Job 2:9

JOB REPROVES HIS WIFE. (Job 2:9-13)

curse God--rather, "renounce" God. (See on Job 1:5) [UMBREIT]. However, it was usual among the heathens, when disappointed in their prayers accompanied with offerings to their gods, to reproach and curse them.

and die--that is, take thy farewell of God and so die. For no good is to be got out of religion, either here or hereafter; or, at least, not in this life [GILL]; Nothing makes the ungodly so angry as to see the godly under trial not angry.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

Ver. 9. Then said his wife] Was this Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter? So the Jewish doctors say; and that Job had a fair daughter by her, whom Potipher married; and that of her came Asenaz, whom Joseph married. They tell us also (but who told them all this?) that she was hitherto spared, when all Job’s outward comforts were taken away, for Jacob her father’s sake. Moreover, the Septuagint here help her to scold, adding a whole verse of female passion: I must now, saith she, go wander, and have no place to rest in, &c. Job said nothing all this while; not because he was either insensible or sullen; but because it was God that did it, Psa 39:2, and he had well deserved it, Mic 7:9. I will bear (thinks he) the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. Yet, my soul, be silent to Jehovah, &c., Psa 12:1. Satan therefore (who waited for his cursing of God, as a dog waiteth for a bone, but was defeated) cunningly setteth his wife awork, by her venomous words, to make him speak at least, and by her unseemly and sinful counsel, to draw him to do wickedly. Some think, saith Chrysostom, that the devil, in the shape of Job’s wife, spake thus unto him; and surely their words agree: He will curse thee to thy face, saith he; Curse God, and die, saith she. Chrysostom himself thinketh that the devil (if he spake not in her, yet) spake by her, as he did once to Eve by the serpent, and that he borrowed her mouth, using her as a strong engine to a wall of adamant, as the choicest arrow in his quiver, to wound Job’s righteous soul; and as a scaling ladder, whereby to get up into this impregnable tower, as Gregory hath it. He had tried this course before with Adam, and had singular success, Gen 3:6; he had by his rib (as by a ladder) gotten up to his heart, Per costam tanquam per scalam ad cor Adami asceudit, Just as through a rib he scales the ladder to the heart of Adam, yea, with his rib broken his head, as one phraseth it, darting in death at the windows of his ears. This he assayed upon Job, but without effect; his ears were waxed up, his heart fixed, &c., although he could not but be vexed that his wife should do it; especially since hereby his servants and friends would be encouraged to do the like. O wives, saith one; the sweetest poison, the most desired evil, &c. (Greg. Moral. 1. 3, c. 8). Sir Thomas Moore was wont to say, that men commit faults often, women only twice, that they neither speak well, nor do well. This may be true of bad wives, such as Jezebel, who stirred up Ahab (of himself forward enough) to do wickedly with both hands earnestly, 1Ki 21:25. This in Job’s wife might be a particular failing, though a foul one. Women are the weaker vessels, and naturally more passionate; they must have their allowance, as light gold hath. She in the text had no small trials, and he is a perfect man that offendeth not with his tongue.

Dost thou still retain thine integrity?] Cui bono, for what good, as he said; what gettest thou by it? Is not this thy fear, thy confidence; the uprightness of tby ways, and thy hope? Lo, Eliphaz (who should have had more grace and government of his tongue than Job’s wife) scoffeth religious Job, as some sense that text, Job 4:6, rendering the words thus: Is not thy fear (or religion) become thy folly? Where is now thine uprightness, and hope of reward? It is an ancient and an ordinary slur and slander cast upon the ways of God, as if they were unprofitable, as if God were an austere man, a parsimonious Lord; as if there were no gain in godliness, nothing to be got by it but knocks, crosses, losses, &c., whereas God is a rewarder of all those that diligently seek him, Heb 11:6. He recompenseth the losses of his people, as the king of Poland did his noble servant Zelislaus, to whom, having lost his hand in his wars, he sent a golden hand instead thereof. He rewardeth the sufferings of his saints, as Caligula the emperor did Agrippa, who had suffered imprisonment for wishing him emperor. The history saith, that when he came afterwards to the empire, the first thing he did was to prefer Agrippa, and gave him a chain of gold as heavy as the chain of iron that was upon him in prison. The devil could have told this peevish woman that Job did not serve God for nought, Job 1:9. See Mal 1:10; Mal 3:14. {See Trapp on "Mal 1:10"} {See Trapp on "Mal 3:14"}

Curse God, and die] What cursed counsel was this! and from her who should have administered conjugal help to him! How well might Job have turned her off with, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence unto me! These were the devil’s words, and not the woman’s, saith Chrysostom; it was her tongue, but the devil tuned it, saith Origen. Curse God, and die, for he will not endure thee to live, having once so set thy mouth against heaven, but will quickly set thee packing by a visible vengeance; or, Curse God, and then die by thine own hands, having first spit thy venom in his face for having handled thee so hardly, after so good service done him. Hacket did thus at the gallows, A.D. 1591, threatening to set fire on heaven, to pluck God out of his throne, if he would not show some miracle out of the clouds to convert those infidels that brought him to execution, and to deliver him from his enemies; having the rope about his neck, he lift up his eyes to heaven, and grinning, said, Dost thou repay me this for a kingdom bestowed? I come to revenge it, &c. O wretch! By the way observe, that Satan is a πεισοθανατος (as Hegesias the philosopher was called), a persuader of people, that death is an end, at least an ease, of outward troubles; when as to the wicked death is but a trap door to hell: we, silly fish, see one another jerked out of the pond of life; but we see not the fire and the frying pan whereunto those are cast that die in their sins, to whom all the sufferings of this life are but a typical hell, the beginning of those terrors and torments which they shall hereafter suffer, without any the least hope of ever either mending or ending.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job_2:9

Curse God and die.

