Abraham Ibn Ezra's Commentary on Job 2:11: The Time and Place of Job and His Friends and the Composition of the Book of Job

In the early 1140s, while living in Rome, Abraham ibn Ezra wrote a commentary on the Book of Job. In his remarks on Job 2:11, Ibn Ezra situates Eliphaz the Temanite chronologically, notes that the rabbis ascribed authorship of the Book of Job to Moses, and suggests that the book was translated into Hebrew from another language. These assertions are well known to scholars and interpreters of Ibn Ezra, and his suggestion that Job is a translated book has been widely cited. Nevertheless, Ibn Ezra's position has not been elucidated in depth. In what follows, I hope to fill this lacuna. In the first section, I will analyze Ibn Ezra's commentary on this verse in detail. As I will explain, Ibn Ezra's position, that Job is a translated work, is unique. In the second section, I will point out the considerations that led him to this conclusion. In the final section, I will discuss the place of this assertion in the history of the book's interpretation.