Job’s Wife: A Call for Compassion
By Elizabeth Prata
This discussion highlights the often negative portrayal of Job’s wife, emphasizing her grief after losing everything along with Job. Despite Mrs. Job urging her husband to abandon his faith, my essay calls for a compassionate understanding of her character. It warns against allowing adverse circumstances to weaken our faith, and I encourage women to provide support to their family during trials.
Job’s wife gets a lot of negative play. In some ways, deservedly so, which we will get to in a moment. In other ways, we can give Mrs. Job a bit of a break. She along with Job lost her home, all her possessions, her husband’s health, her husband’s stature in the community, AND all her children. This happened suddenly and to them, for no reason. She was a grieving mother and an exasperated wife.
The Bible is wonderful in that it gives us examples both good and bad for our edification. Mrs. Lot was not an example to follow. Priscilla, Abigail, Mary, and others are good examples. Sarai/Sarah is given to us, warts and all, as they say. Her deeds both positive and negative are recorded plainly. She was human, and like any of us, she did good things and not so good things. That is the beauty of the Bible and it’s how we know it is truth. Nothing is covered up, exaggerated, or overlooked. Human history in all its fallen state is there for us to see.
There is little we know for sure about Mrs. Job. The most curious to me is that we do not know her name. We know the names of Job’s three daughters, but we do not know Mrs. Job’s first name.
Helpful to me is seeing the effect of a wife on her husband when she lacks the fortitude to support him. We know that Job was THE most pressed man in the biblical history (except Jesus, of course). His tragedy rings down through the ages. His losses are inexpressible. As Herbert Lockyer described,
As to his patience, the Bible presents him as our model. Faith was strained but Job emerged victorious (Job 19:1–27; Jas. 5:11).
Job was right when he chided his wife, “But he said to her, “You are speaking as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity?”” (Job 2:10a)
Herbert Lockyer wrote short biographies of all the named and unnamed men and women of the Bible. He also wrote a book called All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible, and one called All the Prayers of the Bible, among many others. They are known as Lockyer’s “All” books. His book about All the Men of the Bible is on sale right now at 92% off on Amazon Kindle. ($1.99).
Here is Lockyer’s synopsis of Job’s Wife:
Lockyer- “JOB’S WIFE: THE WOMAN WHO URGED HER HUSBAND TO COMMIT SUICIDE.” (Job 2:9, 10; 19:17; 31:10).
Strange, is it not, that while we have the names of Job’s three daughters (42:14, 15), we do not have the name of his wife who remained at his side all through his trials and tribulations? She is identified by only ten words which she uttered to her husband as she saw him suffering from so much bodily pain and discomfort. “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die,” or “Curse God and die by your own hand. End your suffering by taking your own life.” She urged him to commit suicide and thus relieve himself of further anguish.
There was also the diabolical suggestion that he should relinquish his faith in God, seeing He was permitting him to endure such terrible physical torment and material loss. It is because she allowed Satan to use her as an instrument to grieve rather than comfort her husband, that commentators have spoken ill of her character. Augustine referred to her as “The Devil’s Accomplice,” and Calvin wrote of her as “An Instrument of Satan” and as a “Diabolical Fury.”
The little she said to her husband whose heart was at breaking point was enough to crush him altogether. The one closer to him than all others should have encouraged him and offered him human sympathy. Job’s wife, however, was the female foe in his household and reminds us that “the worst trial of all is when those nearest us, instead of strengthening our hand in God and confirming our faith, conspire to destroy it” (Micah 7:6; Matthew 10:36).
Job’s triumphant faith is seen in his most appropriate answer to his wife: “What, emancipate myself from God, and take my own life?” Sitting on his ash-heap he replied: “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.” He was not biting, bitter or condemnatory in his rebuke but gave vent to a question that multitudes of perplexed hearts, all down the ages, have found consolation in: “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”
Job was determined not to sin with his lips as his thoughtless wife had done. (Matthew 26: 39-42; Hebrews 5:8). Because God has given woman an affectionate heart, and a large capacity for sympathy and compassion, it is incumbent upon women who profess faith in Christ, to bind their husbands closer to Christ and persist in encouraging them in times of great trial and tragedy. It is only thus that a woman functions as God meant her to, as an “helpmeet.”
“Source- All the Women of the Bible Herbert Lockyer”
When adversity comes, THAT is when the test of our loyalty to God and and faith in His Son comes to the fore. You might have heard the phrase “The proof is in the pudding”. According to AI, this means that something’s quality or effectiveness can only be truly judged after it’s been tested or tried out, not before. It emphasizes the importance of experience and results over initial promises or claims. The phrase is a shortened version of “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” which has been around since the 14th century.
If your faith is tested, and mine too, would we say, ‘I curse God’? Or would we say ‘Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil?’ The proof is in the test. To prepare ahead of time for any tests or circumstances that come our way, stay prayerful, stay worshipful at church, and stay in God’s word. Put on your armor (Ephesians 6). This won’t prevent adverse circumstances from coming upon us, but it will strengthen us for when they do. Adversity will come. Jesus said we will have trouble in this life. Wives, it’s especially important for us to remain reliant on Jesus’ strength so we can share that strength with our husbands and children on the day when sudden tragedy or difficult circumstances knock at our door.
Finally, let’s not look at Mrs. Job disdainfully. We’d all like to think we’d be a Job, soldiering on faithfully through terrible circumstances, or an Abigail persevering with grace despite a brute of a husband. But we are human, and these human responses are included in God’s word to show us our frailty, and in so doing, to look all the more at the One who has all strength, love, and compassion in the universe to share with us when we’re down.
