The Time of Job

Around 2000 BC during the days of the Patriarchs

1.  Job lived 140 years after the events of the book (42:16), his life span being close to 200 years.

2.  Job’s wealth is measured in terms of livestock (1:3; 42:12) rather than gold and silver.

3.  Like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Job is the priest of his family and offers sacrifices (1:5).

4.  There are no references to Israel, the Exodus, the Law of Moses or the Tabernacle.  

5.  The Chaldeans who murder Job’s servants (1:17) are nomads and have not yet become city-dwellers.  

6.  Job uses the characteristic patriarchal name/title for God, Shaddai (“the Almighty”), thirty-one times (found only seventeen times in the rest of the Old Testament).