styled the Temanite, from that portion of the new territory
which fell to his lot.1
The distinction thus incidentally made may be of some importance
; for if this individual were in reality the oldest of Job’s
friends, the circumstance may assist in determining the period
to which one of the most interesting, and one of the oldest
portions of Scripture belongs.
Several particulars, which will presently be noticed, go far
to show, that the residence of Job could not have been in
Idumea, nor even, as has been supposed by Dr. Lee, in the
tract between Damascus and the river Euphrates; but in all
probability it was in the vicinity of O’rfah, where a tank and aUpp^Meso-
well on the road to Diyar Bekr, with other localities, are con- land of Uz.
nected with the name of the great Patriarch.
It will be remembered that the district in question was one
of the seats, and possibly the principal one, of the Shemitie
people; it was also the land of Buz, son of Nahor,2 and probably
also that of the eldest son of Aram,3 to whom the foundation
of Damascus has been attributed,4 with the more probability,
since this place might have been occupied by this branch of the
sons of Noah, as they spread westward.
As a constant political intercourse appears to have been The Shemites
1 i i? A ¿I, m Mesopom
a i n t a i n e d b e tw e e n t h e c e n t r a l g o v e r n m e n t o i A s s y r i a o n t n e tamia and
one hand, and the dependent provinces about the borders o f ^ £ con'
Syria on the other, it can scarcely be doubted that tribal, and
still more strongly kindred ties, would be equally maintained
between the descendants of Shem living in Mesopotamia, and
those who occupied the borders of Syria and Arabia. And it
may be observed that, agreeably to the prevailing customs of
the east, such a journey as that from Idumea to the supposed
rendezvous at O’rfah, would only be an ordinary circumstance,
willingly undertaken in order to mourn with and comfort the
distinguished chief of their tribe: some distance is certainly
implied by the necessity of making an express appointment.
1 From Teman, a city of Edom.—Je r., chap. X L IX ., v. 7 ,2 0 ; Ezek.,
chap. X X V ., v. 13 ; Amos, chap. I., v. 12.
s Gen., chap. X X I I ., v. 20, 21. 8 Gen., chap. X., v. 23.
4 Bochart, Geo. Sacr., lib. I I ., cap. viii.