myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

Job 1:1

A man in the land of Uz

All the library's versions agree on the opening: a man in the land of Uz named Job, blameless and upright. The Greek calls the land Ausitis (Giguet: "Hus") and adds a third and fourth virtue ("sincere, irreproachable, just"). No version locates Uz.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original JobPoem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Job
Aramaic
    Greek and its daughters
    1. Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)Printed Septuagint; translated 1872Translated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen
    Latin
    1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 390s, from HebrewTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
    English
    1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    Every witness, in order

    1. Poem often dated 6th–4th century BC (debated)

      Original Job

      – No copy survives

      No original survives. Small Hebrew fragments of Job are known from Qumran (2Q15, 4Q99–101).

    2. c. AD 390s, from Hebrew

      Jerome's Vulgate

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

      Vir erat in terra Hus, nomine Job: et erat vir ille simplex, et rectus, ac timens Deum, et recedens a malo.

    3. AD 1008

      Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

      ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Job

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

      אִ֛ישׁ הָיָ֥ה בְאֶֽרֶץ־ע֖וּץ אִיּ֣וֹב שְׁמ֑וֹ וְהָיָ֣ה ׀ הָאִ֣ישׁ הַה֗וּא תָּ֧ם וְיָשָׁ֛ר וִירֵ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים וְסָ֥ר מֵרָֽע׃

    4. 1611

      King James Bible

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

      How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

      There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

    5. Printed Septuagint; translated 1872

      Greek Job, filled-out text (library: Giguet's French)

      ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Greek text as filled out after Origen

      How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

      Il y avait, en la terre de Hus, un homme appelé Job, et cet homme était sincère, irréprochable, juste, craignant Dieu et s’abstenant de toute chose mauvaise.

      Greek via Giguet's French (filled-out printed text); not checked against Ziegler's critical edition.

    What changed, and why

    Uz ('Uts) appears in Genesis among Arameans, Nahor's family and Edomites, and in Lamentations 4:21 with Edom. The Greek ending (42:17b) places Ausitis "on the borders of Idumea and Arabia." The words tam ve-yashar ("perfect and upright") describe moral integrity, not sinlessness. The atlas shows Uz as an uncertain region.

    What the evidence shows

    • Not independently verifiedUz can be located on a map. Edom or northern Arabia are candidates.
    • Independently documentedAll versions in the library agree that Job was upright.

    Sources

      Related lessons

      • A Man in the Land of Uz →Job of Uz is blameless and upright, rich in children and flocks, and offers sacrifices in case his children have sinned. In the heavenly council the accuser (ha-satan) asks whether Job's piety is only payment for his blessings. God allows him to take everything but Job's body. In one day raiders, fire and wind destroy Job's flocks, servants and all ten children. Job tears his robe, shaves his head, falls to the ground and worships: "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
      • Investigation: Was Job Jobab? →The Hebrew book gives Job no genealogy, no date and no tribe. The Greek translation ends with an appendix that does: it says Job lived in Ausitis on the borders of Edom and Arabia, that his earlier name was Jobab, and lists him among the kings of Edom from Genesis 36. A Hellenistic Jewish writer, Aristeas the Exegete, made the same identification. The Talmud records rabbis placing Job in the times of the patriarchs, Moses, the judges, the Persian kings, or calling him a parable. These are interpretations, not independent historical evidence.