Job 1:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The greatest of all the men of the east— Grotius and others observe, that Job's being here called the greatest of all the men of the east, is an argument that the book must have been written by some Israelite, or inhabitant of the land of Canaan; Job's country lying eastward from thence, and it being usual with the Hebrews to call Arabia the east. But if it was usual with any other people beside the Hebrews to call Arabia the east, then this can be no argument that the writer of the book was a Hebrew; and here, therefore, I must borrow a conjecture from Mr. Mede, that the Israelites learned this language while they sojourned among the Egyptians. It appears probable from this circumstance, that Arabia lay due east from Egypt, but not from Canaan; moreover, it was hither chiefly that the commerce of the eastern countries flowed. The spices of Arabia, in particular, were carried in great quantities to Egypt, and that as anciently as Jacob's days, as we learn from Genesis 37:25. Now an intercourse of commerce, carried on from Arabia to Egypt, that is, from east to west, might make it as customary for the Arabians to call themselves, with respect to these western parts, the east, as for the Egyptians, or any other people, to call Arabia so: I think we have a plain example of this, Matthew 2:2 where the wise men, supposed by Grotius himself to be inhabitants of Arabia, call their own country the east; Where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east; which cannot be meant of the place or site of the star, for that, probably, stood west from them, but of the country from whence they came. If an Arabian, therefore, in our Saviour's time, might call his country the east, why not an Arabian in Job's time? See Peters. Bishop Lowth observes, that all those different nations, and mingled people, as they are called Jeremiah 25:20 who dwelt between Egypt and the Euphrates, bordering upon Judea to the south and east, particularly the Edomites, Amalekites, Midianites, Moabites, and Ammonites, were styled easterns, (see Joshua 6:3 and Isaiah 11:14.) and of these, certainly, the Edomites and Amalekites were situated to the south of Judea. See Numbers 34:3; Numbers 13:29. 1 Samuel 8:10. The case seems to be this: the whole country between Egypt and the Euphrates was called the east, first with respect to Egypt, and then absolutely, without any reference to the situation of the speaker. See 1 Kings 4:30.