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Is Job included on the Bible Timeline?

Job is not on the Amazing Bible Timeline with World History. Why not?

Job is not on the timeline because biblical scholars cannot agree on when he might have lived, and the Bible does not give enough direct clues to place him accurately.

Here are three suggested times Job might have lived by the reasoning of Biblical scholars:

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1. After the flood and long before Moses (after 2350 BC and before 1750 BC)

a. Eliphaz refers to the flood as being in the past in Job 22:16
b. Job sacrifices to God as head of his family (a practice of patriarchal times that stopped with Moses) Job 1:5
c. Job's daughters received an inheritance along with his sons Job 42:15 a patriarchal practice that also stopped with Moses
d. Job's wealth is determined by flocks rather than money that is also consistent with patriarchal times Job 1:3, 42:12
e. The kesitah or piece of money mentioned belongs to patriarchal times
f. The musical instruments (organ, harp, and timbrel) are the instruments of early Genesis
g. Job lived long enough to birth two families of ten children and raise them to adulthood then lived another 140 years. He lived at least 200 years and possibly longer. This is consistent with the ages of patriarchs prior to Abraham.
(Read more on this at apologetics press)

2. Job lived after Joseph but before Moses (after 1650 BC and before 1500 BC)

The reasoning for this time placement is that he must have lived between truly righteous men but not when other righteous patriarchs were alive. Therefore, he is placed between Joseph and Moses. Job 1:8 ( Read more at wiki answers )

3. Job lived during Moses' lifetime.

Job is an associate of Moses' father-in-law. According to this opinion, Moses authored the Book of Job. Some say he was one of Pharaoh’s advisors, together with Jethro and Balaam. (More on this from Rabbi Buchwald )

There's our problem. Since better Biblical scholars than we are cannot agree we did not put Job on the timeline. (But you could pen him in on your copy!)

Please give us your opinion! When do you think Job lived, and how did you come to that conclusion?

 

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189 thoughts on “Is Job included on the Bible Timeline?

  1. I believe that Job lived patriarch’s time
    But he was not son of Jacobs son, because Job situation is different than Jacobs son and Job was lived in Uz which is in Saudi Arabia.
    Job was Wealth full man but Jacob and his sons are wandering peoples.
    There are so many reasons to Prue that Job is not son of Jacob son Iscariot.

    1. I think your wrong he was Jacob’s grandson son is Ishaccar , Eliphaze was Esau’s son One of the others was Eliphaze’s son it lines up Job was around 70 years old when this occurred

  2. I find that Job takes place between 1900 bc and 1200 bc. Zophar was a Naamathite which is a Canaanite city. So it happened before the Jews entered the promised land. Elihu was a Buzite. Buz was Abraham’s nephew born somewhere around the same time as Isaac.

    1. Let me narrow that timeline. 1600 bc to 1200 bc. Edom had to be established. Also, Job could not have lived before the flood as there are too many references of civilizations that we know existed after the flood.

      1. I’m believing he may have been an Edomite, because Uz was in Edom according to Lamentations 4:21, and I’m thinking it was the time when the children of Israel were living free in Goshen but probably after the Great famine that Pharaoh dreamed of.

  3. Go to YouTube and listen to Hugh Ross he’s an Astro scientists been studying since he was seven years old he has the best explanations of day one through day seven of anybody I’ve ever heard

    1. Day 7 isn’t even here yet. God’s timeline isn’t the same as ours. We are under the times and seasons of the Sun, moon and stars. And we are living in the same timeline of the day of Adam, so The Seventh-Day cannot be here yet otherwise we would be in the seventh day or jump to an eighth day because God rested on the 7th Day. The Bible does not say he rested and then went to work again because we’re still in the 6th day of creation. Genesis 2: says, these are the “generations” of the heavens and of the Earth when they were created, “in the day” that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Like I say, God’s team frame is not like our time frame, his ways and his thoughts are so much higher than ours.

    2. I think so

  4. I believe job lived near Mount Sinai. And may have been hobab Moses. Wanted to go with him when Israel left Sinai. That would mean he was a midinite. And a dissident of abraham. And hetero may have live a long life too. Moses lived 120 at that time.

    1. Uz was a joint City with Edom, so he had to have been a descendant of Jacob or Esau, because Esau was Edom.

  5. If the great flood of Noah’s day was the first time that it rained on the earth, then I believe Job was born sometime after the flood. Why? Because rain is mentioned 8 times in the book of job and only 1 time prior to the flood and the time that it is mentioned (Gen. 2:5) was to point out that it hadn’t yet rained On the earth. If Job was born before the flood then how would he know about rain?

