Job's Wife I
Bill Long 1/9/05
In Honor of the Adult Education Class, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Silverton, Oregon
Today I began a two week class at this church on the Book of Job. Usually when I have introduced the Book of Job in the past, I distributed Job 1:1-5 and asked the attendees to form an impression of the kind of person Job was from these few verses. I decided to try something different today, however, and after an introduction to Job, I presented the class with three passages describing reactions to Job's distress. Job 1:21 gives us Job's reaction; 2:9-10 his wife's and Job's second reaction and 2:11-13, the friends' reaction. Some comments were made in class regarding a way to read his wife's highly ambiguous reaction to Job's loss that are quite legitimate and are not reflected in the commentaries I have read.
The Reaction of Job's Wife
After she and Job have suffered the loss of their ten children and their wealth, and after Job's body breaks out in sores, she is quoted as saying (according to the NRSV):
"Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die (2:9)."
A footnote in the NRSV after "curse" tells us that the Hebrew word actually says "bless." Thus the literal translation of 2:9 is "Bless God, and die." But what might this mean? And why have the translators changed the word "bless" to "curse?" What is Mrs. Job really trying to say to her husband?
The Scholars Weigh In--Total Confusion
The major reason why most translations and all scholars render the verse "Curse God, and die," is that the verb "bless," used here, is also used in 1:5; 1:11 and 2:5 and, in all of those cases it seems to be used euphemistically. For example, in 1:5, Job is seen as the efficient (and officious) parent, sacrificing for his children "lest they bless (i.e. 'curse') God in their hearts." It is almost as if the word "curse" was too unholy a word for Job to utter; hence he uses the opposite word "bless" with the understanding that "curse" would be meant. For why would he sacrifice for his children if they were literally "blessing" God? Using this example and the others in 1:11 and 2:5 (where the Satan is speaking), scholars have argued that Job's wife's use of "bless" in 2:9 should also be rendered as "curse." Thus, she would be saying to Job, 'Stop being so holy and righteous and pure by blessing God all the time. Curse him. That is really the only way to show your integrity. You will die, but that is your condition anyway. Your integrity, therefore, means that you must curse God now."
With this kind of understanding, most scholars have therefore been either critical of Job's wife (she is a "temptress" who is, possibly like Eve, trying to take her husband's faith from God) or cautiously supportive of her (by telling Job to curse God, she has recognized far earlier than he has that blessing God in this instance is incompatible with personal integrity). But I would like to suggest another interpretation, which takes the word "bless" seriously as "bless" and not "curse," such as it is used in 1:21 where Job says, "the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Keep "Bless God" in 2:9
If we take seriously the fact that "bless" in 2:9 should be translated as it is in the Hebrew ("Bless God, and die"), and if we take seriously the fact that the second verb ("die") is in a Hebrew construction that can be rendered "you will die," then our translation of 2:9 is "Bless God, and you will die." [The Hebrew word "die" is in the imperative mood, but most scholars believe that the action contemplated by the command is meant to follow the first verb. Hence, "bless God and die," is really "bless God, and you will die.] The meaning of Job's wife's words would then be as follows:
'Job, if you continue to bless God as you have been doing, when you said, 'the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,' it will be too much for you. Your words will contradict your heart. They will be nothing more than the mechanical utterances of a man who has experienced devastating loss. Thus, if you continue on your path of blessing God, you simply will die. There will be such a tension, an inconsistency, between your confession of faith and the way life has hit you that the dissonance will be fatal. Thus, 'bless God, and you will die.'
Seen in this light, Job's wife is not only portrayed as a person who has deep insight into her husband's character and practices, but one who can see that if he persists in his current method of blessing God it will kill him. It is sort of like the advice we have all heard many times from our mothers--'if you continue to do that, it will kill you.' By giving this example, I do not mean to trivialize Job's wife's advice. I think she is giving him clear-headed insight into his current plight.
Conclusion
If we adopt this interpretation of Job's wife's words, she then becomes not a shadowy character who is given one throw-away line before exiting from the stage never to return, but she assumes a more major role in the Book of Job. The next mini-essay will argue this point more fully.
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