and here observe that the word for A.V.'s 'flood' (Job, l.c.) is not mabbūl but nāhār.[1] Hitzig and Delitzsch find another in xxxi. 33. But ādām in Job always means 'men:' in xv. 7, 8, where the first man is referred to, he is not named. The reference in xxxi. 33 is not to hiding sins from God, but from man. I think, however, that the Prologue implies a general acquaintance with some current descriptions of the patriarchal period—the 'golden age' to men of a more advanced civilisation.
It is remarkable, what interesting parallels are afforded by the prophets of the Assyrian period. Isaiah, as might be expected, contains the largest number (see The Prophecies of Isaiah, ed. 3, ii. 243); but Hosea follows close after. Compare especially—
Isa. xix. 5 (certainly the original } { Job xiv. 11 ('the waters
of Job, l.c., where the special } with { fail from the sea,' i.e.
reference to the sea-like Nile is } { any inland body of
dropped) } { water)
} { Job xi. 6 (God's wisdom
Isa. xxviii. 29 } — { marvellous; see Merx,
} { and Isaiah, ii. 154)
Hos. x. 13 (combined with Prov. } — { Job iv. 8 ('ploughing
xxii. 8) } { iniquity,' &c.)
Hos. vi. 1 (or Deut. xxxii. 39) } — { Job v. 18 ('he maketh
} { sore and bindeth up,' &c.)
Hos. v. 14, xiii. 7, 8 } — { Job x. 16 (God compared
} { to a lion)
Hos. xiii. 12 (or Deut. xxxii. 34) } — { Job xiv. 17 ('transgression
} { sealed up,' &c.)
Am. iv. 13, v. 8 (the comparison } { Job ix. 8, 9 ('that treadeth
suggests that v. 8, 9 stood } { upon the heights
immediately after iv. 13 when } — { of the sea; that
Job was written, and that 'the } { maketh the Bear,
sea,' i.e. the upper ocean, stood } { Orion, and the Pleiades')
for 'the earth')
Comp. also Am. v. 8, ix. 6 with Job xii. 15; Am. ii. 9 with Job xviii. 16.
- ↑ According to Ewald, the reference is to Sodom and Gomorrah, the story of which, we know, was familiar as early as Hosea's time (Hos. xi. 8).