Jobs wife

She only comes on the scene to heighten for one moment the intensity of her husbands desolation and misery. Renounce, she says, God and die. Leave the unprofitable service of this God, who has left thee to so undeserved a fate. Leave Him and quit life, a life that has nothing left worth living for. It seems hard indeed, hard above all to those who have known the blessings of an English and a Christian home, that such a sneer and such advice should come from such a quarter. It pains us, as with an unwelcome shock. Let me recall to you that when, some sixty years ago, the poet-painter William Blake drew some wonderfully powerful illustrations to the Book of Job, he, the English husband of a loyal and affectionate wife, refused to follow the course of the story in this terrible detail. All the rest he could portray, step by step; but here he stayed his hand, and those who can turn to his much-prized drawings will see Jobs wife vindicated against the scorn of centuries, kneeling beside her husband, and sharing his patient misery. They will see her still by his side, through each and all of his future pangs and agonies, and restored with him to a common happiness in the closing scene. There was something in the record of Jobs sufferings too keen and bitter, too remote, may we not thankfully say, from the experience of English and Christian married life, for that sensitive and gifted spirit, so often on the borderland where genius touches madness, to bear to reproduce. And it might well be so. Curse God and die, she said. The depths of human misery seemed sounded. How many human souls might, in one way or another, have lent an ear to the suggestion. A Roman might have turned upon his unjust gods and died by his own hand, like Care, with words of defiance on his lips. Others might have sought the same fate in dull despair. Not so Job. (Dean Bradley.)

Jobs wife

Some have spoken very strongly about Jobs wife. She has been called a helper of the devil, an organ of Satan, an infernal fury. Chrysostom thinks that the enemy left her alive because he deemed her a fit scourge to Job by which to plague him more acutely than by any other. Ewald, with more point, says, Nothing can be more scornful than her words, which mean, Thou, who under all the undeserved sufferings which have been inflicted on thee by thy God, hast been faithful to Him even in fatal sickness, as if He would help or desired to help thee who art beyond help,--to thee, fool, I say, bid God farewell, and die! There can be no doubt that she appears as the temptress of her husband, putting into speech the atheistic doubt which the adversary could not directly suggest. Brave and true life appears to her to profit nothing if it has to be spent in pain and desolation. She does not seem to speak so much in scorn as in the bitterness of her soul. She is no infernal fury, but one whose love, genuine enough, does not enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. (R. A. Watson, D. D.)

A despairing cry

Sorrow and pain work a ferment in the soul that is terrible. Our theme is the folly and wickedness of impeaching God.

1. The folly of impeaching the justice, wisdom, or love of God. Think of human ignorance. Compared with the material or brute creation man is great, but not great when compared with his Maker. Sydney Smith satirically described Lord Jeffrey as dissatisfied with the Almighty in the construction of the solar system, particularly as to the rings of Saturn. Men nowadays do soberly set up their judgment in opposition to the will and wisdom of God. They know but part, yet talk as if they understood the Almighty to perfection.

2. The guilt of such a course is equally great. It is a practical repudiation of the authority of God, who commands us to be patient and obedient. It is akin to the dreadful sin of blasphemy, an act that under no circumstances can ever be tolerated. (C. H. Buckley, D. D.)

The blasphemy of despair

Jobs wife is typical of a class of persons that has always existed in the world. Such persons lose sight of all that is bright in life, hem themselves in with the blackest gloom, seek a path only in the darkness where no star shines, allow distrust to take entire possession of their souls, and hatred to reign supreme in the domain of their affections, and then end their career like Popes reprobate knight, of whom the poet says, And sad Sir Balaam curses God and dies. In human life we often meet with persons whose gloomy minds throw a shadow on everything with which they come into contact. We protest against pessimism as being false in theory, and impossible in practice. Even dark things have a bright side, which can be seen if looked for in a proper spirit.

I. The causes of despair.

1. False views of God. A mans theology very largely influences his life. Spiritual ideas are at the root of all others. Whatever a man thinks of God and religion, will largely mould his character. Despair arises from two causes: the pessimism of men who are opponents of God, haters of God; and the hard, encrusted, stern, unbending Calvinism, which professes to be overpowered by Gods love, which love is, however, always limited to those holding the doctrine. The pessimistic raving is indicative of a despair which has taken a fixed and settled position in the soul. Hope has fled, and all the brightness, even to the last spark, has departed from life.

2. Misanthropic notions respecting the human race. The loss of faith in our fellow men is a prolific cause of despair. We place confidence in men, and we are betrayed; we trust them, and they deceive us. So we lose faith in mankind: we sink into a condition of sullen moroseness, which is but the forerunner of despair.

3. Denial of Gods existence. Atheism is a gloomy creed. To take away God is to deprive the world of hope, to rob it of its highest consolation, and consequently to plunge the human race into the blackest despair.

II. The folly of despair.

1. It shuts out of view possible changes for the better. The clouds encompass us, the darkness hems us in, we see no light, and we lose hope, never dreaming that behind the mists a sun is shining, which will sooner or later dispel the gloom and illumine the world with its beams.

