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 Chapter Two, Chapter 2, or Chapter II may refer to: Film, television, and theatre * ''Chapter Two'' (play), a 1977 play by Neil Simon * ''Chapter Two'' (film), a 1979 adaptation of Neil Simon's play Television episodes * "Chapter 2" (''American H ...

, when

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

is afflicted with sores. She says to him in verse 9, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die" ( ESV). 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 The ''Testament of Job'' is a book written in the 1st century BC or the 1st century AD (thus part of a tradition often called " intertestamental literature" by Christian scholars). The earliest surviving manuscript is in Coptic, of the 5th centur ...

'', 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 matriarchs of the Israelites. The episode of her violation by Shechem, son of a Canaanite or Hivite prince, and the subsequent vengean ...

, 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. J ...

Evaluation

Job's wife is usually viewed negatively. S. G. De Graaf 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 upo ...

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 Ilana Pardes (born 1966) is a biblical scholar. She is Katharine Cornell Professor of Comparative Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Pardes attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under Robert Alter. She r ...

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 Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

, 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 Carol A. Newsom (born July 4, 1950) is an American biblical scholar, historian of ancient Judaism, and literary critic. She is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emerita of Old Testament at the Candler School of Theology and a former senior fe ...

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 ...

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