Before Clirift 1739 — 1728. 7 



a book *, and engraving letters, or writing on plates of lead, and on 

 ftone, with iron pens, and alfo feal-engraving, rf. 19, 31, 38; fiflung 

 with hooks, and nets, and fpearsf, c. 41 ; mufical inftruments, parti- 

 cularly the harp and organ, c. n^o ; alTronomy, and names given to the 

 conftellations ; which proves that they mufl have made great profi- 

 ciency in arithmetic and geometry, the invention of which (long after 

 this time) is afcribed to Myrisking of Egypt :{:, cc. 9, 38. Thele various 

 important notices prove, that, though the patriarchal I'yllem of making 

 pallurage the principal objecl of attention was ftill kept up by many of 

 the chiefs of the country §, where the author of the book of Job lived, 

 the fciences were afliduoufly cultivated, the ufeful and ornamental arts 

 were in a very advanced Itate, and commerce was profecuted with vi- 

 gour and effedl:, at a time, when, if the chronology of Job be rightly 

 fettled, the arts and fciences were fcarcely fo far advanced in Egypt, 

 from which, and the other countries bordering upon the eaftern part of 

 the Mediterranean fea, they were afterwards Ilowly conveyed to 

 Greece 1|- 



1^39 — Jacob, the grandfon of Abraham, bought a piece of grotmd 

 near Shalem in the land of Canaan, for which he paid an hundred kefi- 

 tas%. He was invited by the people of the country to fettle among 

 them, and to trade, or negotiate with them. \Genefis, cc. 't^i^, 34.] 



1-728 ^llie inhabitants of Arabia, whofe great advances in the arts 



and fciences havejuft been noticed, appear to have availed themfelves 

 in very early times of their mod advantageous fituation between the 

 two fertile and opulent countries of Egypt and India, and to have got 

 the entire and unrivaled polleflion of a very profitable carrying trade 

 between thofe countries. In this commerce navigation and land car- 

 riage were combined : and we find a clafs of people, who gave their 



* The Englifli traiiflation has ' printed in a of Job was written, long before the Ifraelites be^ 



• book.' came a nation, very long before the Greeks were a 



-|- According to the Englifli tranddtion, ' with civih'zed people, and many centuries indeed, before 



• barbed irons,' or harpoons. the name of Roman was heard of. 



J The Greeks learned geometry from the E- i^ ^ i i „v ^ nr 



+ . , 1 r , ■^ 1 1- r Onandoque to:ius dormitat Jnomerus : 



jrvptians, ana theretore cas'e tliem the credit oi ,7 ^- • } r ii i, r 



o/*^. '. cc 1 T ■ n Vtriim opere in longo las elt obreperere lomnum. 



. the invention, bee o/rap^, i^. xvi, />. 1090. i o 1 



} Both the inventories of Job's ellatc t numerate «f The tranflators of the Englifh Bible have ren- 



ftieep, camels, oxen, and affts, together with a very dered hefita ' pieces of money.' Others have 



great lionfehold : but there is not a word of horfts, tranllated it by a word fignifying lands. Accord- 



for which Arabia has long been famous, as com- ing to the learned Bochart, \^Hicrnzoicoit, L. ii, c. 



poling a part of his property. 43-] 't mult have been a kind of money, fo called 



II A very refpeftable author, to whofe exten- as being genuine, or of a juft Itandaid finenefs, 



five rtfearches hiftory, and particularly oriental heftta ivim.i^'v\<g true ov gaiu'ine ; and he thinks it 



hiftory, has been greatly indebted, has inadvertent- had 110 connection whatever with lambs. Some 



ly afcribed tlie fuperior civilization of the Arabians fuppofe it a piece of money 'lamped with the 



to the occafional vifits of Ifiaelite, Egyptian, figure of a lamb. If this opinion could be efta- 



Grecian, and Roman, merchants. If io, the blilhed, it would be the earliell notice of coined* 



fcholais have greatly furpaflcd all their mailers, money in the world. But it is believed, that there 



But an iiitercourfe, fufficient to produce fuch an was no coined money among the Ifraehtes till after 



effeft, mud have commenced long before the book the extindlion of their monarchy. 

 3 



