Job's Wife
Job's wife shared every loss her husband endured — children, wealth, and security — and stood beside him through his long ordeal until their family was restored. Her one recorded line in scripture is often misunderstood, but her full story is one of grief, endurance, and renewal.
“He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”
Job 42:13–15
Job's Wife at a Glance
- Job's wife lost the same ten children Job did when disaster struck their family — she shared fully in his suffering.
- Her only recorded words in scripture come from a moment of devastating grief: 'Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die' (Job 2:9) — words many readers interpret as the cry of a broken heart rather than a theological statement.
- Job rebuked her response, calling it foolish, but he did not reject or abandon her — and she remained with him.
- Job 42 records that Job and his wife had ten more children after his restoration — seven sons and three daughters, including Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-happuch, whose beauty was said to be unmatched in all the land.
- Some early Jewish and Christian traditions give her the name Sitis (or Sitidos), though this name does not appear in the biblical text.
Job's Wife’s Story
Job's wife was a woman of prosperity, family, and faith — married to a man the scriptures describe as 'perfect and upright' and the greatest in the east. Together they built a household of abundance: ten children, vast flocks, and a life marked by blessing. She was not a bystander in that life; she was its co-builder.
When catastrophe came, it came for her too. In a single terrible day, she lost all ten of her children, the family's servants, and their livelihood. Then she watched her husband break out in painful sores from head to foot, sitting in ashes, scraping himself with broken pottery. The suffering that tested Job also tested her — and her response, recorded in Job 2:9, was raw and desperate: 'Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.' Job's reply was sharp, calling her words foolish. Many readers across the centuries have judged her harshly for this moment. But it is worth pausing to remember what she had just endured: she was a mother who had buried ten children. Her words may be less a theological argument and more the anguished cry of someone who had reached the absolute end of her strength.
The biblical text does not follow her through Job's long ordeal — we do not know how she coped, what she said, or where she went during the months of suffering. What we do know is that she was still there. Job 42 records the restoration of Job's family, and the text describes ten new children born to Job — seven sons and three daughters. The reasonable and traditional reading is that his wife was their mother, meaning she endured, she stayed, and she was part of the healing.
Those three daughters are given special attention in the text. Their names — Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-happuch — are recorded, which was unusual for daughters in ancient literature. The scripture notes that 'in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job,' and that Job gave them an inheritance alongside their brothers (Job 42:14–15). These daughters were a gift of the restoration, and their mother was there to see it.
Job's wife is a reminder that suffering ripples outward — that the people standing closest to a trial carry their own weight of grief. Her story invites families to think carefully about how loss affects everyone differently, and to extend grace to those whose pain comes out in ways that are hard to hear. She was not defined by one desperate moment. She was a wife, a mother, a survivor, and ultimately a witness to one of the most remarkable restorations in all of scripture.
Did You Know?
Job's wife has a much larger role in some ancient texts outside the Bible. In a document called the 'Testament of Job' — a Jewish text probably written between 100 BC and AD 200 — she is given the name Sitis and her story is told in moving detail. In that account, she sells her own hair to buy bread for Job during his illness, endures public humiliation, and mourns deeply before Job is finally healed. While this text is not scripture, it shows that ancient readers felt her story deserved far more than one verse — and that they saw her as a figure of sacrifice and sorrow, not simply a villain. Some early Christian writers, including John Chrysostom, criticized her harshly. Others, like the author of the Testament of Job, portrayed her with deep compassion. Today many readers land somewhere in the middle — seeing her as a real woman in real pain, whose one recorded moment does not define the whole of who she was or the full arc of what she endured and ultimately received.
See Job 2:9–10; Job 42:13–15; Testament of Job (pseudepigraphical text, not canonical scripture).
Lessons & Music Featuring Job's Wife
Shout For Joy Music • Come, Follow Me
