Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/3_100_t.lzh/3_187.TXT

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people; their good, their welfare and happiness, tem-
poral and spiritual: and spealcing peace to all his seed;
not only to llis family, but to all the Jews who were
of the same seed with him, the seed of Abraham;
either speaking to thetn in an humble and condescend-
ing mariner, being very humane, affable, and cour-
teous; or speaking for thetn to the king, asking of him
for them what might conduce to their peace, prospe-
rity, and happiness. No mention is made in this his-
tory of the death and burial either of Mordecai or

Esther; but the author ofCippi Hebraici says {z}, that
Mordecai was buried in the city of Shushan, and that
all the Jews in those parts assemble at his grave on the
day 6f Purim, and sing songs, playing on tabrets and
pipes, rejoicing that there was a miracle wrought; and
the same writer says{a}, they do the like at that time at
the grave of Esther, half a mile from Tzephat, read
this book that bears her name, eat, drink, and rejoice.
Benjamin of Tudela says {b}, they were both buried be-
fore a synagogue, at a place called Hamdan.

THIS book, in the Hebrew copies, generally goes by.
this name, from Job, who is however the subject, if
not the writer of it. In the Vatgate Latin version it
is called the Book of 3ob; in the Syriac version, the
Writing of Job; and in the Arabic, the Writing or
Book of Job the Just. In some Hebrew Bibles it
stands between the Book of Proverbs and the Song of
Solomon; but, according to the Talmudists{a}, it should
staud between the Psalms of David and the Proverbs
of Solomon. Some have made a question of it, whether
there ever was such a man as Job, and suppose this
book not to be a real history, or to contain matters of
fact, but to be written under fictitious names, and to
be parabolical, and that it is designed to set forth an
example of patience in suffering affliction; and some
of the Jewish writers{b} affirm, that Job never was in
being, and that this book is a parable, apo!ogue, or
fable; and to this Maimonides{c} himself inclines; but
this opinion is justly rejected by Aben Ezra, Pe-
rilsol, and others; for that there was such a man is as
certain as that there were such men as Noah and
Daniel, with whom he is mentioned by the Prophet
Ezekiel, ch. xiv. 14. and the testimony of the Apostle
James is full to this purpose, who speaks of him as a
person well known, and not to be doubted of; of whom,
and of whose patience, the Jews he writes to had heard
much, Jam. 5.11. besides, the names of the countries
wherc he and his friends lived, the account given of Iris
family, and of his substance, both bcibre and after his
afflictions, shew it to be a real history. Learned men
are not agreed about the signification of his name; ac-
cording to Jerom a, it signifies a magician, taking it to
be thesame with \^bwa\^, ob: and some Jewish writers{c} place
him with Balaam and Jethro, as the counsellors of Pha-
raoh against the Israelites, for which he was afflicted: the
same ancient fathers render the word grieving and
howling; others, as Spanhelm f, derive it from \^bay\^, to
love or desire, and suit signifies desire or delight, and
is the same with Desiderius or Erasmus; hence Job is
called by Suidas {g} \~tripoyhtov\~, exceeding desirable; but
Hillerus {h}, deriving it from the same root, makes it to
signify just the reverse, without desire; or not desira-
ble; and supposes it to be a compound of \^bway\^, desire,
and \^ya\^, not; but the generality of writers derive it from
\^bya\^, to be at enmity, and so it signifies one that is ex-
posed to the hatred and enmity of men, or one that is a
hater and enemy of wicked men; or, as Schmidtt inter-
prets it, a man zealous for God, and shewing hatred to
wickedness and wicked men on his account. Who Job
was, it is not easy to say; not the same with Jobab, of
the race of Esau, as some, Gen. xxxvi. 33. Aristeas{k}
says he was a son of Esau himself, by his wife Bes-
sare, and was first called Jobam; nor the same with
Job a son of Issachar, Gen. xlvi. 13. nor was he a de-
scendant of Abraham by Keturah; but rather sprung
from Uz, the first-born of Nahor, brother of Abra-
ham, Gem xxii. el. who gave name to the country
where Job lived, as Buz his brother did to that of which
Elihu was, and as Chesed, another brother of Uz, did
to the Chasditn or Chaldeans, who were both near to
Job. It is also not agreed in what time Job lived;
Maimonides{l} says, of their writers some place him in
the times 0fthe patriarchs, some in the times of Moses,
others in the times of David, and others say that he
was of the wise men of Babylon; and some add, that
he was of them that came out of the captivity there,
and had a school at Tiberins, as say the Talmudists
who give very different accounts of him: some say
he was in the times of the judges; others in the
times of the queen of Shcba; and others in the timea


{z} P. 70. Ed. Hottinger.
{a} Ib. p. 64.
{b} Itinerar. p. 96.
{a} T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 14. 2.
{b} Ibid. fol. 15. 1.
{c} Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 22.
{d} Prooem. in Job, Quaest. Heb. in Lib. Paralipom. fol. 82.
{e} T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 11. 1. & Sanhedrin, fol. 106. 1.
{f} Hist. Job, p. 61.
{g} In voce \~iwb\~.
{h} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 293, 852.
{i} Comment. in Job, i. 1. p. 6.
{k} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 25. p. 430.
{l} Ut supra.
{m} T. Hieros. Sotah, fol. 20. 3, 4. T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 15. 2.