Abstract
Job’s wife is a figure who is often given a negative image. She is considered an unfaithful wife who wants to tempt her husband to leave God. An exploration of the text of Job 2.9 shows that Job’s wife is a figure who is often misunderstood. She is a figure who is honest about suffering.
The figure of Job’s wife is first encountered in Job 2.9. She says to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ 1 The figure of Job’s wife is rarely talked about and is often given a negative connotation. Several other English Bible translations, such as the King James Version, New American Bible, New International Version and New Jerusalem Bible, also have the same translation: ‘Curse God and die.’ This shows that some Bible translations take a negative view of Job’s wife.
The first part of Job’s suffering is located in Job 1.6–22, which begins with the phrase ‘Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the L
Interestingly, the German translation seems to give a rather positive impression by translating it: ‘Ja, segne Gott und stirb!’ (L45). Here, L45 translates the Hebrew word ‘barek’ as ‘bless’ instead of ‘curse’. However, the term is perhaps meant to be satirical. That is why, in tradition, Augustine called Job’s wife adiuvatrix diaboli, an aid to the devil. A painting dating back to the fifteenth century depicts Job’s wife standing beside him with her arms around his waist as Satan strikes Job. The text accompanying this painting reads: ‘Satan struck him [Job] with a rod and Job’s wife struck him with words.’ 2 Job’s wife tempted her husband in order to get Job to abandon his faith in God. And this was intensified by the invitation to ‘curse’ God and the invitation to commit suicide: ‘die!’ This is corroborated by Job’s response: ‘You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil? (2.10).
It is undeniable that Job’s wife is often seen as one of the annoying characters in the Bible. She is not mentioned by name in the Bible, but almost everyone when hearing about Job’s wife has a negative view. Even though the author of the Book of Job wrote what Job’s wife said only once. And just based on those one or two sentences, readers have judged Job’s wife. Job’s wife is the villain in this story. Not only because she is a woman, who is always expected to submit to her husband and the rib that should be able to support the emotional state of the family. Job’s wife is also considered the ungrateful one, the one who doesn’t have true understanding about who God is. Not like her husband. The signature line that is always remembered is ‘Curse God and die.’ What kind of person is she? Instead of strengthening her husband, she tells him to die.
However, critical readers of the Bible might instead find that Job’s wife is an honest person. Job’s wife realized and acknowledged her human frailty. The word ‘die’ can even be interpreted as the wife’s love language because she could not bear to see her loved one suffer so much. She is, on this reading of the story, the honest person. The suffering she had experienced as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, perhaps made her fall into a deep depression. The children she carried for nine months have died, all her possessions are gone, all her food is gone. Meanwhile, her husband seems to sit quietly in this suffering. Which wife would not be upset to see her husband like this? Not to mention her husband’s wounds and scars. Who would think to clean all that up? This woman is tired, depressed, scared. After expressing her heart honestly, her husband calls her a ‘foolish woman’. Job’s wife’s story stops there.
The reader seems to forget that Job’s wife might have been an extraordinary woman, mother and wife. The author of the book provides information that makes it possible to conclude that Job’s wife had the ability to take care of Job’s large family and wealth. Taking care of a large family is not easy (ten children), but taking care of huge wealth is much more difficult (7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 pairs of oxen, 500 female donkeys and a very large number of slaves). Having the ability to manage such great wealth is not easy, but Job’s wife had the qualities to support her husband.
It is only natural, then, that Job’s wife is honest before God and her husband. Her honesty in the face of suffering is worth highlighting: she was angry, she protested, she was depressed, but she was honest. The psalmist himself had expressed his complaints, anger, protests and depression to God. A human thing. A natural thing. Whereas Job, after many passages, is honest with himself and curses the day of his birth (3.1); he is even ready to sue God (13.18).
In the beginning Job was called a righteous man, blameless. But Job was an Uzite. He was not an Israelite. Here is the genius of the author of this book, putting Job as an Uzite, not an Israelite. It’s okay if he swears, because he is not God’s people. But you have to ask: who is the righteous person here? Aren’t the words of Job’s wife now coming true? Isn’t Job’s wife like a prophetess? And if, until her husband is finally restored, Job’s wife stays with her husband, she is the righteous one. If Job’s friends stayed for seven days and seven nights (2.13), Job’s unnamed wife stayed with her husband until he was restored.
In this regard, the Septuagint provides an alternative translation that gives a positive impression of Job’s wife (the Septuagint translates Job 2.9 at greater length, rather than just one verse): And when much time had passed, his wife said to him, How long wilt thou hold out, saying, Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance? for, behold, thy memorial is abolished from the earth, even thy sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows; and thou thyself sittest down to spend the nights in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labours and my pangs which now beset me: but say some word against the Lord, and die. (Job 2.9 LXX)