The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 13

"Saul." According to 8 Jewish tmdition, horses or mules from this liet-&n fndioation. ndopted by eome of the Chrieti&n F&thers, ?f high antiq.uity. Horses were not known Job'e originRl nRme WRB "Jobab," and 1~ Egypt till the time of the shepherd- under tbie name he reigned 88 King of kings (about B.o. 1~00-1650), who iutro- Edom (Gen. nxvi. 88). But thie ldngehip ducerl them from Ae1&. None a.re given to is ec.arcely compatible with the view given Abraham by the Pharaoh contemporary with of him in the Book of Job. The euppoeed him (Gen. xii. 16). We hear of none as ronnection of the nRme of Juba with that possessed by the pntriarchs in PRleatine • of Job is very doubtful. And that man was and, on the whole, it is not probable that perfeot. Tam (CJJ;,), the word translated they had been 1.-nown in Western Asia very "perfect.," eeems to.nre&n "oompleto, entirl\ long before their introdllction: 1uto Egypt. not wanting in tmy :re$peot." It oorresponda il'hey nre natives: of dintrn_l' Asio., where to the Greek -re"A.«os, and the Latin integer they are still found wild, aud pa.seed gradu- (comp. Horace,• Od.,' i. 22. 1, "Integer vitm, ally by export.ation to the more southern scelerisque purue "). It does not meRn •• abso- regions, Armenia., Asia Minor, Syria Pales- lutely sinless,'' which Job was not {comp. tine, Arabie.. Note, secondly that the items eh. u.. 20; xl. 4). And upright. This is of Job's wf!alth accord with those of A)l;ir the exe.ot meaning of yashar (it~)- " The h11.m's (~en. xii. l~)- Thirdly, note that.Job'II Book of Jasher" WRB "the Book of the wealth m. cattle 1s not beyond credibility. Upright," (/3,f3"A./ov -roii ,b8aiis, 2 Se.m. i 18). An Egyptian lord of the time of the fourth One that feared God, and eeohewed evil ; dyne.sty relates that he possessed above literally, fea.rifl'J God and deparlifl'J Jrum 1000 oxen and.cows, 974 she.ep, 2,235 goats, 6f!il .. The same testimony is given of Job and 760 asses (Rawlineon's 'Egypt,' vol. ii. by God himself i.n. ver. 8, a.nd again in p. 88) •. FurLher, the proportion. 0£ .the eh. iL S (eomp. also Ezek. xiv. U, 20). camels l8 noticeable, . and implies a r"ei- We must suppose Job to have reached as dence on the borders of the desert (see -near perfection as was possible for ma.n at the commen~ on ver. 1). And a very greilt the time. hous~old; literally, and a uery great ser'Uica, Ver. 2.-.lnd th81'9 were born unto him or retinue of servants. Oriental emirs and BeVen IIIOIIB and three ilanght.ers. The num- lll:1cikhs COil;aide_r it necessary for theu: dig- bers three and seven, and their product, ten, mty to mamtnm a number of attendants are certainly sacred numbers, regarded as and retainers : ( except, perhaps, in feudal expressive of ideal perfoction. But this times) quite uuknowu to the West. Abra- does not prevent their being also historical. ham had three hundred and eighteen As Canon Cook observes, " Striking coinci- trained servants, · born in his ho11se (Gen. dences between outward facts and ideal xiv. 14). Egyptian households were "full numbers are not uncommon in the purely of domestics," comprising attendants of all historical portions of Scripture" (' Spea.ke:r's kinds-grooms, artisans, clerks, musicians, Commentary,' vol. iv. p. 20). There are messengers, and the like. A sheikh, situ- twelfHl apostles, seventy (1 X 10) disciples ated as Job was, would also require a certain sent out by our Lord, setHm deacons, three number of gnards, while for his cattle he synoptic Gospels, t1Dewe minor prophets, would need a large body of shepherds, o]!:- - princes of Persia and Media, ten sons herds, and the like (see Birch's 'Egypt of Haman, tJiree of Noah, Gomer, Terah, from the Earliest Times,' p. 44). So that Levi, and ~ h , &etiefl of Japhet, Mizraim, this man was the greatest of all the men. Scir the Horite, Gad, and Jesse (1 Chron. of the east. The Beney Kedem, or "men ii. 13--15), twelTJe of Ishmael, twehie of Jacob, of the east." literally, sons of the east, etc. Onr Lord is thirty (3 x 10) years old seems to include the entire population be- when he begins to teach, and bis ministry tween Palestine and the Euphrates (Gen. lasts thru yea.re; he heals 8e176n lepers, casts :nix. 1: Judg. vi. 3: vii. 12: viii. 10: Isa. out of Mary Magdalene seven devils, speaks xi 14; Jer. xliL 28, eto.). Many tribes of upon the cross ,eoon " words,'' bids Peter Arabs are similarly designated at the present forgive his brother "ser>enty times - , " day, e.g. the Beni Harb, the Beni Suhr, the etc. It :is thUB not only in vision or in Beni Nairn, the Beni Lam, eto. It would prophecy, or in symbolical language, that seem that the Phamicians mu~t have oalled these " ideal numbers n oome to the front themselves Beni Kedem when they settled far more frequently than others, but also in in Greece, since the Greeks knew them as the most matter-of-faot histories. "Cadmeian.s," and made them descendants Ver. 3.-BiB 1nbltanee also; literally, of a mythic "Cadm-us" (Herod., v. 57-50). AU MqUuition (from nw,., acqu,irere), but The name "Saracen.a" is to .some extent nsert of wealth gen~y. Seven thouand anslogo.us, einoe .it means ~• Men .of the llheep, and three thoman4 camela, and be morWllg," , . hmtdred 7oke ot OPD. and be hudred ■he­ Ver. 4.-.&.nd his IODJI went and teuted. BIHi, Note, 1lnt of all. the absence of "Went and feasted" seeme to mean "wsre  T1r1!J ~OK'. OF JOB. 8