Free Grace Women

“Do you still hold fast to your integrity?  Curse God and die!” Job 2:9 NKJV

Near the beginning of the book of Job, Job’s wife gives the title character the above bad advice.  Due to this short speech, her only words recorded in the Bible, I have heard her either ignored in discussions of Job or dismissed as someone both Job and God discard after the difficulties are over.  However, the Bible doesn’t indicate that she dies or that Job divorces her, leaving her story as a valuable example of both mercy and failure.

Her Perspective

What was Job’s wife’s situation when she advised him to commit God-assisted suicide¹?  The book of Job opens with a description of Job’s righteousness, family, and wealth (Job 1:1-5).  From the account of Job’s sacrifices on behalf of his children, to God’s praise of Job’s actions, we read of someone whose life ambition is to fear God and shun evil.  In Job 31:13-21, we read a description of helping and listening to the weak that suggests that providing food and clothing to the destitute was part of life for the whole household, and that many of Job’s hours were spent listening to pleas for justice, no matter how humble the person.

One day, while still focused on serving God, Job and his wife received the news that their wealth was taken and their children killed by calamities that did not touch their neighbors’ households.  Human raiding bands took the oxen and camels, but the servants say that “the fire of God…from heaven” burned up the sheep and shepherds (Job 1:16) and a sudden wind (Job 1:19) collapsed the house where their children were eating.  

Job puts on the signs of mourning (Job 1:20), then this giant of faith says,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked I shall return there,

The Lord gave,

And the Lord has taken away;

Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21 NKJV

Reading it thousands of years later, I still get the shivers.  What an amazing response!  In fact, the next passage in the narrative is the Lord bragging to Satan about Job’s righteousness.  But Job’s wife, who doesn’t have a window into heaven, sees the next major development–after this statement of superb faith–as Job being struck with an extremely painful ailment.

Her Beliefs

In the midst of grief and despair, Job’s wife now speaks.  Unlike Job’s friends, Job’s wife rightly says he is holding fast to integrity.  She also believes God will respond (and quickly) if Job curses God. 

What she does not believe is that God will act for Job’s good.  For a long time, God had been her husband’s refuge, but now He seems to be the enemy.  Righteousness wasn’t working; death seems the best option to stop all the pain God is causing.

And in many ways, I have sympathy for her.  When I have experienced smaller financial reversals and less suffering afflicting my loved ones, I have certainly felt like things are hopeless and wanted to give up.  Certainly, her advice to Job was wrong, but it is understandable.

Her Legacy

After her bitter statement, God does not reply from heaven, but Job does reply from the ashes. And he rebukes her (Job 2:9).  I don’t know if it stung more that her husband said she spoke like a foolish woman, or that someone whose body was covered in sores told (healthy) her that both of them should accept adversity from God as much as they accepted wealth from God; but after this rebuke, she does not speak again.

Soon after, Job’s friends show up and they are much harder to quiet—eventually, it is the Lord who rebukes them and tells them that if they want to avoid punishment for their incorrect speech about Him, they need to have Job pray for them.  

Since God does not further rebuke Job’s wife, nor is her death listed either as a punishment for her speech or as a further trial for Job, it appears that she lived to see her husband vindicated, to watch their wealth return, and to mother ten more children (Job 42:12-15).

God was merciful. 

She would also have known that she failed to encourage her husband when his life was very hard, and that she had spoken against the God who richly blessed them before and after this trial.  Since her time, generations have read in the Bible how she told Job to curse a righteous God.

Her words were not without consequences.

Her example gives better advice than her words, reminding me of God’s mercy, even if I fail, and encouraging me to be faithful to Him through trials–that the Lord has not forgotten mercy or compassion even when life is very hard (James 5:11).

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1. It occurred to me while writing this that it might be the surrounding people who would kill Job if he cursed God, rather than God Himself; either way, she was counseling Job to act in a way that would result in his sudden and unnatural death. ↩︎

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