Job belongs to the patriarchal world, the age of Abraham, before there was an Israel, a law, or a priesthood. His wealth is counted the way a Middle Bronze Age chieftain's was, in herds of sheep and camels, oxen and donkeys, and he himself offers the sacrifices for his household as head of his own clan. The land of Uz lay east toward Edom and the Arabian desert, open country where raiding bands like the Sabeans and Chaldeans could sweep off a man's herds in a morning. Nothing in the book speaks of Sinai or the covenant: its questions are older than the nation, set in the wide world before the promise narrowed to one people.