    Genesis 2:5 KJV
    [5] And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

    Please see: Job 5:10, 20:23, 28:26, 29:23, 36:27, 37:6, 38:26, 38:28.

    Ray Smith

    1. Was the no rain before the Flood, or before the fall of man?

  6. The OT is not in chronological order and creates lots of confusion.
    Job is the oldest book in the Bible so in my humble opinion it just makes sense that he lived before the great flood when the earth was full of evil and God was preparing to wipe it out. BUT….I saw a documentary about how scientists have found sea shells on top of the pyramids. Only a big flood can do that. So who built the pyramids if they were built before Egypt’s power? The Nephilim?

    1. I believe Egypt was the first power, but was not called Egypt at that time. I believe it was called after the name of Cain’s son, Enoch. Genesis 4:17. This is the family that built the pyramids.

    2. Job was not before the flood because he was from the land of Uz which was a joint City with Edom which was Esau, according to Lamentations 4:21. so it had to have been after Isaac’s death, maybe when the children of Israel were living free in Goshen, but after the Great famine pharaoh dream of

  7. As far as the place names in the book of Job being places that existed after the Flood, consider this. If Moses wrote the book of Job, he could have simply been saying that the place that is now called UZ is the place where Job lived. In other words, Job lived in the land that was called UZ in Moses’ day, regardless of what it might have been called in Jobe’s day.

    A far as the similarity in the names of people, like Eliphaz, man has always named children after ancestors, heroes, etc., people who lived before them. Think about how many Jewish people are named Jacob, David, Moses, etc. So it’s not unlikely that the Job after the Flood was named for the Job before the Flood. And it’s not unlikely that the Eliphaz after the Flood was named for the Eliphaz before the Flood. The same can be said for the name, Teeman, and the Teemanites.

  8. I believe that #3 is probably closest to correct as in his reply to Bildad in Job 9:13 (NIV) he refers to Rahab the prostitute from Jericho in the past tense. That was near the end of Moses’ life.

    1. Job didn’t refer to Rahab the harlot.

  9. Since Job lived more than 200 years it is obvious that he lived during the time of the patriarchs in the land of Uz, after the Flood and before Moses.

  10. Job is Issachar’s third son (Gen 46:13) and Issachar is still alive at the time of Job’s trial (Job 15:10). Therefore Job lived during the time of the Patriarchs (he acted as the chief priest for his family, Eliphaz descended from Esau’s oldest son (Gen 36:10-11), and in the 42 chapters of Job, there is no mention of the Law, Tabernacle, or Temple. The following dates are approximate but pretty close.
    1750 BC the birth year of Issachar. 1706 BC is when Issachar came to Egypt with 4 sons so Issachar was 44. Issachar was about 30 when Job was born, so Job was born about 1720 BC, so Job was about 14 when he came to Egypt. Since God doubled Job’s life after his Trial, Job was about 70 during his Trial (1650 BC). So Job having the additional 70 years, he would have died about 1580 BC. To tie this back to other well known Biblical people, Joseph was about 25 when Job was born. Job was about 31 when his grandfather Jacob died.
    Joseph dies at 110 years in Egypt about 15 years after Job’s Trial (Job is now 85) Job dies 9 years before Moses is born. Job dies 55 years after Joseph died.

    This isn’t my work, this is the work of Dr Floyd Nolen Jones and in his dissertation (which involved huge amounts of research and CAD effort) The Chronology of the Old Testament spells this out in detail with additional charts and calculations. This ties in well with the Amazing Timeline. .

    1. Blessed be the Name of the Lord, Almighty God of all Creation,, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
      Truely Blessed be the Most High, God of my Forefathers,, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
      Blessed be the Name of the Lord & Most High God of all Israel,, Truely Blessed be the Most High Living God & Author of Everlasting Life & Eternal Salvation, through Christ our Lord & Saviour, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
      Blessed art Thou, O Lord God Thou Most High, truely Blessed be Thee & Thy Sacred & Holy Name Forevermore, through Loving Mercy & Grace of Thy Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Hamashiach, our Lord & Redeeming Saviour in whom we mightily pray,,
      Amen, Amen & Amen…

    2. Just curious how he arrived at Job being the third son of Issachar… Genesis says it was Jashub

    3. You are right that’s what my studies tell me , thank you I know you read your Bible

  11. ABRAHAM [21]
    ISAAC [22]
    JACOB [23] [Esau]
    JUDA [24] [Joseph]
    PHAREZ [25] [zerah/Amalek]
    ESROM [26] [Hezron]
    ARAM [27] [Moses]

    Job is the son of Zerah. Zerah is 2 generations before Moses. So Job is 1 gen before Moses. This aligns precisely with #3, which says Job is an associate of Moses father-in-law.

