, is generally admitted with respect to the
age of the book of Job, namely, its remote antiquity. Even those who
contend for the later production of the book of Job are compelled to
acquiesce in this particular. Grotius thinks the events of the history
are such as cannot be placed later than the sojourning of the Israelites
in the wilderness. Bishop Warburton, in like manner, admits them to bear
the marks of high antiquity; and Michaëlis confesses the manners to be
perfectly Abrahamic, that is, such as were common to all the seed of
Abraham, Israelites, Ishmaelites, and Idumeans. The following are the
principal circumstances from which the age of Job may be collected and
ascertained:--1. The Usserian or Bible chronology dates the trial of Job
about the year 1520 before the Christian era, twenty-nine years before
the departure of the Israelites from Egypt; and that the book was
composed before that event, is evident from its total silence respecting
the miracles which accompanied the exode; such as the passage of the Red
Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians, the manna in the desert, &c; all
of which happened in the vicinity of Job’s country, and were so apposite
in the debate concerning the ways of Providence that some notice could
not but have been taken of them, if they had been coeval with the poem
of Job. 2. That it was composed before Abraham’s migration to Canaan,
may also be inferred from its silence respecting the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain, which were still
nearer to Idumea, where the scene is laid. 3. The length of Job’s life
places him in the patriarchal times. He survived his trial one hundred
and forty years, Job xlii, 16, and was probably not younger at that
time; for we read that his seven sons were all grown up, and had been
settled in their own houses for a considerable time, Job i, 4, 5. He
speaks of the sins of his youth, Job xiii, 26, and of the prosperity of
his youth; and yet Eliphaz addresses him as a novice: “With us are both
the gray-headed and very aged men, much elder than thy father,” Job xv,
10. 4. That he did not live at an earlier period, may be collected from
an incidental observation of Bildad, who refers Job to their forefathers
for instruction in wisdom:--
“Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:”
assigning as a reason the comparative shortness of human life, and
consequent ignorance of the present generation:--
“For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing;
Because our days upon earth are a shadow.”
Job viii, 8, 9.
But the fathers of the former age, or grandfathers of the present, were
the contemporaries of Peleg and Joktan, in the fifth generation after
the deluge; and they might easily have learned wisdom from the fountain
head by conversing with Shem, or perhaps with Noah himself; whereas, in
the seventh generation, the standard of human life was reduced to about
two hundred years, which was a shadow compared with the longevity of
Noah and his sons. 5. The general air of antiquity which pervades the
manners recorded in the poem, is a farther evidence of its remote date.
The manners and customs, indeed, critically correspond with that early
period. Thus, Job speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, by
sculpture, Job xix, 24; his riches also are reckoned by his cattle, Job
xlii, 12. Farther: Job acted as high priest in his family, according to
the patriarchal usage, Gen. viii, 20; for the institution of an
established priesthood does not appear to have taken place any where
until the time of Abraham. Melchizedec, king of Salem, was a priest of
the primitive order, Gen. xiv, 18; such also was Jethro, the
father-in-law of Moses, in the vicinity of Idumea, Exod. xviii, 12. The
first regular priesthood was probably instituted in Egypt, where Joseph
was married to the daughter of the priest of On, Gen. xli, 45. 6. The
slavish homage of prostration to princes and great men, which prevailed
in Egypt, Persia, and the east in general, and which still subsists
there, was unknown in Arabia at that time. Though Job was one of the
greatest men of all the east, we do not find any such adoration paid to
him by his contemporaries, in the zenith of his prosperity, among the
marks of respect so minutely described in the twenty-ninth chapter:
“When the young men saw him, they hid themselves,” (rather, _shrunk
back_, through respect or rustic bashfulness,) “the aged arose and stood
up” in his presence, (more correctly, _ranged themselves about him_,)
“the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand upon their
mouth; the nobles held their peace,” and were all attention while he
spoke. All this was highly respectful, indeed, but still it was manly,
and showed no cringing or servile adulation. With this description
correspond the manners and conduct of the genuine Arabs of the present
day, a majestic race, who were never conquered, and who have retained
their primitive customs, features, and character, with scarcely any
alteration. 7. The allusion made by Job to that species of idolatry
alone, which by general consent is admitted to have been the most
ancient, namely, Zabianism, or the worship of the sun and moon, and also
to the exertion of the judicial authority against it, Job xxxi, 26–28,
is an additional and most complete proof of the high antiquity of the
poem, as well as a decisive mark of the patriarchal age. 8. A farther
evidence of the remote antiquity of this book is the language of Job and
his friends; who, being all Idumeans, or at least Arabians of the
adjacent country, yet conversed in Hebrew. This carries us up to an age
so early as that in which all the posterity of Abraham, Israelites,
Idumeans, and Arabians, yet continued to speak one common language, and
had not branched into different dialects.