2. It injures the soul. Like all evil passions, it grows with what it feeds on.

3. It is a rebellion against God. Evil is not the universe. Goodness is eternal. God lives, and His mercy fails not. Despair is rank blasphemy against heaven.

III. The remedy for despair. It is the religion of Jesus, with the great and eternal truth which it enunciates--God is love. Recognising the fact that there is a God, and that His mercy is over all that His hands have made, how can we ever despair? We know that we are in His hands, and that therefore we are sure. Let us then leave the demon of despair to atheists, and those who have neither faith in God nor confidence in man, but for ourselves we must cling to the eternal truth that God is love. (George Sexton, M. A. , LL. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 2:9. Then said his wife — Whom Satan had spared, that she might be a troubler and tempter to him. For it is his policy to send his temptations by those that are dear to us. We ought, therefore, carefully to watch, that we be not drawn to any evil by them whom we love and value the most. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? — Art thou so weak as still to persist in the practice of righteousness, when it is not only unprofitable to thee, but the chief occasion of all these thy insupportable miseries, and when God himself not only forsakes and leaves thee in this helpless and hopeless condition, but is turned to be thy greatest enemy? This is evidently the meaning of the expression, holding fast his integrity, when used by God, speaking of Job, Job 2:3, and, it seems, must be its meaning here; and not, as some commentators have supposed, the maintaining that he was innocent of those secret sins with which his friends appeared to have charged him; a sense of the words which would not at all suit the connection in which this, or the third verse, stands with the verses following. Curse God and die — Seeing thy blessing and praising God avail thee so little, it is time for thee to change thy language. Reproach him to his face, and tell him of his injustice and unkindness to thee; and that he loves his enemies and hates his friends, and that will provoke him to take away thy life, and so end thy torments. Or, Curse God, though thou die for it. This is the sense in which the same Hebrew word is evidently used by Satan, (Job 1:11,) and, as it appears from the next verse, that Job’s wife was now under Satan’s influence, and was an instrument employed by him to tempt her husband, and so to forward his design, which certainly was to prevail with Job to curse or reproach God; this seems to be her meaning. Inasmuch, however, as the original word, although it sometimes evidently signifies to curse, yet generally means to bless, it may be so interpreted here if we consider Job’s wife as speaking ironically, as many, even pious, persons, are represented in the Scriptures to have spoken. The meaning then will be, Bless God and die — That is, I see thou art set upon blessing God; thou blessest him for giving, and thou blessest him for taking away: and thou art even blessing him for thy loathsome and tormenting diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy for which thou blessest him. Go on, therefore, in this thy generous course, and die as a fool dieth. And, this being her meaning, it is not strange that he reproves her so sharply for it in the next words.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:9 Job’s wife first summarized the essence of Job’s temptation by echoing God’s words (2:3); Job was trying to maintain his integrity. In her frustration and anguish, however, she then counseled Job to curse God and thus unknowingly fulfill Satan’s prediction (1:11; 2:5).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Satan useth the same instrument against Job, as he did against Adam.

Meaning, what gainest thou to serve God, seeing he thus plagueth thee, as though he were thine enemy? This is the most grievous temptation of the faithful, when their faith is assailed, and when Satan goeth about to persuade them that they trust in God in vain.

For death was appointed to the blasphemer, and so she meant that he should soon be rid out of his pain.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 9. Then said his wife] To this verse the Septuagint adds the following words: "Much time having elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long dost thou stand steadfast, saying, 'Behold, I wait yet a little longer looking for the hope of my Salvation?' Behold thy memorial is already blotted out from the earth, together with thy sons and thy daughters, the fruits of my pains and labours, for whom with anxiety I have laboured in vain. Thyself also sittest in the rottenness of worms night and day, while I am a wanderer from place to place, and from house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labours, and from the griefs which oppress me. Speak therefore some word against God, and die." We translate ברך אלהים ומת barech Elohim vamuth, Curse God, and die. The verb ברך barach is supposed to include in it the ideas of cursing and blessing; but it is not clear that it has the former meaning in any part of the sacred writings, though we sometimes translate it so.

Here it seems to be a strong irony. Job was exceedingly afflicted, and apparently dying through sore disease; yet his soul was filled with gratitude to God. His wife, destitute of the salvation which her husband possessed, gave him this ironical reproof. Bless God, and die - What! bless him for his goodness, while he is destroying all that thou hast! bless him for his support, while he is casting thee down and destroying thee! Bless on, and die.

The Targum says that Job's wife's name was Dinah, and that the words which she spake to him on this occasion were בריך מימרא דיי ומית berich meymera dayai umith. Bless the word of the Lord, and die.

Ovid has such an irony as I suppose this to have been: -

Quid vos sacra juvant? quid nunc AEgyptia prosunt

Sistra? ______

Cum rapiant mala fata bonos, ignoscite fasso,

Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos.

Vive plus, moriere pius; cole sacra, colentem

Mors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet.

AMOR. lib. iii., Eleg. ix. ver. 33.

"In vain to gods (if gods there are) we pray,

And needless victims prodigally pay;

Worship their sleeping deities: yet death

Scorns votaries, and stops the praying breath.

To hallow'd shrines intruding fate will come,

And drag you from the altar to the tomb."

