King James Version · The patriarchs
Job 1
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There was a man in the land of , whose name was ; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared , and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that sent and them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for said, It may be that my sons have , and in their . Thus did continually. Now there was a day when came to present themselves before , and came also among them. And said unto , Whence comest thou? Then answered , and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And said unto , Hast thou considered my servant , that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth , and escheweth evil? Then answered , and said, Doth for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will thee to thy . And said unto , Behold, all that he hath is in thy ; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So went forth from the of . And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother’s house: And there came a unto , and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: And the fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of ; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The of is fallen from , and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of ; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother’s house: And, behold, there came a great wind from , and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are ; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and , And said, came I out of my mother’s , and shall I return thither: gave, and hath taken away; be the name of . In all this not, nor charged foolishly.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.