PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. xiv. 3. And dost thou cast thine eyes upon such And the rock mouldereth away from his xi. 14. If the iniquity of thy hand thou put away, 16. Lo! then shalt thou forget affliction; Ps. ver. xc. PSALM. 7. For we are consumed by thine anger, And by thy wrath are we troubled. 8. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee; Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. [thy wrath, 9. Behold, all our days are passed away in We spend our years as a tale that is told. 10. Their strength is labour and sorrow; It is soon cut off, and we flee away. 12. So teach us to number our days That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom 14. O satisfy us early with thy mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15. Make us glad according to the days of our affliction. To the years we have seen evil: 16. Let thy wonders be shown unto thy servants And establish thou the work of our hands. "The strictly and decidedly acknowledged productions of Moses are but few; and in the above examples I have taken a specimen from by far the greater number. It is, indeed, not a little astonishing that, being so few, they should offer a resemblance in so many points. "There may at times be some difficulty in determining between the similarity of style and diction resulting from established habit, and that produced by intentional imitation; yet, in the former case, it will commonly, if I mistake not, be found looser, but more general; in the latter, stricter, but more confined to particular words or idioms; the whole of the features not having been equally caught, while those which have been laid hold of are given more minutely than in the case of habit. The manner runs carelessly through every part, and is perpetually striking us unawares; the copy walks after it with measured but unequal pace, and is restless in courting our attention. The specimens of resemblance now produced are obviously of the former kind: both sides have an equal claim to originality, and seem very powerfully to establish an unity of authorship." Thus far Mr. Good; who has, on his own side of the question, most certainly exhausted the subject. The case he has made out is a strong one: we shall next examine whether a stronger cannot be made out in behalf of Solomon, as the second candidate for the authorship of this most excellent book. 2. That this book was the work of Solomon was the opinion of some early Christian writers, among whom was Gregory Nazianzen; and of several moderns, among whom were Spanheim and Hardouin. The latter has gone so far as to place the death of Job in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of David; and he supposes that Solomon wrote the work in question, about the second or third year of his reign. On this last opinion no stress whatever should be placed. As the argument for Moses has been supported by supposed parallelisms between his acknowledged works and the Book of Job, so has that which attributes the latter to Solomon. That Solomon, from his vast learning and wisdom, was capable of such a work, none can deny. His knowledge in astronomy, natural history, politics, theology, languages, and the general science of his age, must have given him at least equal qualifications to those possessed by Moses. And if he was the author of the Book of Canticles, which most men believe, he had certainly a poetic mind, equal, if not superior, to all the writers who had existed previously to his time. The Book of Proverbs and that of Ecclesiastes are almost universally attributed to him: now, in the Book of Job, there are a multitude of sentiments, sentences, terms, and modes of speech, which are almost peculiar to Solomon, as will appear from the whole books. In both we find the most exalted eulogium of wisdom. See Job xxviii. 12; Prov. viii. 11, &c. Job says, "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding;" chap. xxviii. 28. Solomon says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction," Prov. i. 7. Job speaks of the state of the dead nearly in the same terms as Solomon: compare chap. xxi. 33, xii. 22, xxxvi. 5, with Prov. ix. 18. Job says, chap. xxvi. 6, "Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering." Solomon says, Prov. xv. 11, " Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF JOB. the hearts of the children of men ?" Job says, "Man drinketh iniquity like water;" chap. xv. 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 turn 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 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, Iv. 12, xci. 3, xciv. 20, xxxvii. 12, and lxii. 3. The word nann 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 A 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 words, abaddon, destruction, Job xxvi. 6, xxviii. 22, xxxi. 12, connected sometimes with w 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 fat. 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 David 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 captivity. And, as to the inscription to this Psalm, ban • n bon 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, Solomon, 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, Σμυρνα, 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, Oungos, 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." 66 "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.' |