STEPNEY.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) Then said his wife.—Thus it is that a man’s foes are they of his own household (Mic_7:6; Mat_10:36, &c.). The worst trial of all is when those nearest to us, instead of strengthening our hand in God and confirming our faith, conspire to destroy it.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. Then said his wife] The incident related of Job’s wife is not introduced for her sake, but for the purpose of exhibiting through it the condition of Job’s mind, around which the drama turns. The author did not indicate the impression which Job’s personal affliction produced upon him. What thoughts he had are concealed; he is represented as sitting silent in his seclusion. The full impression of his miseries is brought home to him reflected from the mind of another, that other being the one fitted to influence him most powerfully. It is probable that the episode of Job’s wife is brought in with a double purpose, first, to shew how all around Job, those nearest to him, gave way under the severity of his trial, and thus by contrast to enhance the strength of his faith and the grandeur of his character; and second, to shew how, though subjected to the keenest trial from the example and representations of his wife, he still remained true.

The name Dinah given to Job’s wife by the Targum or Chaldee Translation most probably rests on no tradition, but is a mere child’s fancy. The Sept. introduces her speech, which it gives in a greatly amplified form, with the words “when a long time had passed.” The amplification is not unsuitable to the circumstances, but the curt phrases of the original are truer to art and nature, for grief is possessed of few words. Much animated dispute has taken place over the character and conduct of the woman. The Ancients were not favourably impressed by her. Augustine calls her roundly Diaboli adjutrix. The Geneva Version discerns a sad and universal principle in her conduct, “Satan useth the same instrument against Job as he did against Adam.” As was to be expected the present age has espoused her cause, and labours hard to put a face upon her words. The only question of importance is, what sense the Author intended her words to convey; and the key to this is found in the way in which her husband takes them up. He does not directly call her a “fool,” that is, a godless person (Psa_14:1), but with mild circumlocution says that she speaks as one of the foolish women speaks. The Eastern writer lets the woman act in character (Ecc_7:26 seq.). He would have probably smiled at the elaborate analysing of the female mind to which Westerns devote themselves, thinking it a waste of time. As the weaker Job’s wife fell first into the snare of the Devil, and used her influence, as in the beginning of history, to draw her husband after her. Her story, however, is not told for her sake, but to shew how those around Job fell away, and to set in a strong light the strain to which his faith was put by such an example and the solicitations that accompanied it.

curse God, and die] Rather as before, renounce God and die. From a modern point of view many extenuations may be pleaded for Job’s wife, but her religion is represented here as precisely of the kind which Satan said Job’s was of. She wonders that Job still maintains his pious resignation; and counsels him, as he gets no good from God but only evil, even the extreme evil of death, to renounce an unprofitable service, and die, as he must, for nothing else awaits him. This is probably the meaning of the words “and die.” The words might have a different meaning. When two imperatives come together the second often expresses the consequence of the first, as do this and live. And, “renounce God and die” might mean, renounce Him and bring down His final stroke of death at once. The other is more probable.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But he said unto her, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh,.... The wicked and profane women of that age; he does not say she was one of them, but spake like them; which intimates that she was a good woman, and had always been thought to be so; but now spake not like herself, and one of her profession, but like carnal persons: Sanctius thinks Job refers to the Idumean women, who, like other Heathens, when their god did not please them, or they could not obtain of them what they desired, would reproach them, and cast them away from there, throw them into the fire, or into the water, as the Persians are said to do; and so Job's wife, because of the present afflictive providence, was for casting off God and all religion; in this she spake and acted like those wicked people later observed, Job 21:14; and like those carnal professors among the Jews in later times, Mal 3:14; this was talking foolishly, and Job's wife spake after this foolish manner, which he resented:

what? this he said as being angry with her, and having indignation at what she said; and therefore, in this quick, short, and abrupt manner, reproves her for her folly:

shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? as all good things temporal and spiritual, the blessings of Providence; and all natural, though not moral evil things, even all afflictions which seem, or are thought to be evil, come from the mouth of God, and are according to his purpose, counsel, and will; so they are all dispensed by the hand of God, and should be kindly, cheerfully, readily, and willingly received, the one as well as the other; see Lam 3:38. Job suggests that he and his wife had received many good things from the Lord, many temporal good things, as appears from Job 1:2; they had their beings in him, and from him; they had been preserved in them by him; they had had an habitation to dwell in, and still had; God had given them food and raiment, wherewith it became them to be content; they had had a comfortable family of children until this time, and much health of body, Job till now, and his wife still, for ought appears; of their former happy circumstances, see Job 29:1; and besides these outward mercies, they had received God as their covenant God, their portion, shield, and exceeding great reward; they had received Christ as their living Redeemer; they had received the Spirit, and his grace, the root of the matter was in them; they had received justifying, pardoning, and adopting: grace, and a right unto and meetness for eternal life, which all good men receive of God; and therefore such must expect to receive evil things, or to partake of afflictions, since God has appointed these for them, and has told them of them, that they shall befall them; and beside they are for their profit and advantage; and the consideration of the good things that have been received, and are now enjoyed, as well as what they have reason to believe they shall enjoy in heaven to all eternity, should make them ready and willing to bear evil things quietly and patiently; see Heb 11:26; so Achilles in Homer (m) represents Jove as having two vessels full of gifts, one of good things, the other of evil, and sometimes he takes and gives the one, and sometimes the other:

in all this did not Job sin with his lips; not in what he said to his wife, it was all right and good; nor under the whole of his affliction hitherto, he had not uttered one impatient, murmuring, and repining word at the hand of God; the tongue, though an unruly member, and under such providences apt to speak unadvisedly, was bridled and restrained by Job from uttering anything indecent and unbecoming: the Targum, and many of the Jewish writers, observe that he sinned in his heart, but not with his lips; but this is not to be concluded from what is here said; though it is possible there might be some risings of corruptions in his heart, which, by the grace of God that prevailed in him, were kept under and restrained from breaking out.

