The Book of Job.

How very remarkable it is that a book which records God's dealings with a Gentile should have a place in the Hebrew canon of Scripture; but this the more attests its authenticity as divinely inspired, for Jewish prejudice would assuredly have excluded it had there been the slightest ground for so doing. It is not of Abraham or of any of his ancestors or descendants that the words are written, "That man was perfect and upright," and of whom Jehovah says to Satan, "Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?"

Nothing in the book indicates who the writer was, but the reference to Elihu, "the son of Barachel the Buzite," might place the date about the time of Moses, for Buz was the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. There is indeed the probability that Moses was the writer. Moses could well have written Genesis and Job during his forty years in Arabia. He was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," which was doubtless used of God in preparing His servant for his future service. Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus were written afterwards, to record the history of Israel, and God's relations with His people, from Egypt to the precincts of the land of Canaan.

The authenticity of Job is not only safeguarded by its place in the Hebrew canon, but is confirmed by Ezekiel's reference to the patriarch, when he links him with Noah and Daniel, men who were renowned in Israel, as approved of God, for their righteousness. The prophet might have chosen Abraham, Moses and some other notable in Israel's history, but God inspired him to write of Noah, the link between the post and antediluvian periods, Job, of whose righteousness God had specially spoken, and Daniel, who was contemporary with Ezekiel. Further confirmation of the Book of Job is found in the New Testament, where James, writing to the twelve tribes, says, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job." It was well-known to the Hebrews.