Under Sennacherib, "the roads ... became unsafe". Tobit 1:15.

Tobit, in 1:13-15, contrasts his career opportunities during the reigns, respectively, of Shalmaneser and Sennacherib, kings of Assyria:

“Because I was mindful of God with all my heart, the Most High granted me favor and status with Shalmaneser, so that I became purchasing agent for all his needs. Until he died, I would go to Media to buy goods for him there. I also deposited pouches of silver worth ten talents in trust with my kinsman Gabael, son of Gabri, who lived at Rages, in the land of Media. When Shalmaneser died and his son Sennacherib came to rule in his stead, the roads to Media became unsafe, so I could no longer go to Media”.

For “Media”, substitute “Midian”, according to my:

A Common Sense Geography of the Book of Tobit

http://www.academia.edu/8675202/A_Common_Sense_Geography_of_the_Book_of_Tobit

and for the “Ecbatana” in the Book of Tobit, one ought to read “Bathania”, that is, Bashan.

Now Isaiah, also at the time of Sennacherib, appears to be talking about the same dire and unsafe travelling situation, with Bashan again included (Isaiah 33:7-9):

Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;

    the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

The highways are deserted,

    no travelers are on the roads.

The treaty is broken,

    its witnesses are despised,

    no one is respected.

The land dries up and wastes away,

    Lebanon is ashamed and withers;

Sharon is like the Arabah,

    and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

Book of Tobit is the "most substantial early influence" on the Book of of Job

Taken from:



C.L. Seow
Job 1-21
Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.



P. 115



C. Tobit

 

While OG [Old Greek] has the distinction of being the first sustained reading of Job, pride of place in terms of the book's most substantial early influence must go to the book of Tobit. .... The affinities between Tobit and Job are clear: Both are men of piety and charity (Job 1:1-5; 29:12-17; Tob 1:3; 8, 17). Both lose their possessions and otherwise suffer, but not because of their sinfulness. In fact, in the case of Tobit, suffering came precisely because he had been pious. Both are confronted by their wives (Job 2:9; Tob 2:14). Just as Job says he prefers strangulation and death and loathes his life because of his unbearable suffering (Job 7:15), so Tobit says he prefers death to the excessive distress in his life (Tob 3:6). The implicit connection to Job is made explicit in Vulg (Tob 2:12-18), where Tobit's trial is said to have been permitted in order that an example might be set for posterity "as also of holy Job". ....

 

Like Job, Tobit addresses the issue of suffering that cannot be attributed to human sin. Yet, whereas Job of the canonical Hebrew version is of uncertain ethnic origin, coming as he does from the land of Uz in the Transjordan, Tobit is clearly a Jew [actually a Naphtalian Israelite]. Tobit suffers a fate very similar to Job's. If there is any doubt about the applicability for the Jews of the story of the suffering of the pious Job, possibly a Gentile [sic], in Tobit they must have found a Jewish counterpart to the possibly-Gentile Job. Moreover, whereas the character of God remains an open question in the book of Job, the protagonist having so vehemently raised the question of divine justice, the goodness of God is a given in Tobit. ....

 

 

AMAIC comment: The reason for the startling likeness between the books of Tobit and Job becomes abundantly clear at this site, where Tobias, son of Tobit, is actually identified with Job.

Book of Job an Organic Structure in all the Old Testament



A reader has commented as follows on the article of the previous post

Job and his sons in Josiah’s kingdom

Dear Damien

 

I have enjoyed your paper. So, the most important Book in Holy Bible is The Book of Job for me, I have read it since I was 7 years old; probably now I am starting to understand its sacral essention. Therefore your great philological study has localised this Book in biblical context.

The Book of Job has been for me a parable, but if you have right, it would be an organic structure in all Old Testament. In this case I say: that is extraordinary.

I am not an expert, it is only my opinion, but if your thesis stands, the Bible studies will be more and more completed. Please be sure to keep me informed about the important steps of this paper's scientific way, I am very curious. And I will surf in your page, I am grateful for this experience. Keep the connection .... 

Kind regards ….



Damien Mackey replies:

You must have been something of a child prodigy to have been reading the Book of Job as early as 7 years of age. Congratulations!

My first encounter with the book would be more like 45 years of age.

I read it through and shortly afterwards read the Book of Tobit which my Bible contains. I believe that this combination was providential, because my realisation that Job and Tobias (son of Tobit) had “seven sons” led to further comparisons (possessions; ethical maxims; geography) that I believe enabled me to anchor Job biblically(your “localizated this Book in biblical context”), and historically(to Tobit’s C8th BC neo-Assyrian era, and down to the time of the “Chaldeans”:Job 1:17 – given Job’s very long life). See my:
 

Job’s Life and Times

https://www.academia.edu/3787850/Jobs_Life_and_Times

You will actually find very few instances of “seven sons” in the Bible. Jeremiah 15:9: “She who bore seven sons pines away …”, may actually be a reference to Job’s tragic wife.

In the article that you have read I further identify the now aged Job (= Tobias), and his offspring, as king Josiah’s high official Shaphan, and his important family (when Assyria was fading and the Chaldeans were becoming prominent). And I fully agree with you that, to identify Job, “would be an organic structure in all Old Testament”. It would provide a solid foundation for the Book of Job, for, as you also say, “if your thesis stand, the Bible studies will be more and more completed”.