(m) Iliad 24. ver. 527-530.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Then said his wife unto him - Some remarkable additions are made by the ancient versions to this passage. The Chaldee renders it, “and “Dinah” (דינה dı̂ynâh), his wife, said to him.” The author of that paraphrase seems to have supposed that Job lived in the time of Jacob, and had married his daughter Dinah; Gen 30:21. Drusius says, that this was the opinion of the Hebrews, and quotes a declaration from the Gemara to this effect: “Job lived in the days of Jacob, and was born when the children of Israel went down into Egypt; and when they departed thence he died. He lived therefore 210 years, as long as they were into Egypt.” This is mere tradition, but it shows the ancient impression as to the time when Job lived. The Septuagint has introduced a remarkable passage here, of which the following is a translation. “After much time had elapsed, his wife said unto him, How long wilt thou persevere, saying, Behold, I will wait a little longer, cherishing the trope of my recovery? Behold, the memorial of thee has disappeared from the earth - those sons and daughters, the pangs and sorrows of my womb, for whom I toiled laboriously in vain. Even thou sittest among loathsome worms, passing the night in the open air, whilst I, a wanderer and a drudge, from place to place, and from house to house, watch the sun until his going down, that I may rest from the toils and sorrows that now oppress me. But speak some word toward the Lord (τι ῥῆμα εἰς κύριον ti rēma eis kurion) and die.”

Whence this addition had its origin, it is impossible now to say. Dr. Good says it is found in Theodotion, in the Syriac, and the Arabic (in this he errs, for it is not in the Syriac and Arabic in Waltoh’s Polyglott), and in the Latin of Ambrose. Dathe suggests that it was probably added by some person who thought it incredible that an angry woman could be content with saying so “little” as is ascribed in the Hebrew to the wife of Job. It may have been originally written by some one in the margin of his Bible by way of paraphrase, and the transcriber, seeing it there, may have supposed it was omitted accidentally from the text, and so inserted it in the place where it now stands. It is one of the many instances, at all events, which show that implicit confidence is not to be placed in the Septuagint. There is not the slightest evidence that this was ever in the Hebrew text. It is not wholly unnatural, and as an exercise of the fancy is not without ingenuity and plausibility, and yet the simple but abrupt statement in the Hebrew seems best to accord with nature. The evident distress of the wife of Job, according to the whole narrative, is not so much that she was subjected to trials, and that she was compelled to wander about without a home, as that Job should be so patient, and that he did not yield to the temptation.

Dost thou still retain thine integrity? - Notes Job 2:3. The question implies that, in her view, he ought not to be expected to mantles, patience and resignation in these circumstances. He had endured evils which showed that confidence ought not to be reposed in a God who would thus inflict them. This is all that we know of the wife of Job. Whether this was her general character, or whether “she” yielded to the temptation of Satan and cursed God, and thus heightened the sorrows of Job by her unexpected impropriety of conduct, is unknown. It is not conclusive evidence that her general character was bad; and it may be that the strength of her usual virtue and piety was overcome by accumulated calamities. She expressed, however, the feelings of corrupt human nature everywhere when sorely afflicted. The suggestion “will” cross the mind, often with almost irresistible force, that a God who thus afflicts his creatures is not worthy of confidence; and many a time a child of God is “tempted” to give vent to feelings of rebellion and complaining like this, and to renounce all his religion.

Curse God - See the notes at Job 1:11. The Hebrew word is the same. Dr. Good renders it, “And yet dost thou hold fast thine integrity, blessing God and dying?” Noyes translates it, “Renounce God, and die,” Rosenmuller and Umbreit, “Bid farewell to God, and die.” Castellio renders it, “Give thanks to God and die.” The response of Job, however Job 2:10, shows that he understood her as exciting him to reject, renounce, or curse God. The sense is, that she regarded him as unworthy of confidence, and submission as unreasonable, and she wished Job to express this and be relieved from his misery. Roberts supposes that this was a pagan sentiment, and says that nothing is more common than for the pagan, under certain circumstances, to curse their gods. “That the man who has made expensive offerings to his deity, in hope of gaining some great blessing, and who has been disappointed, will pour out all his imprecations on the god whose good offices have (as he believes) been prevented by some superior deity. A man in reduced circumstances says, ‘Yes, yes, my god has lost his eyes; they are put out; he cannot look after my affairs.’ ‘Yes, ‘ said an extremely rich devotee of the supreme god Siva, after he had lost his property, ‘Shall I serve him any more? What, make offerings to him! No, no. He is the lowest of all gods? ‘“

And die - Probably she regarded God as a stern and severe Being, and supposed that by indulging in blasphemy Job would provoke him to cut him off at once. She did not expect him to lay wicked hands on himself. She expected that God would at once interpose and destroy him. The sense is, that nothing but death was to be expected, and the sooner he provoked God to cut him off from the land of the living, the better.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Bless. She speaks with cruel irony. (Calmet) --- Curse God, that he may take away (St. Basil) thy miserable life; or, after taking this revenge on such unjust treatment, put an end to thy own existence. Beza and Amama excuse this woman, though condemned by Job. They pretend that she only meant to insinuate, like the rest of his friends, that he must be guilty of some grievous crime, which she urges him to confess, giving glory to God, before it be too late. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The devil spared his wife with cruel intent to be the instrument of his temptations, and the aggravation of Job’s misery, by unnatural unkindness to him, which is declared Job 19:17, and elsewhere.

