Ἐπ ̓ αὐτῶν τῶν λέξεων [τοῦ βιβλίου] γενόμενοι σαφηνίσωμεν τὴν ἔννοιαν,αὐτοῦ ποδηγούντος ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὴν ἑρμηνείαν, τοῦ καὶ τὸν ἅγιονἸὼβ πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἐνισχύσαντος. - Olympiodoros. The Opening - Job 1:1 Job's Piety in the Midst of the Greatest Prosperity - Job 1:1-5 The book begins in prose style: as Jerome says, Prosa incipit, versu labitur, pedestri sermone finitur. Prologue and epilogue are accordingly excepted from the poetical accentuation, and are accented according to the usual system, as the first word shows; for אישׁ has, in correct editions, Tebir, a smaller distinctive, which does not belong to the poetical accentuation. The writer does not begin with ויהי, as the writers of the historico-prophetical books, who are conscious that they are relating a portion of the connection of the collective Israelitish history, e.g., Sa1 1:1, אישׁ ויהי, but, as the writer of the book of Esther (Est 2:5) for similar reasons, with היה אישׁ, because he is beginning a detached extra-Israelitish history.