The country in which the scene of this poem is laid, is stated, Job i,
1, to be the land of Uz, which by some geographers has been placed in
Sandy, and by others in Stony, Arabia. Bochart strenuously advocated the
former opinion, in which he has been powerfully supported by Spanheim,
Calmet, Carpzov, Heidegger, and some later writers; Michaëlis and Ilgen
place the scene in the valley of Damascus; but Bishops Lowth and Magee,
Dr. Hales, Dr. Good, and some later critics and philologers, have shown
that the scene is laid in Idumea. In effect, nothing is clearer than
that the history of an inhabitant of Idumea is the subject of the poem
which bears the name of Job, and that all the persons introduced into it
were Idumeans, dwelling in Idumea, in other words, Edomite Arabs. These
characters are, Job himself, of the land of Uz; Eliphaz, of Teman, a
district of as much repute as Uz, and which, it appears from the joint
testimony of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Obadiah, Jer. xlix, 7, 20;
Ezek. xxv, 13; Amos i, 11, 12; Obadiah 8, 9, formed a principal part of
Idumea; Bildad, of Shuah, who is always mentioned in conjunction with
Sheba and Dedan, the first of whom was probably named after one of the
brothers of Joktan or Kahtan, and the two last from two of his sons, all
of them being uniformly placed in the vicinity of Idumea, Gen. xxv, 2,
3; Jer. xlix, 8; Zophar of Naama, a city importing pleasantness, which
is also stated by Joshua, xv, 21, 41, to have been situate in Idumea,
and to have lain in a southern direction toward its coast, on the shores
of the Red Sea; and Elihu, of Buz, which, as the name of a place, occurs
only once in Sacred Writ, Jer. xxv, 23, but is there mentioned in
conjunction with Teman and Dedan; and hence necessarily, like them, a
border city upon Uz or Idumea. Allowing this chorography to be correct,
(and such, upon a fair review of facts, we may conclude it to be,) there
is no difficulty in conceiving that hordes of nomadic Chaldeans as well
as Sabeans, a people addicted to rapine, and roving about at immense
distances for the sake of plunder, should have occasionally infested the
defenceless country of Idumea, and roved from the Euphrates even to
Egypt.
The different parts of the book of Job are so closely connected
together, that they cannot be detached from each other. The exordium
prepares the reader for what follows, supplies us with the necessary
notices concerning Job and his friends, unfolds the scope, and places
the calamities full in our view as an object of attention. The epilogue,
or conclusion, again, has reference to the exordium, and relates the
happy termination of Job’s trials; the dialogues which intervene flow in
regular order. Now, if any of these parts were to be taken away, the
poem would be extremely defective. Without the prologue the reader would
be utterly ignorant who Job was, who were his friends, and the cause of
his being so grievously afflicted. Without the discourse of Elihu, Job
xxxii-xxxvii, there would be a sudden and abrupt transition from the
last words of Job to the address of God, for which Elihu’s discourse
prepares the reader. And without the epilogue, or conclusion, we should
remain in ignorance of the subsequent condition of Job. Hence it is
evident, that the poem is the composition of a single author; but who
that was, is a question concerning which the learned are very much
divided in their sentiments. Elihu, Job, Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, an
anonymous writer in the reign of Manasseh, Ezekiel, and Ezra, have all
been contended for. The arguments already adduced respecting the age of
Job, prove that it could not be either of the latter persons. Dr.
