Heidegger's Bible Handbook: Job: Job's Name

3. אִיּוֹב/Job appears to denoteἐράσμιον/amiable. Why was he called Jobab by the ancients

Concerning the origin of the name אִיּוֹב/Job, we have nothing certain to say. Some insist that it signifies a Mage, or wiseman, from אוב, which signifies Python:[1] others either one hating, or detesting, or hurting, from איב, to be hostile. The Most Celebrated Spanheim (formerly a venerated Preceptor, whose commentary upon the history of Job, packed with manifold erudition, is most worthy of reading), being well-informed, guessed that from יָאַב, to love, to desire, אִיּוֹב/Job signifies either one loving, desiring what is right, virtue, piety; or one ἐπιποθητὸν/desired, loved, lovable, a delight to his own, ἐραστὸν/beloved or ἐράσμιον/pleasant. He was not only called אִיּוֹב/Job, but also יוֹבָב/Jobab, both by a number of the Fathers, and by the Hebrews and the Septuagint Translators; having been deceived by the παρερμηνείᾳ/misinterpretation of Genesis 36:33, where they incorrectly establish Jobab, the second of the Idumean Kings, the great-grandson of Esau by Reuel and Zerah,[2] is the same with Job.

[1]אוֹב can signify a skin-bottle, or a necromancer. It may be derived from a verbal root, אוב or אבב, meaning to make a hollow sound. [2] See Genesis 36:4, 10, 13, 17, 33.