revealed truth, fully investigates this subject, it is difficult to say whether indignation at the captious, skeptical, and unjust misrepresentations which have been propounded, or admiration of the unexpected and abundant confirmation of the Bible which the history of the period supplies, predominates. We are free to confess, that although volumes would be required for the minute investigation of every interesting point, and for meeting every apparent difficulty which this subject presents to our attention; yet, in our judgment, after a careful and patient inquiry, nothing can be more explicit and triumphant than the confirmation which ancient history gives to the Biblical account of this period, when explained according to the chronology of the Septuagint.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE HISTORY OF THE SCRIPTURE PATRIARCHS, FROM THE DISPERSION TO THE DEATH OF ISAAC.

JOB, the same with Jobab the son of Joktan-His history investigated, and his place of residence, the period when he lived, the civilized condition of mankind in his time-SERUG-NAHOR-TERAH-ABRAHAM-His history and travels-LorThe vicissitudes to which he was exposed after leaving Abraham-ISHMAELTraditions respecting him-ISAAC-His birth, intended sacrifice, and conduct to his sons.

In prosecuting our investigations into the history of this period, it will be desirable, in the first instance, to supply a consecutive outline of the biography and character of the several patriarchs who then flourished; after which we may make some general observations, calculated to cast light upon the history of the age. In proceeding downward from the time of Peleg, according to the chronological arrangement which we have adopted, the first patriarch presented to our attention in Holy Scripture is Joв.

We consider it more than probable that the justly celebrated patriarch whose case is exhibited in the book which bears his name, is the same person with Jobab, the son of Joktan. Now, as Peleg and Joktan were brothers, both being the sons of Eber, Jobab or Job stands in the generation immediately following the dispersion. If this conjecture shall prove to be well-founded, then this inspired book may be regarded as most opportunely supplying us with an authentic account of the religion of those patriarchs who remained faithful to God, prior to those further revelations and promises which were made to Abraham.

We are aware of the various opinions which great men, possessing the highest qualifications, have promulged on this subject; and we therefore expect that what we may advance, if received at all, will be subjected to a severe critical ordeal. As our only object is to elicit truth, we do not shrink from such a test.

Still, perhaps, no subject can present a more forbidding aspect to an inquiring mind than does the history of Job, notwithstanding the peculiar interest with which it is invested. Everything relating to this patriarch has been violently controverted. His country, the age in which he lived, the author of the book that bears his name, have all been fruitful themes of discord: and, as if to confound confusion, these disputes are interrupted by others,

who would maintain that no such person ever existed; that the whole tale is a poetic fiction, an allegory!

We are not called upon to enter into these various controversies, or to attempt an answer to all the objections that have been urged against the general teaching of Scripture on this head. Yet we cannot, in such circumstances, treat the case as if such disputes had never been raised. The subject has become involved and intricate, not so much on account of any native obscurity, as through the conflicting opinions which learned men have propounded respecting the personality, era, and character of Job.

It will be our endeavor to show, as clearly as the nature of the case will admit, when Job lived; where he resided; what were the circumstances in which he was placed; and the character which he sustained.

Before we enter upon this inquiry it will be necessary to observe, that this subject has been greatly obscured by confounding together the actions and circumstances of different individuals, living in different ages, on account of their sustaining the same name. That excellent author, and eminently learned scholar, Dr. Samuel Lee, (Introduction to Job, sect. 3,) has furnished a most remarkable instance of this kind of error. He makes Sheba, the grandson of Cush, to be the same with Sheba, the grandson of Abraham; while Uz, the son of Aram, is in like manner identified with Uz, the son of Nahor. It is by such anachronisms that the history has been so greatly obscured.

The following table of the repetition of the names, more or less connected with the portion of history now under consideration, will serve to illustrate this point.

Job, the subject of the book bearing his name.

Jobab, the son of Joktan. Gen. x, 29.

Jobab, the son of Zerah. Gen. xxxvi, 33.

Job, the son of Issachar. Gen. xlvi, 13.

Jobab, the king of Madon. Joshua xi, 1.

Jobab, the son of Shaharaim. 1 Chron. viii, 9.

Jobab, the son of Elpaal. 1 Chron. viii, 18.

