[Footnote 94: Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media
Arabia atque ab Arabibus habita, (Lowth, de Poesi
Hebraeorum. Praelect. xxxii. xxxiii. xxxiv, with his German
editor, Michaelis, Epimetron iv.) Yet Michaelis (p. 671 -
673) has detected many Egyptian images, the elephantiasis,
papyrus, Nile, crocodile, &c. The language is ambiguously
styled Arabico-Hebraea. The resemblance of the sister
dialects was much more visible in their childhood, than in
their mature age, (Michaelis, p. 682. Schultens, in
Praefat. Job.) Note: The age of the book of Job is still and
probably will still be disputed. Rosenmuller thus states
his own opinion: "Certe serioribus reipublicae temporibus
assignandum esse librum, suadere videtur ad Chaldaismum
vergens sermo." Yet the observations of Kosegarten, which
Rosenmuller has given in a note, and common reason, suggest
that this Chaldaism may be the native form of a much earlier
dialect; or the Chaldaic may have adopted the poetical
archaisms of a dialect, differing from, but not less ancient
than, the Hebrew. See Rosenmuller, Proleg. on Job, p. 41.
The poetry appears to me to belong to a much earlier period.
- M.]