I say nothing here of the parallels in the Song of Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii. 10-20). I have shown reason in Isaiah, i. 228, for believing that the Song is a highly imitative work, and largely based on Job, such a work in fact as can only be accounted for in the Exile or post-Exile period.
There still remains the great body of psalms of disputed date. The parallelisms in Ps. xxxvii.[1] are too general to be mentioned here, striking as they are; but we may venture to compare Ps. viii. 5 with Job vii. 17; Ps. xxxix. 12b with Job iv. 19b; ib. 14a with Job vii. 19a, x. 20; ib. 14b with Job x. 21, 22; Ps. lxxii. 12 with Job xxix. 12; ib. 16 with Job v. 25b; Ps. lxxxviii. 16b with Job xx. 25 (the rare word 'ēmīm); ib. 17 with Job vi. 4 (bi'ūthīm); ib. 19 (lxix. 9) with Job xix. 14; and note throughout this psalm the same correspondence of extreme inward and outward suffering which we find in Job. Then, turning to the psalms of different tenor, comp. lxxii. 12 with Job xxix. 12; ib. 16 with Job v. 25b. I have selected these instances precisely because they allow us to draw an inference as to priority. Ps. lxxxviii. is clearly imitative, and no doubt there is more imitation of the great poem in other psalms. Psalms viii., xxxix., and (probably) lxxii. were however known to and imitated by the authors of Job. The parallel in Ps. viii. is specially important. That this psalm is not earlier than the Exile is disputed, but extremely probable; the bitter 'parody' in Job vii. 17 must in this case be of the same or a later period.
And now to sum up the results of our comparisons. The Colloquies in Job are of later origin than Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and most of Proverbs, but possibly nearly contemporaneous with much in the second part of Isaiah, except that Isa. liii. not improbably lay before the author of Job; also that Ps. viii., a work of the Exile period, was well known to him. We are thus insensibly led on to date the Book of Job (the speeches, at any rate) during the
- ↑ See Bateson Wright's The Book of Job, Appendix. The author concludes that the poet of Job 'selects the main threads from the complete treatise of Ps. xxxvii. and interweaves them into the highly poetical discourse of Eliphaz.'
