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also should be appraised of the fact that while these two names look alike in the English versions, there is a slight
difference in the spelling of the originals.
The writer of these lines is not C.H. Welsh neither C.H. Walsh, the spelling is of importance when identity is in
question. Gesenius gives the meaning of the word that supplies the name `Job', as `to be an adversary to any one, to
persecute as an enemy, to hate', and twice Job himself uses this word, when he complains that God Himself held
him, or counted him `an enemy' (Job 13:24; 33:10), while the very presence of the great Adversary in the
introduction of the book intensifies the meaning of Job's name. Is it anything to be wondered at (except in the
worshipping recognition of an all embracive providence) that Moses uses the same word in Genesis 3:15 when he
speaks of the `enmity' between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent? Can we not see that in the
experience of Job, we have an early record of the out-working of that enmity? a problem which Moses himself must
have pondered, and for which the revelation of Genesis 3, coupled with the actual conflict of Job, provides an
answer. Job, one of the seed of the woman, was indeed `bruised in the heel' in this terrible conflict.
The land of Uz, which is given as the land of Job's nativity or subsequent habitation, is associated with Edom in
Jeremiah 25:20,21, and both Septuagint and Arabic translations state in an appendix that Job was the son of Zareth
one of the sons of Esau, that he was the `fifth' (LXX), `sixth' (Arabic) descendant from Abraham; and that Job's
name was originally Jobab, as is written in Genesis 36:33, a king of the land of Edom and associated with `Teman'
(34 and 42).
One of the three friends who came to mourn with Job was Eliphaz the Temanite, so named after the descendant
of Esau, who called their lands `by their names' (Gen. 36:10,11,15,42). The wisdom of the Temanites was
proverbial. Jeremiah asks: `Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom
vanished?' (Jer. 49:7), a reputation endorsed by the Apocrypha where the merchants of Teman are said to be
`Authors of fables, and searchers out of understanding' (Baruch 3:23), although the writer adds, `None of these have
known the way of wisdom, or remembered her paths'. At first it strikes us as strange that a descendant of Esau
should be so great a man of God, until we remember that God is Sovereign, and a God of grace, and that just when
Israel were, morally, at their lowest, a beautiful illustration of utter fidelity is provided by a Moabitess, Ruth by
name, who became the ancestress of David and of David's greater Son. Moreover, the loyalty of the Shulamite is
put in contrast with the low standard of morals in the court of King Solomon, and preserved for all time in the Song
of Songs which is Solomon's. If Job was the fifth or sixth descendant of Abraham, we can place the book of Job
somewhere between the days of Joseph and of Moses, and therefore earlier than any of the Scriptures we possess,
and before the Exodus. Such a book would have been highly esteemed in the country of its origin and adjacent
lands, and it is reasonable that a man of the spiritual calibre of Jethro would bring it to the notice of his great
son-in-law Moses, and with him discuss its teaching.
Let us look at the book of Job, as Moses must have looked at it. He had come from Egypt, a land of `gods many
and of lords many' where man for all his wisdom had `changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things' (Rom. 1:23). Here in the
book of Job he would find the purest doctrine of the living and true God that the world possessed. Here Moses
would read that God was man's `Maker' (Job 4:17; 10:8; 35:10); that by His command the sun rises (9:7) and the
stars are controlled (22:12).  Coming from a land where the heavenly bodies, the signs of the Zodiac, the
constellations of the stars, were employed to further idolatry, Moses would read the challenge `Canst thou bind the
sweet influences of Pleiades?' (38:31); and so learn that God had placed the ordinances of heaven to rule the earth
(38:33). He would also learn from the book that the stars were ordained `for signs and for seasons'. He would read
of Orion and of the `Twelve signs' (Mazzaroth), and be warned against the degenerate teaching of Egyptian
astrology. Even such a detail as `the springing up of grass' is noted (38:27) where the same word occurs as is used
in Genesis 1:11. At every turn we meet in the book of Job with material used in laying the foundation of Genesis.
Let us consider some of these passages a little more closely. It will be remembered that Genesis 1:2 reveals a
prehistoric catastrophe `The earth became without form (tohu) and void (bohu): and darkness was upon the face of
the deep (tehom)'. This revelation is anticipated in the book of Job, where he says:
`He stretcheth out the north over the empty place (tohu), and hangeth the earth upon nothing' (26:7),