it be very probable. Five hundred miles across a sandy desert seems a vast tract of country for a band of robbers to pass over: but, to omit this difficulty, which is not absolutely invincible, we can scarcely assign an adequate motive for plunderers out of Babylonia to choose such a course. With the rich vale of the Euphrates before them, stretching northward to the fertile countries of Mesopotamia and Syria, they would hardly take the trouble to wander five hundred miles through the howling waste of Arabia Deserta in the hope of finding merely accidental plunder. But, whatever may be thought either of the possibility or the probability of such an excursion, I am fully convinced, that the Chusdim or Chaldeans, who carried off Job's camels, were not at that time stated inhabitants of Babylonia, though I believe them to have previously been emigrants from that country. In reality, when they plundered Job, they were his near neighbours and very troublesome they proved themselves to more persons than to the Arab prince.

At a remote period, the Indo-Scythians of the Ethiopic or Cuthic stock, quitting their primeval settlements in the Indian Caucasus, descended along the valley of the Indus; and then, turning to the west, established themselves round the head of the Persian gulf and occupied the province of Babylonia. These are said by Diodorus to have been the allies of the second

Ninus, when he founded a new Assyrian dynasty, and to have coöperated with him in the capture of Babylon: hence they must have acquired a settlement in that region about the close of the first Assyrian dynasty; that is to say, about A. P. D. 803 and A. A. c. 2135. Here the pastoral warriors, under their family name of Chusim or Chusdim (by the Greeks expressed Chaldeans), reigned for the space of 215 years, perhaps however acknowledging the feudal superiority of the Assyrian emperor. While they occupied this region, a large body of them, either pressed for room or prompted by a love of adventure, emigrated from Babylonia and advanced into the West: but instead of marching directly across the inhospitable wastes of Arabia Deserta, they more prudently followed the course of the Euphrates northward, and thus, circuiting the wilderness and passing through Syria, they entered the land of Canaan from the north. This country they speedily subdued: and, from their own favourite appellation of Palli or Shepherds, they communicated to it the familiar name of Pallisthan or Palestine. Here their chief settlement was Tyre and Sidon, where they were known by the title of Anakim or Fanakim or Phenicians': but many of them,

'The Phenicians were of the same Indo-Scythic stock as the Pelasgi: hence, like them, they used the digamma, pronouncing their name Anakim as Fanakim.

emulous of yet further conquests, pushed on to the south-west and invaded the territories of the Mizraim. This irruption into Egypt took place A. P. D. 936 or A. A. c. 2002; that is to say, about six years before the birth of Abraham whence we may fix their emigration from Babylonia to about A. P. D. 893 or A. A. c. 2045. Egypt they entirely subdued, and were there distinguished by the name of Huc-Sos or Shepherd-Kings: but, irritating the native Mizraim by their tyranny, they were forcibly expelled A. P. D. 1196 or a. a, c. 1742; on which they retired into the south of Palestine, among their brethren the Pallistim or Philistim. Fifteen years after their expulsion, Joseph was sold into Egypt: and, thirty seven years after the death of Joseph, they returned and once more completely subdued the Mizraim. This second conquest of Egypt occurred A. P. D. 1341 or A. A. c. 1547: and it is alluded to by Moses, when he says, that, after the death of the twelve patriarchs, a new king or dynasty rose up which knew not Joseph. At length the Shepherds, having harassed the native Mizraim and having persecuted the Israelites for the space of one hundred and six years, were finally expelled the country; their sovereign and the flower of their warriors having been miraculously overwhelmed by the Red Sea in A. P. D. 1447 or A. A. c. 1491'.

See this curious portion of ancient history discussed at

Now, if we compare these dates with the chronological arrangement of the history of Job as already settled, we shall find, that the Chusdim or Chaldean Shepherds were first expelled from Egypt about twenty four years before the birth of Job or about ninety four years before the commencement of his trials, and that they returned into Egypt a second time about fifty one years after his trials had been accomplished. But, when they were first expelled from Egypt, they retired into the isthmian region and into the south of Palestine. Hence they were very near neighbours of Job at the precise time, when his camels are said to have been forcibly carried away by three bands of the Chusdim or Chaldèans. Such being the case, we can scarcely doubt, I think, that the Chusdim who plundered Job, were certain marauding individuals of the Shepherds, who had previously indeed emigrated from Babylonia, but who had more lately been expelled from Egypt, and who then occupied a country immediately contiguous to Idumèa.

Thus decidedly is the stamp of strict authenticity placed upon the book of Job by the very incident, which, on a superficial view, might appear to render the narrative a little suspicious or at all events of no easy explication'.

large in my Origin of Pagan Idol. book vi. chap. 5. See likewise the chronological table at the end of that work.

1

The subjoined table will exhibit at one point of view the

3. Nor will the preceding arrangement be found less serviceable in accounting for another circumstance mentioned in the history.

comparative chronology of the history of Job. In noting down the years after the deluge, I follow the Samaritan Pentateuch; the postdiluvian chronology of which evinces itself to be genuine, by its freedom from all contradictoriness, and by its capability of bearing the severest test to which it can be subjected.

A.P.D. A.A.C.

803 2135 Rise of the second Assyrian dynasty, and conquest of Babylonia by the Indo-Scythic Shep

herds.

893 2045 About this time a great branch of the Shepherds emigrate from Babylonia, advance westward

round the Arabian desert, and enter the land of Canaan from the north.

936 2002 The Shepherds, having passed through and subjugated the land of Canaan, invade and conquer Egypt.

942 1996 Abraham born.

1042 1896 Isaac born.

1102 1836 Jacob and Esau born.

1143 1795 Reuel and Eliphaz born about this time to Esau.

1182 1756 Levi born to Jacob.

1182 1756 Zerah born about this time to Reuel.

1194 1744 Joseph born to Jacob.

1196 1742

Expulsion of the Chusdim or Chaldèan Shepherds from Egypt, upon which they retire into the south of Palestine.

1220 1718 Job or Jobab born about this time to Zerali. 1247 1691 Kohath born to Levi.

1290 1648 The trials of Job commence, when, according to the Greek, he was seventy years old.

1304 1634 Joseph dies,

1307 1631 Amram born to Kohath.