Uz, the son of Aram. Gen. x, 23. Huz in the printed Samaritan text. (See Burrington's Genealogies, vol. i, p. 15.)

Huz, the son of Nahor. have been rendered Uz. Uz, the son of Dishan.

Heb. 77, Gen. xxii, 21; which should (Ibid., vol. i, p. 38.) Gen. xxxvi, 28.

Sheba, the son of Joktan. Gen. x, 28.

Sheba and Dedan, sons of Raamah. Gen. x, 7.

Sheba and Dedan, sons of Jokshan. Gen. xxv, 3.
Sheba, the son of Abihail. 1 Chron. v, 13.

Aram, the son of Shem. Gen. x, 22.

Aram, the son of Kemuel. Gen. xxii, 21.

Aram, the son of Esrom. Matt. i, 3; Luke iii, 33. (See Burrington's Genealogies, vol. i, p. 186.)

This list might be greatly extended; but in its present form it is sufficient to show that, in those ancient times, the same names were frequently appropriated to different individuals, who in their turn gave their own names to the several districts of country which they occupied. Nothing, therefore, can be more fallacious than to decide that Edom was the residence of Job, because it was called the land of Uz. We see, by the preceding list, that a grandson of Esau bore this appellation, who might have had sufficient influence to give his own name to a large district of the country occupied by the descendants of Edom, although the country of Uz where Job dwelt might be quite another land, named from the son of Aram. It is equally unsafe to conclude, because in the family of Esau we meet with Buz, and Teman, and Shuha, as descendants of Abraham by Keturah, that, therefore, Elihu the Buzite, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, the friends of Job, were the descendants of these men. There are other, and much more important, elements in the inquiry; and if these should place the scene of the transactions of this book in the neighborhood where these persons settled, and in an age subsequent to that in which they lived, then the conclusion alluded to would appear very probable; but if the contrary should be established by sufficient evidence, we must not be led away from the truth by a similarity of names.

There is one peculiarity of considerable importance, which attaches to historical investigations into the events of the age from the deluge to Isaac: the duration of the life of man so greatly and gradually diminished during this period, that, if we can clearly ascertain the length of a person's life, it is not difficult to point out the most probable time in which he lived. Let us apply this test to the case of the pious patriarch who is the subject of this investigation.

We e are in no part of Holy Scripture distinctly told what was the exact length of Job's life; but we have such information

as will enable us to come to a tolerably satisfactory judgment on this head.

We are informed that, "after this," (his trial and affliction,) "Job lived a hundred and forty years." Chap. xlii, 16. Before this time he had a family of children grown up, and probably married, seeing they had separate establishments of their own; for, when the day of trial came, "his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house." Chap. i, 13. If we take the lowest account found in any copies of Holy Scripture, we find, according to the Hebrew, that no patriarch in a direct line from Shem to Nahor was a parent before the age of thirty. Supposing Job to have married at this age, and his eldest son to have done the same, he would then have been sixty when his troubles began; and, consequently, his whole age, at this very lowest computation, would be two hundred years. But as it appears that all Job's children had left their father's house when his trial began, the probability is, that the youngest was thirty at this period, instead of the eldest, as we have supposed, which would add ten or twenty years more to the age of the patriarch. This calculation, being based on the Hebrew number, places the era of Job, according to that version, between the time of Peleg and that of Abraham. Peleg lived two hundred and thirty-nine years; Reu, two hundred and thirty-nine; Serug, two hundred and thirty; Nahor, one hundred and forty-eight; Terah, two hundred and five; after which the term of human life was gradually, but rapidly diminished.

We have, however, assigned reasons for preferring the chronology of the Septuagint. And if, guided by their numbers, we pursue a similar course of investigation, we may say that Job married when about one hundred and thirty; that his eldest son was about one hundred and thirty at the time of his affliction; which, with the one hundred and forty years afterward, would make the whole duration of his life four hundred years. This, according to the Septuagint, would place the era of Job's life between Cainan and Nahor; for the first named of these patriarchs lived four hundred and sixty years; Salah, four hundred and thirty-three; Eber, four hundred and four; Peleg, three hundred and thirty-nine; Reu, three hundred and thirty-nine; Serug, three hundred and thirty; Nahor, two hundred and eight. This estimate appears to be a very near approximation to the truth.