something similar; that it contained a Roman garrison; and that the informant of Eusebius knew it to be 51,000 paces from Petra. By an error in transcription the accurate figure 51 was transformed into an incorrect 15 and, in the case of Jerome, into a still more incorrect 5.
Pliny, Naturalis historia, VI, 157, mentions the Timaneans among the tribes in the interior of Nabataea and says that in his time they were called Taveni. According to Pliny, therefore, the old name Timanei had been replaced by a more modern Taveni, a name which, in our opinion, has been preserved in that of the ruins of Tawâne (pronounced also Twâne). The settlement of at-Twâne, fifty-six kilometers to the north of Maʻân (see Musil, Karte von Arabia Petraea), lies in the eastern region of northern Edom on the great transport route connecting north with south, contains the remnants of a Roman camp, and tallies both with the Biblical statements and with the Onomasticon. We may therefore identify it with the main dwelling place of the Biblical tribe of Têmân, of which Eliphaz, the friend of Job, was a native.
ŠÛAḤ, NAʻAMA, AND BÛZ
Bildad, the second friend of Job, belonged to the clan of Šûaḥ, which is mentioned in Genesis, 25: 2, among the descendants of Abraham and Keturah, and thus among the Madianites, who possessed the territory along the transport route from Dedan through Edom to Syria. Thus this friend of Job also dwelt in the closest proximity to Edom.
Zophar, the third friend of Job, who hailed from the Naʻama, came from the southern part of Edom. There is no other mention of the tribe of Naʻama in the Bible. The Septuagint replaces Naʻama by “Meinaion,” thus allotting the Naʻama to the Minaeans. The process by which the Greek connected the Minaeans and Naʻama will perhaps be clearer if we remember that Naʻama was transcribed from Raʻama (Gen., 10: 7) and that the clan of Raʻama was akin both to the Sabaeans and to the people of Dedan, thus belonging, in the Biblical view, to the Minaeans.
The fourt friend who visited Job (Job, 32: 2, 6) was Elihu of the tribe of Bûz. According to Genesis, 22: 21, this Bûz was of the same origin as ʻÛṣ. If we take the Assyrian records as a basis, we shall expect to find its headquarters in the depression of Sirḥân, where its name has been preserved in the local appellation of Bîẓ, or Bîḏ, near which various settlements were and still are situated. Through the territory of the tribe of Bûz led the great transport route uniting Babylonia and the Persian Gulf with Syria and Egypt. We therefore understand why, according to Jeremiah, 25: 9, 23ff., Bûz is threatened with destruction at the hands of the Babylonians just as are the inhabitants of Dedan and Têmân.
As, therefore, some of the friends of Job came from Edom and some from the closer and remoter surrounding districts—that is from territory situated to the east and south of the Dead Sea—we must seek the country of Job, the land of ʻÛṣ, in the same direction. This is where it is located also by the Septuagint, which completes the Biblical Book of Job (42: 17 b) with the observation that Job, whose real name was Jobab, dwelt in Ausitis, on the mountain range of Idumea and Arabia. This passage (42: 17d in the Septuagint) identifies Jobab, known as Job, with the king Jobab of Genesis, 36: 33.
