THE TIME OF JOB

I don’t know if this will be of interest to many of you or if you will wonder if I have too much time on my hands. Anyway, I want to look at the book of Job. I know there are different ideas on when the story of Job happened. I think we can pinpoint quite closely the time that Job lived.
If we take the genealogy from the time of the flood to the time that Abraham entered Canaan we find it to be 427 years. This can be found in Genesis 11. When Abraham had been in Canaan for 25 years his son Isaac was born: Genesis 21:5.
Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob and Esau were born: Genrsis25:36. Esau was 40 years old when he married the two Hittites: Genesis 26:34.. Eliphaz, according to Genesis 36:10 was Esau’s oldest son. Eliphaz oldest son, as we see in the next verse=verse 11 was Teman.
Remember that Eliphaz was one of the friends of Job. We find him the fiRst time in Job 4:4. It would seem that Teman was Esau’s favorite. At any rate he named a city after him. For this also see Obadiah 9. We do know from Job 6:19 that Tema was existing at this time.
In Job 1:1 we read that Job was in the land of Uz. In Lamentations 4:21 we are told by Jeremiah that Edom was a part of the land of Uz. This would explain why Eliphaz knew Job. They may well have been neighbors. Now if Teman was old enough for Esau to notice him to the extent of wanting to build a city after him his father would be at least fifty or sixty. At least we know from Job 32: 6 that he was no longer a young man. Add all of this up and you come to just over 600 years after the flood. This would be about 30 or 40 years before the Israelites went to Egypt.
Now let’s look at the circumstances of the time. Notice in Job 1:3 all of the goods Job had. What would it not take to maintain this large household and all these animals? We do know Job paid fair wages. We see this in Job 31:13-15. There had to be a market for all these animals and at the same time a large area. As we look at the circumstances it seems that the time when Job lived would not be over two centuries. At this time there would have been a tremendous population explosion. This is why the market would be there. But what of a century or so later.
The story of Job was about 40 years before Jacob and his family went to Egypt. There they greatly multiplied in number. But so had the Canaanites. Look what had happened in Canaan. It was now full of people and cities. There would no longer be room for wandering nomads and their large herds if cattle. The children of Israel came to Edom which was in Uz where Job had lived. It too was filled with people and cities.
I suppose someone could say “so what”. I think my only defense is found in
Proverbs 25:2=It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter. Why do people want to know of the farthest planet and the deepest ocean? Because it’s there.