Shuhite

Shuhite is the gentile designation applied to Bildad, one of Job's three friends (Job 2:11; 8:1; 18:1; 25:1; 42:9). The term identifies him as a descendant of Shuah, son of Abraham by Keturah (Genesis 25:2), whose tribal territory lay in the region of northern Arabia. The Shuhites are attested in Assyrian and Babylonian sources as a people of the middle Euphrates, and their association with the wisdom tradition represented by Job's friends is consistent with the ancient Near Eastern setting of the book of Job. Bildad's speeches are marked by appeal to received tradition and the wisdom of former generations (Job 8:8–10), suggesting a culture that valued accumulated ancestral knowledge.