Dost thou still retain thine integrity? art thou yet so weak to persist in the practice of piety, when it is not only unprofitable to thee, but the chief occasion of all these thy insupportable miseries, and when God himself not only forsakes and leaves thee in this helpless and hopeless condition, but is turned to be thy greatest enemy?

Curse God, and die; seeing thy blessing of God availeth thee so little, it is time to change thy note, Curse God, and die, i.e. reproach him to his face, and tell him of his injustice and unkindness to thee, and that he loves his enemies, and hates his friends; and that will provoke him to take away thy life, and so end thy torments. Or, Curse God, though though die for it. But although this word sometimes signifies cursing, as Job 1:11; 1Ki 21:10, yet most properly and generally it signifies blessing; and so it may very well be understood here as a sarcastical or ironical expression, such as there are many in Scripture, as Ecc 11:9; Lam 4:21, and in all authors. And so the sense may be this, Bless God, and die; i.e. I see thou art set upon blessing of God; thou blessest God for giving, and thou blessest God for taking away, and thou art still blessing of God for thy loathsome and tormenting diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy for which thou blessest and praisest him. Go on therefore in this thy pious and generous course, and die as a fool dieth, and carry this reputation to thy grave, that thou hadst not common sense in thee to discern between good and evil, between thy friends and thy foes. Or rather, Awake out of this stupidity and lethargy, and give over this absurd and unreasonable practice; and as God gives thee no help nor comfort, let him lose thy praises and service. And this being her sense, it is not strange he reproveth her so sharply for it. And yet it seems hard to think that Job’s wife should arrive at that height of impudence and impiety, as in plain terms to bid him curse God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. His wife — There is an old tradition among the Jews, which also appears in the Chaldee Paraphrast, that his wife was Dinah, the frail daughter of Jacob. This is of value only as showing an ancient belief that Job lived in the patriarchal age. This unfortunate woman, who had not the living faith of her husband, and who, perhaps, did not believe in his God, has been bitterly denounced in every age, and has given point to many a stinging epigram from the days of the German Alters to Coleridge. “Why,” asks Chrysostom, “did the devil leave him this wife? Because he thought her a good scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by any other.” Augustine calls her the “helper of the devil;” Ebrard, “a tool of the tempter;” Spanheim, “a second Xantippe;” Calvin, (cited by Delitzsch,) “Proserpina, an infernal fury;” and J.D. Michaelis thinks she alone remained to Job in order that the measure of his sufferings might be full. Among others. Kitto (Daily Bib. Illus.) and Hengstenberg have taken a more pleasing view of the woman, whom others seem to have forgotten was a sufferer who had been as terribly bereaved as Rachel herself. (Jer_31:15.) “It must be taken into consideration that her despair was rooted in the heartiest and tenderest love to her husband. In all their previous losses she had allowed herself to be kept in restraint by Job’s own submissiveness, and had the pains of disease befallen herself, she would probably still have resisted her despair.” — HENGST., Lec. on Job. It was a favourite thought with the fathers that as Satan had successfully employed woman for the ruin of man in Paradise, he feels sure of success in this, his last stake, as he wields the same instrument against Job in the ashes. The moral elements of the two temptations were similar to each other. There was the preceding wreck of woman’s heart, together with the subtle leverage of man’s affection, as well as the contagious influence of evil example; all which unitedly constituted a temptation of inestimable power.

Curse God… die — (See Job_1:5.) She evidently alludes to what Job had said, (Job_1:21,) and, strangely enough, employs the very words that the tempter had expected Job would use as he sank in despair. By Ewald, among others, the expression is taken as ironical, “say farewell to God, and die;” by others (Rosenmuller, Hirtzel) as an insolent and defiant demand, “Renounce God, and die.” Schultens suspects it to have been a common saying among spare worshippers of the Deity of that day, like that of the Latin, “Eat, drink: to-morrow we die.” It practically said, Religion is of no account. Such sentiments prevail under visitations of the plague and kindred calamities. Thucydides thus moralizes over the plague at Athens: “Men were restrained neither by fear of the gods nor by human law; deeming it all one whether they paid religious worship or not, since they saw that all perished alike.” The wife of Job is now swept away into a similar maelstrom. The Septuagint informs us “that much time had passed” when she uttered these taunting words, “Curse God, and die;” and, displeased at the idea that an angry woman should say so little, puts a long speech into her mouth, recounting her sufferings, and closing with the tame words, “but say some word against the Lord, and die.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Job"s wife had said nothing when the other calamities had taken place then she had "refrained her tongue, and kept silence," though probably with some difficulty. Now she can endure no longer. To see her husband so afflicted, and so patient under his afflictions, is more than she can bear. Her mind is weak and ill regulated, and she suffers herself to become Satan"s ally and her husband"s worst enemy. It is noticeable that she urges her husband to do exactly that which Satan had suggested that he would do, (Job_1:11 Job_2:5) and had evidently wished him to do, thus fighting on his side, and increasing her husband"s difficulties The only other mention of her (Job_19:17) implies that she was rather a hindrance than a help to Job. Curse God, and die; i.e. "renounce God, put all regard for him away from thee, even though he kill thee for so doing." Job"s wife implies that death is preferable to such a life as Job now leads and must expect to lead henceforward.

