Jobab ben Zerah ( ''Yōḇāḇ ben-Zerah'') was a king of ancient

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...

, according to Genesis 36. He succeeded Bela ben Beor in the apparently elective kingship of the Edomites. He ruled from

Bozrah Busaira ( ar, بُصَيْرا, buṣayrā; also Busayra, Busairah or Buseirah) is a town in Tafilah Governorate, Jordan, located between the towns of Tafilah ( Tophel) and Shoubak and closer to the latter. Bozrah ( he, בָּצְרָה ; also ...

. He was succeeded by Husham. Jobab has traditionally often been identified with the biblical figure Job. Job was said to live in the " land of Uz", which was where Edom was located. Job was one of the wealthiest people in the world, and this wealth could easily be explained with his status as royalty.

Identity as Job

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

, identifies Job as Jobab. Also, the oldest English-language Catholic Bible, the Douay-Rheims, identifies Job as Jobab. The Challoner Revision of the Douay-Rheims speculates that Job could have written the book of Job, but the original 1610 Douay-Rheims says that Job himself wrote the book in the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

language, which was then translated into

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu ( Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pr ...

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Her ...

versions of Book of Job and

Russian Synodal Bible The Russian Synodal Bible (russian: Синодальный перевод, The Synodal Translation) is a Russian non-Church Slavonic translation of the Bible commonly used by the Russian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic, as well as Russian Bapti ...

include a postscript in which Jobab is identified with Job, the anonymous author of the postscript refers to a "Syriac book". Many Bible scholars, such as Douglas Wilson, agree with the identification, though Methodist theologian

Adam Clarke Adam Clarke (176226 August 1832) was a British Methodist theologian who served three times as President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference (1806–07, 1814–15 and 1822–23). A biblical scholar, he published an influential Bible commentar ...

maintained a different position. David J. Gibsonhttp://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php?topic=1550.0;wap2 in his book ''Whence Came the Hyksos, Kings of Egypt'' defends the identification based on numerous passages from the

Book of Job The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars a ...

, personal names, geography, occupation, and contemporaries.

External links

Kings of Egypt

References

{{Authority control Kings of Edom Job (biblical figure) Book of Genesis people