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    REVIEW. t6 Still pleasM to praise, yet not afraid to blame." — Pope.

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    C 49 )

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    Art , I . —The Book of Job * literally translated from the original Hebrew , and restored to its natural Arrangement : with Notes critical and Illustrative j and an introductory Dissertation on its Scene , Scope , Language , Author and Object . By John Mason Good , F . R . S . Mem . Am . Phil . Soc . and F . L . S . of

    Philadelphia . London : Black , Parry and Co . 1819 , 8 vo . pp . 491-THE qualifications requisite to a translator of the book of Job , are of no ordinary standard . How far they belong to Mr . Good , must be

    determined by a diligent and candid review * of his performance . Various literary productions have made this gentleman known to the public : and even they who are least partial to him as a writer , must admit that in

    industry he surpasses most of his contemporaries . In the present number we shall examine his introductory Dissertation , To his eulogium on this noble poemto his general estimate of its character and importance—we feel little hesitation in subscribing :. And we shall

    now accompany him in his inquiry into " the scene" of the book , " its scope , object and arrangement ; its language , and the difficulties attending a translation of it ; its author and sera ; and the doctrines which it incidentally developes . " 1

    I . " Nothing , * says Mr . Good , " is clearer than that all the persons introduced into the ensuing Poem were Idumseans , dwelling in Idumaea , or , in other words , Edomite Arabs . "

    Bochart , Spanheim , and the writers of the Universal History , place the land of Uz in Sandy Arabia , which Rosenmullcr , whose Prolegomena , fyc . in Jobum have now reached this

    country , considers as likely to be its position . * Indeed , on looking into Jer . xxv . 20 , 21 , we find that Uz and ZL'dom are spoken of as distinct from each other . Of the spot upon which Job dwelt , Blayney t remarks , " It

    * Prolegom . 26 . t I * Jus M « tc on J « i \ xxv . 20 . H

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    was most probably on the confines of Id urn sea , if not a part of it : ' and in this opinion we are disposed to acquiesce . We do not differ greatly from Mr . G ' s ., which is well supported by the authority and reasoning of Bishop Lowth . * But we submit , whether the Dissertator has not

    expressed hi on self with somewhat too much of confidence ? He justly commends the * ' modesty ' of Ewsebius : and in the event of his printing a second edition of his Translation , he will perhaps at once imitate and praise this learned ecclesiastical historian , and

    enable us to verify the quotation made ( ix . ) from his works ; of the substantial correctness of which , however , we do not doubt , though it has the appearance of being inaccurately

    printed . The manners of the Poem are , beyjond controversy , Arabian ; a fact of far more importance than our answer to the question , lu what district are Job and his friends

    described as living ? jSiot that even this investigation is without its use j nor that we judge it unworthy of the notice of studious men . Still , we think it the least momentous of the

    matters which occupy our Translator ' s preliminary discourse , and not among the clearest . II . He states the subject proposed by the writer of the Poem to be " the trial and triumph of the integrity of Job / ' Such , i ? o doubt , is the general argument of the book . Its scope ,

    nevertheless—the object of its author —seems to have been higher j to vindicate the ways of God to man , by shewing that severity of affliction is no proof of the sufferer ' s guilt . The individual case of Job is subservient to

    this moral . Whether he really existed , has been a topic of dispute among scholars and divines . But we believe that historical truth is the Lmsis of this work . The nature of the refer ences in Scripture to its principal character , f afford a strong presumption that he is not the offspring ofthe poet ' s

    * Praeloctionos , &c . xxxii . not , sub . init i- Ezek . xiv . 14-20 . James v . 1 JL .

    Review. T6 Still Pleasm To Praise, Yet Not Afraid To Blame." — Pope.

    REVIEW . t 6 Still pleasM to praise , yet not afraid to blame . " — Pope .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 49, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/49/