Job's wife is an unnamed biblical figure mentioned in the

Book of Job The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...

Biblical narrative

Job's wife appears only in chapter 2, when Job is afflicted with sores. She says to him in verse 9, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die" (

ESV The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Bible. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently published critic ...

). The word translated "curse" actually means "bless", but almost all English translations view it as a

euphemism A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...

. Job then rebukes his wife in verse 10, and says to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak." Job's wife is never heard of again, except for passing mentions in 19:17 (when Job says, "My breath is strange to my wife") and 31:10 ("then let my wife grind for another"). In chapter 42, Job gets more children (verse 13) but there is no mention of whether it is with the same wife or a different one. Georges de La Tour 044

Tradition

In the apocryphal '' Testament of Job'', Job's wife occupies a more prominent role and is given the name ''Sitis''. The children born at the end of Job's suffering are to a different wife, who is identified as

Dinah In the Book of Genesis, Dinah (; ) was the seventh child and only daughter of Leah and Jacob, and one of the Patriarchs (Bible)#Matriarchs, matriarchs of the Israelites. The episode of her violation by Shechem, son of a Canaanite or Hivite prin ...

, daughter of

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam ...

Evaluation

Job's wife is usually viewed negatively.

S. G. De Graaf Simon Gerrit De Graaf (23 May 1889 – 22 December 1955), known as S. G. De Graaf, was a Dutch Calvinism, Reformed minister and theologian. De Graaf was a minister of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Cornelis Veenhof suggests ...

argues that she ridiculed Job "because he continued to trust in the Lord".

Abraham Kuyper Abraham Kuyper (; ; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920) was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which u ...

even suggests that she is Job's last trial: "Satan knew he could use her as an instrument with which to grieve and torture his victim, and for that reason he permitted her to live." Other commentators point to the fact that she, too, lost her children. Ilana Pardes appeals to 19:17 in saying that "she too, after all, is a victim of these divine tests in addition to being pained by exposure to his afflictions". Some scholars view Job's wife positively. Pardes says, "Much like Eve, Job’s wife spurs her husband to doubt God’s use of divine powers. In doing so she does him much good, for this turns out to be the royal road to deepening one’s knowledge, to opening one’s eyes." She also notes that Job "comes close to doing what his wife had suggested." Carol A. Newsom calls the words of Job's wife "radical and provocative" and notes the

ambiguity Ambiguity is the type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly defined, making several interpretations plausible. A common aspect of ambiguity is uncertainty. It is thus an attribute of any idea or statement w ...

in the word "integrity": she could be suggesting that Job's righteousness has not done him much good so far, or she could be suggesting that Job continues in his honesty even to the point of cursing God. Newsom concludes that "Job's wife is the prototypical woman on the margin, whose iconoclastic words provoke defensive condemnation but whose insight serves as an irritant that undermines old complacencies."

References

{{Book of Job Book of Job Women in the Hebrew Bible Unnamed people of the Bible

Biblical narrative

Tradition

Evaluation

See also

References