JBL 120/1 (2001) 31-55 JOB AS JOBAB: THE INTERPRETATION OF JOB IN LXX JOB 42:17b-e ANNETTE YOSHIKO REED mail@annettereed.com Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1006 After the end of the story of Job (42:17), LXX Job contains two additions with no equivalent in the MT, Peshitta, Qumran Targum (11QTgJob), or Rab- binic Targum of Job.1 The first augments the canonical account of Job's death (Job 42:17) with a brief affirmation that he will be resurrected (LXX Job 42:17a). This addition seems to respond to questions raised by the denial of res- urrection within the book of Job (e.g., Job 7:9; 14:7-12; see b. B. Bat. 16a). Consequently, it is generally thought to be a later gloss and to be independent from the lines that follow.2 While the first addition is brief and its motivation relatively transparent, the second addition (subsequently termed "the LXX Job appendix") proves more intriguing. This addition begins by referencing an unnamed "Syrian" or Aramaic source. It then locates Job's land of origin "on the border of Idumea and Arabia" and identifies him with Jobab, the Edomite king of Gen 36:33 (LXX Job 42:17b). Subsequently, the passage combines information from Gen 36 and LXX Job in order to trace Job's heritage through Esau to Abraham (42:17c) and to locate him chronologically within a list of Edomite kings I owe much gratitude to Martha Himmelfarb for reading and commenting on this paper at numerous stages in its development. It has also benefited much from the feedback of Albert Hen- richs, Hanan Eshel, Richard Saley, Dove Sussman, Kirsti Copeland, and Adam Becker. Any errors that remain are solely my own. 1 Since the term "LXX" does not adequately reflect the different stages in the formation of early Greek translations of Job, it will be used only before the stage of a certain portion of a text is determined or when the difference between the stages is less significant than the Greek texts' rela- tionship to other traditions (e.g., MT, Aristeas the Exegete, Testament offob). 2 See, e.g., Henry Barclay Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914), 256-57; G. Buchanan Gray, "The Additions in the Ancient Greek Version of Job," The Expositor 19 (1920): 429-31; Peter Gentry, The Asterisked Materials in the Greek Job (SBLSCS 38; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 586. 31