Job’s wife is not named in the Bible but she is known for her words to her husband in Job 2:9 “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”. Also, she is often described as a foolish woman because of Job’s comment to her in the next verse: “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (v.10).
Some early Christian scholars shared that Job’s wife was left by the devil (not dead or destroyed like his children and property) because the devil considered her an accomplice to support him in causing Job to suffer. For example, St. John Chrysostom said Satan left her because “he considers her a scourge by which to plague Job more acutely”, whilst John Calvin named her organum Satania (instrument of satan)¹. These thoughts add to the common perception that she was an uncaring wife and “God-hater”. Was she really evil or did her few words mean something more?
Job’s wife’s first three words from the passage are literally translated as “still persisting in your integrity” (2:9a). So, though she was unaware of it, she had repeated word-for-word what God had already declared about Job in the dialogue between God and Satan in vs. 3. It seems then that she was not blaming Job for bringing on their loss and suffering per se, but rather acknowledging his sustained integrity through it all². Also, the Hebrew verb Job’s wife used (that has been translated as “curse”) is barak, “to bless” in other parts of the Old Testament¹. This meaning of barak was used by Satan when he mentioned Job to God: “You have blessed (barak) the work of his hands” (Job 1:10). That would mean Job’s wife’s words may be interpreted as “Bless God and die”, indicating her frustration at their situation and yet a recognition of her husband’s blamelessness (and perhaps her reverence) towards God.
Would a woman with such intimate knowledge of her husband’s heart, after acknowledging his integrity, use her very next words to push him to curse God²? I think her expression was more out of despair than an actual desire for him to carry it out. I can imagine Job’s wife struggling to find ways to fend for Job and herself, while struggling to make sense of their great loss. While she may have been spared the torture of Job’s physical wounds and boils, her loss, grief and pain from losing all her children, all provision and all security in one day are unimaginable!
In Job’s response, he doesn’t call his wife a fool, but says that she speaks like a foolish woman. His rebuke seems to show that he recognized that her bitter words came out of her frustration, love and concern for him¹, and not from ill will. Job’s rebuke was therefore not harsh but rather corrective in that they had to accept all that God allowed, both good and trouble, and to think otherwise would be “foolish”³.
Further evidence that Job’s wife did not literally mean that Job should curse God comes from the final chapter of Job, when God confronted Job and his friends. In response to God’s inquisitions, Job confessed, “I have spoken out about things I did not understand . . . therefore I repent . . .” (42:3,6). God also ordered Job’s friends to offer sacrifices because they failed to speak correctly about Him (42:7,8). While they came under God’s correction, Job’s wife did not² and there was no mention of her in God’s reply to Job.
Sadly, the silence of Job’s wife makes her story more ambiguous and much of her life is left to the imagination of the reader. We see this in other Bible stories where the female side is often overlooked or silenced in a predominantly patriarchal narrative¹. We see that even at the end of Job’s story, when everything he lost was restored and increased, there was no mention of his wife.
Job’s wife’s story teaches us that Christianity does not absolve us from suffering. In fact, we are called to share in Christ’s suffering so that we can share in His glory. Suffering not because of our poor decisions, but suffering that works in us to produce fruits of righteousness. Like Job’s wife, these sufferings can seem out-of-the-blue, unfair and undeserved but we must hold on to our faith.
Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad — for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. 1 Pet 4:12–13
References:
- Henry, H. (1991). Job’s Wife’s Name. College Literature, 18(1), 25–37. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25111874
- Thompson, S. (2016, November 15). Misunderstanding Job’s Wife. Adventist Record. Retrieved January 18, 2021, from https://record.adventistchurch.com/2016/11/15/misunderstanding-jobs-wife/
- Revelation Media. (2021). Honoring Job’s Wife. iBible. Retrieved January 18, 2021, from https://www.i.bible/behind-the-scenes/honoring-jobs-wife/
