Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/1829

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prominent position, is an embellishment somewhat violently brought over from the style of the primeval histories (Gen 21:29; Rth 1:19): a septiad of sons. The names of the sons are passed over in silence, but those of the daughters are designedly given.

Verse 14

Job 42:14 14 And the one was called Jemîma, and the second Kezia, and the third Keren ha-pûch.
The subject of ויּקרא is each and every one, as Isa 9:5 (comp. supra, Job 41:25, existimaverit quis). The one was called ימימה (Arab. jemâme, a dove) on account of her dove's eyes; the other קציעה, cassia, because she seemed to be woven out of the odour of cinnamon; and the third קרן הפּוּך, a horn of paint (lxx Hellenizing: κέρας ἀμαλθείας), which is not exactly beautiful in itself, but is the principal cosmetic of female beauty (vid., Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, transl.): the third was altogether the most beautiful, possessing a beauty heightened by artificial means. They were therefore like three graces. The writer here keeps to the outward appearance, not disowning his Old Testament standpoint. That they were what their names implied, he says in

Verse 15

Job 42:15 15 And in all the land there were not found women so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.
On נמצא, followed by the acc., vid., Ges. §143, 1, b. להם, etc., referring to the daughters, is explained from the deficiency in Hebrew in the distinction of the genders. Job 42:15 sounds more Arabian than Israelitish, for the Thora only recognises a daughter as heiress where there are no sons, Num 27:8 The writer is conscious that he is writing an extra-Israelitish pre-Mosaic history. The equal distribution of the property again places before our eyes the