Vers. 9, 10. Job and his wife.

I A FOOLISH WOMAN.

II A FAITHFUL HUSBAND.

III A THANKFUL SAINT.

IV A SUBMISSIVE SUFFERER.

Vers. 9, 10. Four voices.

I THE VOICE OF FOLLY. "Curse God, and die.

II THE VOICE OF REBUKE. "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.

III THE VOICE OF GRATITUDE. "We receive good at the hand of the Lord.

IV THE VOICE OF SUBMISSION. "Shall we not receive evil?

Vers. 9, 10. (along with Gen_3:1-6) Job and Adam: a parallel and a contrast.

I A PARALLEL.

1. Both were tempted.

2. By Satan.

3. Through their wives.

4. To renounce their allegiance to God.

II A CONTRAST.

1. In the times of their temptation. Adam when at the summit of felicity; Job when in the depth of misery.

2. In the modes of their temptation. Adam, assailed by the thought that God had unjustly deprived him of good; Job, by the suggestion that God had unrighteously afflicted him with evil.

3. In the results of their temptation. Adam fell; Job stood. See

(1) in Adam the representative of all men; and

(2) in Job the foreshadowing of the God-Man.

Husband and wife.

I THE WIFE"S TEMPTATION.

1. Its source. Job is now tempted by his own wile by her who is nearest to him, and who should be almost his second self. Chrysostom asks, "Why did the devil leave him his wife?" and replies, "Because he thought her a good scourge by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means." Certainly the temptation which comes through one whom we love is the most powerful. Christ met the tempter in a favourite disciple. It is the duty of love not simply to sympathize, but also to give good counsel; it is its error only to show sympathy by aggravating the evil tendencies of a trouble.

2. Its excuse. Men have been too hard on Job"s wife for this one foolish saying of hers, forgetting how huge was her affliction. Indeed, a great injustice has been done her, and while sympathy and admiration have been lavished on the husband, the partner in distress has scarcely received a glance of pity. But his troubles were her troubles. She had been in affluence, the happy mother of a happy family. Now she is plunged into poverty and misery, bereft of her children, with her once honoured husband in disease and corruption. Is it wonderful that she should utter one hasty, impatient word?

3. Its point. We cannot say that Job"s wife urged him to curse God; for she my have meant, "renounce God." At all events, let him give up the struggle and commit suicide. It is the Stoic"s advice. Others since have advised euthanasia in unbearable sufferings. It needed a brave heart to resist such an appeal. Only those who have been plunged into the lowest depth know the fearful inducement to despair of life and go"Anywhere, anywhere, out of the world.

II THE HUSBAND"S REPLY.

1. Its reprimand. Job quietly tells his wife that she is talking like one of the foolish or ungodly women.

(1) There is patience in this reprimand; he does not angrily repudiate her hasty advice.

(2) It is discriminating. Job sees at ones the defect. His wife has forsaken her higher plane of living, and fallen down to conventional ideas of the world. There was this excuse for her, however, that her conduct was not without precedent, though the precedent was not worthy to be followed.

(3) It is generous. Job delicately hints that her words are unworthy of her. He implies that she is not herself one of the foolish women. Often the best and most effective reprimand is an appeal to a person"s self-respect.

2. Its resignation.

(1) It recognizes God as the Source of all things. Job does not seem to be aware that Satan has a hand in his calamities. He attributes them wholly to God. Thus he fails to see one side of the dread mystery of iniquity. Yet.there was truth in what he said. Nothing happens but by God"s permission.

(2) It admits the justice of God"s dealing. How fair is Job! And how unfair are many men in accepting boundless mercies without a thought of gratitude, and then shrieking with rage at the first twinge of adversity! If we struck the balance between our blessings and our troubles, should we not find the former vastly outweighing the latter? And if we accept the blessings from God, should we not be prepared to take the reverse of them also?

3. Its self-restraint. "In all this did not Job sin with his lips." It is uncharitable of the Targum to add, "But in his thoughts he already cherished sinful words." If thoughts of rebellion were beginning to rise and Job was but mortal the brave man silenced them. It is much to learn how to "be still. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then said his wife - Whom Satan spared, to be a troubler and tempter to him. It is his policy, to send his temptations by the hands of those that are dear to us. We must therefore carefully watch, that we be not drawn to any evil, by them whom we love and value the most. Die - I see thou art set upon blessing of God, thou blessest God for giving, and thou blessest God for taking away, and thou art still blessing God for thy loathsome diseases, and he rewards thee accordingly, giving thee more and more of that kind of mercy for which thou blessest him. Go on therefore in thy generous course, and bless God, and die as a fool dieth.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

First Job's Wife (who is only mentioned in one other passage (Job 19:17), where Job complains that his breath is offensive to her) Comes to Him:

9 Then his wife said to him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die.

In the lxx the words of his wife are unskilfully extended. The few words as they stand are sufficiently characteristic. They are not to be explained, Call on God for the last time, and then die (von Gerl.); or, Call on Him that thou die (according to Ges. 130, 2); but בּרך signifies, as Job's answer shows, to take leave of. She therefore counsels Job to do that which Satan has boasted to accomplish. And notwithstanding, Hengstenberg, in his Lecture on the Book of Job (1860),

(Note: Clark's Foreign Theological Library.)

defends her against the too severe judgment of expositors. Her desperation, says he, proceeds from her strong love for her husband; and if she had to suffer the same herself, she would probably have struggled against despair. But love hopeth all things; love keeps its despondency hidden even when it desponds; love has no such godless utterance, as to say, Renounce God; and none so unloving, as to say, Die. No, indeed! this woman is truly diaboli adjutrix (August.); a tool of the temper (Ebrard); impiae carnis praeco (Brentius). And though Calvin goes too far when he calls her not only organum Satanae, but even Proserpinam et Furiam infernalem, the title of another Xantippe, against which Hengstenberg defends her, is indeed rather flattery than slander. Tobias' Anna is her copy.