    I place this in the time of Ramses III and the sea people(1182-1159BC), or in Greek timeframes, the return of the Heraklides.

    1. Where did you find the connection of Judah’s son Zerah, the father of Job?
      Thanks

  12. Although the Rahab of Job and the one in Joshua are spelled the same in English, they are different words in Hebrew. The Rahab in Job refers to a mythical pagan deity that often represents the power of the sea or nature, a sea serpent. This deity is haughty, proud, and boastful. Rahab with the same Hebrew spelling is the emblematic name of Egypt. There are references such as in Psalm 87:4, 89:1 and, Isaiah 51:9, as “the proud one” referring to Egypt. Rahab, as in Joshua, has a different meaning. As a proper name it means vast, spacious, fullness. As I pointed out before Hebrew has a different spellings for each application, although, the proper name Rahab is Arabic.

  13. Iron and brass are spoken of before the Flood.

    “And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.” Genesis 4:22

  14. Homer spoke of things handed down to him from history, just as we do today.
    No need for a flood before the Great Flood? Other than Noah’s Flood, what exactly is a need for a flood? Floods do happen. What has been the need for every flood we’ve had since Noah?

  15. Job died a natural death. Why couldn’t his natural death have been before the Flood?

  16. Job is not interpreted as being written in the history of time. Job explains how and why man acts in the history of time. You can pick any part of the Bible – and relate it to Job. Job shows you how to communicate correctly with God and man. Job’s teaching begins the teachings of the Bible.

    1. I agree with this. To understand the Book of Genesis, one must understand the Book of Job first.

    2. Job 1:14-15 mentions Sabean stealing the ox and donkeys. Sabeans were the people of Queen Sheba (modern day Ethiopians). I don’t know if the rest of the evidence supports this, but Queen Sheba lived in the times of King Solomon.

      P.s. No1 else is known to have been called Queen Sheba and Abyssinian/Ethiopian history doesn’t have prior record of kings/queens before Sheba.

  17. women disirve more rights

  18. No rain would have been before the fall. Even then it would have rained over bodies of water, just not land. Basically, there was no jet stream before the big boot from the garden, and with nothing to push evaporated moisture, it came straight down, back over water. Any water on land would be dominated by flora with deep, spreading roots. Which is why it basically says shallow rooted crops were not there. I put Job before the flood. The opening conversation in Job seems to have humanity on life support; I doubt that there is another time when evil is that focused on just one life. I think that the death of Job triggers the not being able to dwell with man verses. That puts demons watching the four plus generations from Job like a hawk, and just laughing at the guy building a huge boat. I would also say that the three named daughters of Job, would one day have a heir that would marry the three sons of Noah.

  19. I follow the Septuagint: the Old Testament of Christ and the early church. Here is how the book of Job ends:
    And Job died, an old man and full of days: and it is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord raises up. This man is described in the Syriac book [as] living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Edom{gr.Idumea} and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab; and having taken an Arabian wife, he begot a son whose name was Ennon. And he himself was the son of his father Zerah{gr.Zare}, one of the sons of Esau, and of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth from Abraham{gr.Abraam}. And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he also ruled over: first, Bela{gr.Balac}, the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dennaba: but after Bela{gr.Balac}, Jobab, who is called Job, and after him Husham{gr.Asom}, who was governor out of the country of Teman{gr.Thaeman}: and after him Hadad{gr.Adad}, the son of Barad, who destroyed Midian{gr.Madiam} in the plain of Moab; and the name of his city was Gethaim. And [his] friends who came to him were Eliphaz, of the children of Esau, king of the Temanites{gr.Thaemanites}, Baldad sovereign of the Sauchaeans, Sophar king of the Minaeans.
    I would like to see hour timeline based on Septuagint version of Genesis 6 & 11. But that’s a can of worms.

    1. I appreciate you posting this. I have been reading the Septuagint and believe it is the most accurate OT version. So, I enjoyed tying Jobab to Job and connecting him to Esau’s line.

  20. Job didn’t live before the flood for the bible says that God looked upon the earth and found only one righteous man and that was Noah! Job was rightenous but God makes no mention of him here.

  21. Have to be after flood because it’s talking about raining twice it didn’t rain before the flood and the sabeans organized around 1100 bc so it have to be around time of king david 1000 bc

  22. Job was likely passed down verbally before it was written down, so it’s likely the events in it, and therefore the persons mentioned, lived much earlier than when the text was penned.
    I suspect the events took place before the flood or not long after—as long as we are taking the text literally. Nobody lived much past age 100 in most of Scripture or recent history.

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