Post by Lee on Dec 3, 2014 3:04:03 GMT
The land of Uz was Job’s homeland (Jb. 1:1; cf. Je. 25:20 and La. 4:21), the location of which is uncertain. Of the numerous suggestions (e.g. near Palmyra, near Antioch, or in N Mesopotamia) the two most likely are Hauran, S of Damascus, and the area between Edom and N Arabia. The former is supported by Josephus (Ant. 1.145) and both Christian and Muslim traditions. On this view (favoured by F. I. Andersen, Job, 1976) Uz is the land settled by the son of Aram.
Many modern scholars (e.g. E. Dhorme, Job, E.T. 1967) incline towards the more S location. Job’s friends seem to have come from the vicinity of Edom, e.g. Eliphaz the Temanite (Jb. 2:11). Uz appears to have been accessible both to Sabaean bedouin from Arabia and Chaldean marauders from Mesopotamia (Jb. 1:15, 17). The postscript to the LXX locates Uz ‘in the regions of Idumaea and Arabia’, but partly on the basis of a spurious identification of Job with Jobab (Gn. 36:33). Uz in Je. 25:20 is coupled with Philistia, Edom, Moab and Ammon, while La. 4:21 indicates that the Edomites were occupying the land of Uz. However, the LXX omits Uz in both of these passages, and the identity of this land of Uz with Job’s is not certain. The fact that Job is numbered with the people of the E (1:3; cf. Jdg. 6:3, 33; Is. 11:14; Ezk. 25:4, 10) seems to substantiate a location E of the great rift (Arabah) in the area where Edom and W Arabia meet.
-New Bible dictionary
Many modern scholars (e.g. E. Dhorme, Job, E.T. 1967) incline towards the more S location. Job’s friends seem to have come from the vicinity of Edom, e.g. Eliphaz the Temanite (Jb. 2:11). Uz appears to have been accessible both to Sabaean bedouin from Arabia and Chaldean marauders from Mesopotamia (Jb. 1:15, 17). The postscript to the LXX locates Uz ‘in the regions of Idumaea and Arabia’, but partly on the basis of a spurious identification of Job with Jobab (Gn. 36:33). Uz in Je. 25:20 is coupled with Philistia, Edom, Moab and Ammon, while La. 4:21 indicates that the Edomites were occupying the land of Uz. However, the LXX omits Uz in both of these passages, and the identity of this land of Uz with Job’s is not certain. The fact that Job is numbered with the people of the E (1:3; cf. Jdg. 6:3, 33; Is. 11:14; Ezk. 25:4, 10) seems to substantiate a location E of the great rift (Arabah) in the area where Edom and W Arabia meet.
-New Bible dictionary