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God', reminds us forcibly of the challenge of Job 38:4, `Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?'
Moses declares that Israel spent their years as `a tale that is told' (Psa. 90:9), and it is noteworthy that the word
rendered `a tale that is told' occurs once in Job, once in Psalm 90 and once in Ezekiel. It is the Hebrew hegeh,
which in Job 37:2 is translated `the sound' that goeth forth, hence `mourning' (Ezek. 2:10). At the time when Moses
wrote Psalm 90, the word he used was to be found only in Job. `We spend our years as a tale that is told', said
Moses, and Job speaks of those who `spend their days' in wealth or in prosperity (Job 21:13; 36:11), while the
conditions vary, the same figure of `spending' time is common to both writers. The transitory nature of time is
expressed in Psalm 90 by the words:
`A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past' (Psa. 90:4),
and Job cries `my days are past' (17:11). Moses says that the people are carried away as with a flood, and Job uses
the same word zerem in 24:8, where it is rather tamely translated `showers' in the A.V. but which is restored to its
native strength in Dr. Bullinger's Metrical Version,
`With sweeping-rain from mountain-storm they're wet'.
The Psalm continues: `In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and
withereth' which is similar in sentiment to Job 14:2, `He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down', the
`withering' being expressed in Job 8:12 by the proverb concerning the rush that grows in the mire:
`Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it withereth before any other herb'.
The figure `to fly away', used by Moses in Psalm 90:10, is found in Job:
`Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward' (Job 5:7);
`He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found' (Job 20:8).
The `numbering' of the days of which Moses speaks in Psalm 90:12 is noted in Job 14:5:
`Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with Thee, Thou hast appointed his bounds that he
cannot pass',
and the word used by Moses is found in Job 7:3 `wearisome nights are appointed to me'. Moses tells us that even if
a man outlives the three score years and ten, his strength is `labour' and `sorrow' (Heb. amal and aven) and in Job
4:8 we read `they that plow iniquity (aven) and sow wickedness (amal) reap the same', and in Job 5:6,7, `although
affliction (aven) cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble (amal) spring out of the ground; yet man is born
unto trouble (amal), as the sparks fly upward'. These are some of the parallels that may be observed between the
book of Job and this Psalm of Moses. We cannot pursue this comparison further. One other reference, however,
which studies in the wanderings of Israel have brought to light, is of interest, especially as we have seen the close
verbal connection that there is with the problem of Job's sufferings and the wandering of Israel in Psalm 90. In the
tragic words `Ye shall know My breach of promise' (Num. 14:34) which resulted in the forty years wandering, is the
Hebrew word tenuah which occurs elsewhere only in Job 33:10, where it is translated `occasion'. The fact that two
other passages, which come after Moses, namely Judges 14:4 and Jeremiah 2:24, contain the word but with modified
spelling, makes the linguistic link all the stronger.
Let us consider the possible influence of Job upon Psalms written by David and others. In Psalm 8, David asks
the question: `What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?' and Job asks: `What is man, that Thou shouldest magnify
him?' (7:17). Here are one or two further passages that correspond:
`I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he
was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found' (Psa. 37:35,36).
`I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation' (Job 5:3).
`Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest' (Psa. 94:12).
`Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth' (Job 5:17).
The expression `the grass of the earth' is used in Job 5:25 and in Psalm 72:16. Both Job and the Psalmist use the
figure of an `arrow' to set forth great suffering (Job 6:4; Psa. 38:2); both call upon God `to remember' that human