Job's Wife
Ask about Job's Wife
Job's wife appears only briefly in the book of Job, but her words are among its most remembered. After Job had lost his possessions and all ten of his children and was struck with painful boils, she said to him, 'Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.' Job answered that she spoke 'as one of the foolish women speaketh,' asking whether they should receive good from God and not evil. Later Job laments that even his breath had become strange to his wife. She shared in the loss of their children, and readers have seen her both as a voice of temptation and as a grieving mother speaking out of despair.
Biography
- Spouse
- Job
- Children
- Seven sons and three daughters
- Era
- Patriarchs (uncertain)
- Nationality
- Uzzite
Family
Did You Know?
She is the only member of Job's family who speaks in the book; his ten children die in the first chapter without a recorded word.
Job does not call her wicked but says she speaks 'as one of the foolish women speaketh' (Job 2:10). The Hebrew word for foolish describes moral and spiritual folly rather than a lack of intelligence.
The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, expands her words in Job 2:9 into a longer lament about her own suffering, showing that early readers heard grief behind her counsel.
Key Chapters
Key Passages
Curse God, and Die
Job 2:9-10
Her bitter counsel gives voice to the very outcome Satan predicted, and Job's reply shows a faith that accepts both good and evil from God's hand.
9hen said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Strange to My Wife
Job 19:17
Job's lament reveals how suffering had isolated him even within his own home.
17y breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