Lightfoot, from an erroneous version of Job xxxii, 16, 17, has
conjectured that it is the production of Elihu; but the correct
rendering of that passage refutes this notion. Ilgen ascribes it
probably to a descendant of Elihu. Another and more generally received
opinion attributes this book to Moses; this conjecture is founded on
some apparent striking coincidences of sentiment, as well as from some
marks of later date which are supposed to be discoverable in it. But,
independently of the characters of antiquity already referred to, and
which place the book of Job very many centuries before the time of
Moses, the total absence of even the slightest allusion to the manners,
customs, ceremonies, or history of the Israelites, is a direct evidence
that the great legislator of the Hebrews was not, and could not have
been, the author. To which may be added, that the style of Job, as
Bishop Lowth has remarked, is materially different from the poetical
style of Moses; for it is much more compact, concise, or condensed, more
accurate in the poetical conformation of the sentences; as may be
observed also in the prophecies of Balaam the Mesopotamian, a foreigner,
indeed, with respect to the Israelites, but not unacquainted either with
their language, or with the worship of the true God. Upon the whole,
then, we have sufficient ground to conclude that this book was not the
production of Moses, but of some earlier age. Bishop Lowth favours the
opinion of Schultens, Peters, and others, which is adopted by Bishop
Tomline and Dr. Hales, who suppose Job himself, or some contemporary, to
have been the author of this poem; and there seems to be no good reason
for supposing that it was not written by Job himself. It appears,
indeed, highly probable that Job was the writer of his own story, of
whose inspiration we have the clearest evidence in the forty-second
chapter of this book, in which he thus addresses the Almighty: “I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.”
It is plain that in this passage some privilege is intended which he
never had enjoyed before, and which he calls the sight of God.
The book of Job contains the history of Job, a man equally distinguished
for purity and uprightness of character, and for honours, wealth, and
domestic felicity, whom God permitted, for the trial of his faith, to be
suddenly deprived of all his numerous blessings, and to be at once
plunged into the deepest affliction, and most accumulated distress. It
gives an account of his eminent piety, patience, and resignation under
the pressure of these severe calamities, and of his subsequent elevation
to a degree of prosperity and happiness, still greater than that which
he had before enjoyed. How long the sufferings of Job continued, we are
not informed; but it is said, that after God turned his captivity, and
blessed him a second time, he lived one hundred and forty years, Job
xlii, 16. Its style is in many parts peculiarly sublime; and it is not
only adorned with poetical embellishments, but most learned men consider
it as written in metre. Through the whole work we discover religious
instruction shining forth amidst the venerable simplicity of ancient
manners. It every where abounds with the noblest sentiments of piety,
uttered with the spirit of inspired conviction. It is a work unrivalled
for the magnificence of its language, and for the beautiful and sublime
images which it presents. In the wonderful speech of the Deity, Job
xxxviii, xxxix, every line delineates his attributes, every sentence
opens a picture of some grand object in creation, characterized by its
most striking features. Add to this, that its prophetic parts reflect
much light on the economy of God’s moral government; and every admirer
of sacred antiquity, every inquirer after religious instruction, will
seriously rejoice that the enraptured sentence of Job, xix, 23, is
realized to a more effectual and unforeseen accomplishment; that while
the memorable records of antiquity have mouldered from the rock, the
prophetic assurance and sentiments of Job are graven in Scriptures that
no time shall alter, no changes shall efface.