(Note: She says to the blind Tobias, when she is obliged to work for the support of the family, and does not act straightforwardly towards him: ποῦ εἰσὶν αἱ ἐλεημοσύναι σου καὶ αἱ δικαιοσύναι σου, ἰδοὺ γνωστὰ πάντα μετὰ σοῦ, i.e., (as Sengelmann, Book of Tobit, 1857, and O. F. Fritzsche, Handbuch zu d. Apokr. Lief. ii. S. 36, correctly explain) one sees from thy misfortunes that thy virtue is not of much avail to thee. She appears still more like Job in the revised text: manifeste vana facta est spes tua et eleemosynae tuae modo apparuerunt, i.e., thy benevolence has obviously brought us to poverty. In the text of Jerome a parallel between Tobias and Job precedes this utterance of Tobias' wife.)

What experience of life and insight the writer manifests in introducing Job's wife as the mocking opposer of his constant piety! Job has lost his children, but this wife he has retained, for he needed not to be tried by losing her: he was proved sufficiently by having her. She is further on once referred to, but even then not to her advantage. Why, asks Chrysostom, did the devil leave him this wife? Because he thought her a good scourge, by which to plague him more acutely than by any other means. Moreover, the thought is not far distant, that God left her to him in order that when, in the glorious issue of his sufferings, he receives everything doubled, he might not have this thorn in the flesh also doubled.

(Note: The delicate design of the writer here must not be overlooked: it has something of the tragi-comic about it, and has furnished acceptable material for epigrammatic writers not first from Kstner, but from early times (vid., das Epigramm vom J. 1696, in Serpilius' Personalia Iobi). Vid., a Jewish proverb relating thereto in Tendlau, Sprchw. u. Redensarten deutsch-jd. Vorzeit (1860), S. 11.)

What enmity towards God, what uncharitableness towards her husband, is there in her sarcastic words, which, if they are more than mockery, counsel him to suicide! (Ebrard). But he repels them in a manner becoming himself.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Job Rebukes His Wife

v. 9. Then said his wife, whose trust in God was evidently not as strongly founded as that of the sufferer, unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? He was clinging to a virtue which, as she supposed, availed him nothing at this time. The astonishment shown by Job’s wife is that found in all unbelievers and false Christians when they cannot explain to their own satisfaction every act of God and every misfortune which befalls them. Curse God and die. She wanted him to renounce God, all his trust in Jehovah, and then give up the struggle for life or suffer the penalty of blasphemy.

v. 10. But he, sharply reproving her for her lack of trust in the goodness of Jehovah, said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh, in a godless and impious manner, which he, as his words imply, would not have expected from her. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive, accept and willingly bear, evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. If there was a temptation to murmur in the heart of Job, he had so far fought it down.

v. 11. Now, when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place: Eliphaz, the Temanite, probably from Idumea, and Bildad, the Shuhite, in the desert east of the Dead Sea, and Zophar, the Naamathite, that is, from a region in Lower Arabia; for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him, they met together by appointment and traveled to Job’s home to bring him some form of consolation, if that were possible.

v. 12. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, did not recognize their friend in this formless mass of diseased flesh, they lifted up their voice and wept, in sympathy over their friend’s suffering; and they rent everyone his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven, that is, they threw up handfuls of dust as high as possible to signify that the misery of Job cried to heaven, and then let it fall back on their heads to show the depth of their grief.

v. 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him, their sympathetic sorrow being too great for utterance; for they saw that his grief was very great, that the affliction of his pain was unbearable. It is altogether commendable for friends to sympathize with a sufferer, mingling their own tears with his and showing that they truly feel for him, Rom 12:15.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Do you still hold fast to your integrity?

This rhetorical question represents a statement. AT: "You should not still be holding fast to your integrity." (See: Rhetorical Question)

Curse God

"Reject God"

You talk as a foolish woman

"You talk the way a stupid woman talks"

Should we receive the good from God and not receive the bad?

This rhetorical question represents a statement. AT: "We should certainly receive the bad from God as well as the good." (See: Rhetorical Question)

receive the good

"benefit from all the good things"

the good

This represents all the good things that God gives us. (See: Generic Noun Phrases)

receive the bad

"suffer all the bad things without complaining"

the bad

This represents all the bad things that God makes or allows us to experience. (See: Generic Noun Phrases)

sin with his lips

Here "lips" represents the act of speaking. AT: "sin by speaking against God" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

integrity

God

die

fool

good

hand

evil

sin

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

maintain Heb. מחזיק, hold.

and die Heb. ומת. This is an imperative expression, as (Deut. 32: 50), “And die on the mountain.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.