A lengthened account of the discussion of these questions would be without profit.

But, if Job was the son of Issachar {Gen 46:13}, then we have a clue that may help us to a decision of both.

It is better to keep within the Bible itself for the settlement of its problems; and to treat the whole Book as the context of all its parts.

There is no reason why Job should not be the son of Issachar, and no better evidence is forthcoming for a different view.

The three friends of Job were descendants of Esau; they would therefore be contemporaries.

ELIPHAZ,. of Teman, in Idumea, was a son of Esau, and had a son called Teman, from whom his country took its name {Gen 36:10-11}. It was noted for its "wise men" {Jer 49:7}; and is mentioned with Edom {Amos 1:11-12}. Compare {Jer 25:23}, where both are connected with Buz, the brother of Uz {Gen 22:21}.

BILDAD the Shuhite. Shuah was the sixth son of Abraham by Keturah {Gen 25:2}; and is mentioned in connection with Esau, Edom, and Teman {Jer 49:8}.

ZOPHAR the Naamathite. Naamah (now Nã*aneh , six miles south of Lod, in the lowlands of Judah).

If Job was the son of Issachar {Gen 46:13}, he would have gone down to Egypt with his father.

Issachar was forty at "the going down to Egypt". (See Ap. 50. III, p. 52.)

If Job was the third son {Gen 46:13}, he would have been about twenty at that time (1706 b.c.).

We are told that he lived 140 years after his "double" blessing {Job 42:10}. If that "double" blessing included length of years, then his age would have been 70+ 140=210 (i.e. three seventies of years). His lifetime would be from 1726-1516 b.c.

According to this, he was born the year after Joseph was sold, and died 119 years after the death of Joseph (in 1635 B. c.). When Joseph died, Job was ninety-one. If his "double" blessing did include length of years, then his affliction took place twenty-one years previously, when he was seventy. His removal from Egypt to Uz must therefore have taken place earlier still.

This would account for Job being a worshipper of the God of Abraham, and explains how Moses could have been the author of the book, and perhaps an eye- and ear-witness of the events it records in Midian. If so, the time has come (as Dr. Stier foretold and hoped in The Words of the Lord Jesus. Vol. iv, p. 406.) when this book would be regarded as "the Porch of the Sanctuary"; and when this "fundamental wisdom of original revelation will cease to be ascribed, as it now is by some of the best, to a later poet in Israel".