In the Land of Uz

Before I get into the meat of “Lessons from Dinosaurs and Dragons” let me introduce Job to you.  Chapter 3 is called “In the Land of Uz.”  It sets the stage for who Job is and the environment which shaped his thinking.  He is the “Greatest man in all the East” who is blameless and upright.  But is that all we know about him before the story starts?

There are several clues found in other parts of the Bible that can tell us about Job and his theology.  The first tidbit we learn about Job is that he is from the land of Uz.  That seems like such an insignificant detail, but it holds an important clue about Job and what world-view he grew up with. 

Where in the world is the Land of Uz?  We will have to look for clues in history.  This is where those tedious genealogies come in handy.  There were several poor guys whose names were Uz. 

Abraham’s nephew by his brother Nahor and his wife Milkah.  According to Genesis 22 their “oldest was Uz whose brother was Buz.”  Uz and Buz; bless their hearts, I try not to laugh.  Although, Elihu, the young man at the end of Job, was a “Buzite” this is probably not the Uz we are looking for. 

There is another Uz who is much more interesting.  He is found in the genealogies of Genesis 36 and 1 Chronicles 1.  Esau, of the famous Jacob and Esau, also known as Edom, moved his three wives and five sons out of Canaan because his possessions were so great the land could not contain them all “due to their great amount of livestock.”  They settled south/southeast of Israel in the country of a man named Seir whose grandson was Uz.  

Edom intermarried and gradually took over the country.  There was a change from Seir’s heirs ruling the land, to Esau’s heirs ruling the land.  In fact, one of Esau’s wives, Oholibama, was Seir’s great-granddaughter.  Because the land was occupied by several people groups, the place they lived went by several names including Edom, Seir, and Uz. 

Lamentations 4: 21 says “Rejoice and be glad, Daughter Edom, you who live in the land of Uz.”  [NIV]  This is most likely where Job was from.  He is an Edomite living in Uz, the land of Seir.  He is a descendant of Abraham, but on the black sheep side.

If we look a little farther down the genealogies we see Esau and his wife Adah   the Hittite had one son together.  His name was Eliphaz, the eldest of the five sons.  Eliphaz had seven sons the first of which was Teman.  One of Job’s friend’s in this story is Eliphaz the Temanite.  Job’s “friend” was probably Eliphaz who lived in a town built up by his eldest son Teman.  He is possibly Job’s great-uncle. 

This would explain why Eliphaz the first-born from the eldest generation did the most speaking of the friends in the Book of Job.  It would also explain why it would have been okay for him to reprimand Job for speaking his mind, and why he would have felt an urgent need to come and comfort his relative in the first place. 

It would have also been a bone of contention if Eliphaz the Eldest was not the greatest man in all the East.  Job even bragged that his elders hushed to hear him speak.  [Ch. 29]  Eliphaz possibly had to defer to his second-born brother’s great-grandson.  In the family of the rejected first-born Esau, this would have been very bitter indeed.  It would have seemed like the injustice was happening all over again.  No wonder there seems to be a power struggle between the two over who is the wisest.

The next friend we meet is Zophar.  He was a Naamathite.  Very little is known about the name, “Naamathite.”  Most of it is stretching.  There is a Palestinian city named Naamah not to far from the border of Edom.  The people from there are called Naamathites.  Eventually, when Jacob’s descendants returned to Abraham’s land, it was captured and given to Judah as part of the foothill country. [Josh. 15:41]  It is possible this is where Zophar is from.

There is no record of who his people are.  Although, I find it interesting that Esau’s son Reuel had a first-born son named Nahath.  There is a major spelling difference between Naamah and Nahath but it is intriguing.  If Naamathite has anything to do with Nahath, that would possibly make Zophar and Job first cousins with Zophar being a descendent of the elder son.  This would produce many of the same conflicts as would have occurred between Eliphaz and Job.  (He is for sure not from Naaman, the guy with leprosy in 2 Kings.)

Bildad was a Shuhite.  Shuah, his ancestor, was one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah whom he married after Sarah died.  Shuah would have been sent off to the East along with his brothers.  Therefore, though Bildad was not an Edomite, he would be one of the men “of the East.”

Eliphaz was a descendant of Abraham but not an Israelite. Bildad is a descendant of Abraham but not an Israelite.  Even young Elihu was a family member of Abraham but not an Israelite. Job’s friends were a collection of chiefs from the clans of Abraham outside of Israel.  Job was the greatest of these chiefs. 

Some scholars have even suggested that Job is the same person as Jobab found in the genealogies of Esau that we’ve been looking at.  Esau and his wife Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael, had one son named Reuel.  Reuel had four sons; the first was Nahath the second Zerah.  Zerah was the father of Jobab.    That would make Jobab Esau’s great-grandson. 

Jobab became the first Edomite king to rule the region of Seir or Uz.  He was from a city in Uz called Bozrah.  It is now in the modern country of Jordan.  Bozrah means “fold.”  A fold is a place where animals are kept, like a sheepfold.  It would have been fitting for a man who owned so many animals to be from a town named Bozrah.  

If you'd like to read some more details and what the implications of this are you can follow the link to chapter 3.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gI9JrwU1CBSllzcUN0ZmM1dU0/edit?usp=sharing