The question of the position of the land of Uf would appear to be determinable within very narrow limits. In Job !'»•" it would seem that
• The Assyro- Babylonian royal lists likewise indicate that the repetition of renowned or venerated names woi* far from being an uncommon thiiiK amont; the Semites ui ancient times.
t It is to be nute<l that Ird. Delitzsch re)rart)s L'j, the Kmnd- Sfjii of Seir (On StT^*^}, as another person of the same nojue, - or a cbance-likeneAS, — a theory supportcil by l.a 4^-, where Mom apiiean Id temporary possession of Vi, either wholly or io port.
Job's estate lay open to the depredations of the Sab.rans and tlie Clialdioans, and was tlierefore on the edge of the great desert, agreeing with v.'*, where the destruction wrought by the wind from that direction is referred to. The native countries of Job's friends likewise favour this view — that is, so far as those districts can be identified. Thus Eliphaz came from Teman (Job 2"), which was to all appearance an Edomite locality, Tenum beini^ rufoned to in Gn 36" as a descendant of Esau and son of Eliphaz, which last was evidently, tlierefore, a genuine Edomite name. His second friend, Biidad ' the Shuliite,' came from Shuab, the district and name of one of the sons of Abraham and I>eturah. The name of Job's third friend, Zophar the Naaniathite, does not help, that district being unknown (see Naamah) ; but Elihu the Buzite must have come from a neighbouring country, as is implied by Gn 22-'. The inscriptions of the kings of Assyria also throw some liglit upon the question. Thus Esarhaddon, in one of his expedi- tions to the west, passed through Bdzu, reaching, at a distance of ISO kas-gid, the country of Hazu, and these two districts are, with one consent, re- garded as the Buz and Hazo of Gn 22-'- ~. Shuah is in like manner identified with the Suhu of Tiglatbpileser I., according to whom it lay one day's journey from Carchemish in the land of Hatti. In the same neighbourhood lay the land of YasbiiMa ('the Vasbukians'), identified by Frd. Delitzsch with the Ishbak of Gn 25-. This place, which is referred to by Shalmaneser II., was in the neighbourhood of Shuah, %\ ith which it is mentioned in the passage of Genesis here referred to. Shalmaneser received tribute from the land of Sliuab ; liut whether it was at this time (B.C. 8.")9) or 28 years later, when lie sent an army to tlie same district, is not certain. On the second occasion he received tribute from a certain Sftsi, mdr nidt Uzzd, 'a son of the land of Uzzi,' wlio submitted to him, and whom he placed on the throne of Patinu. It may even be that the rulers of this latter place were counted among 'the kings of the land of U?.' Uz?a (or C?S, as analogy teaulies may have been tlie more correct form) certainly lay, according to Frd. Delitzscli, W. and X.^\. of Aleppo, at no great distance from I'atinu, and must have been an important place ; hence tlie raisiug of its king to the dominion of Patinu.*
Though the Assyrian inscriptions do not indicate clearly the land oi U?, and its identification with the land of U;fzfi is not so satisfactory as could be wished, t they at least confirm the indications given in the Book of Job. Tr.idition places the home of the patriarch in the ^auran, where a monastery bearing his name exists (it is situated in the WMy el-Lebiveh). He is said to have been a native of Juldn, and early Arabian authors state that he was born in the neighbourhood of Nawd. Not far from the monastery is shown the Malcdm E'jyuh, or 'Station of Job,' his well, and the trough in which he is said to have washed after his trials were over. His tomb is shared by a Moliaiiimedan saint, and on a hill close hy is a stone ujion which he is said to have leaned when first afilicted. The currency of the tradition among both Christians and Mohammedans living in the district implies that it is of considerable antiquity. In view of the testimony of tlie Assyrian inscrip- tions as to the position of the land of U?, how-
" \Vhether Patinu be connected etyniolo^cally with Batanea or not is uncertain, but is worthy of consideration.
t There ie doubt aa to the sibilant, whether it be really ? (s) or f (1). In addition to this, a lonfe' temiinal vowel would not be expected. Delitzsch evidently regards the word as a jfentijic adjective ; but if this be the case, ttiere is a mistake in the text, Ui-za-a having been written for U^-za-a-a (= U^da).
ever, Frd. Delitzsch would prefer to regard it ai being situated rather in the neighbourhood of Tadmor (I'almyra). According to Josephus (v4nt. I. vi. 4, 5) it embraced Trachonitis and Damascus, and the LXX represents the patriarch as having lived in Ausitis, on the borders of Edom ■^nd Arabia (there is no doubt that it was closelj connected with the former country), so that the neighbour- hood of Palmyra would seem to lie macli too fai N.E. It is difficult, however, to fix, at this dis- tance of time, the boundaries of a district which is known to have been fairly extensive, and which probably varied in extent, in consequence of political changes, from time to time.