Days 5-17, More Insights

When Did Job Live?

Internal Evidence Job Lived near the time of Abraham

1. Job’s Wealth Measured in Livestock (1:3; 42:12). This was also true of the patriarchs. Job 1:3 says, “He owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East” (NIV)

2. Job, as a father, served as a priest to his family. This was true in the Patriarchal period, and that’s why Israelites call Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “our fathers” (John 8:52-56). There’s no mention of the law or priestly system in Job. Apparently, it didn’t exist. Yet, in Job 1:5, Job, the father and priest, did this for his adult children.

When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning, he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom. (NIV)

The Bible calls us priests in 1Peter 2:9. We may not be priests in the same way as Job, but is it our regular habit to pray for our children? Will we intercede when needed? Will we leave them a positive testimony of God’s grace in our lives?

3. Several personal and place names in the book are associated with the patriarchal period. For instance, in Job 1:15 and 6:19 mentions Sheba, Abraham’s grandson, and the Sabeans from Sheba (Genesis 25:3).

4. Job’s age when he died corresponded in proximity to the patriarchs’ ages when they died (Job 42:16).

5. Literary works similar to the book of Job were written in Egypt and Mesopotamia around the patriarchs’ time.

A summary of some of these comparisons were derived from The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the Old Testament, by Walvoord and Zuck, ©.1985, p. 717. There the reader will find a much more detailed comparison.

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re-edited 1-4-2023

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