Job's Wife

Job's wife has gotten a lot of bad press.

In Job chapters 1 and 2 we see that Job's wealth, family, and health have been destroyed. The only things spared are Job's life and his wife.

It has been said that Job's wife "loses what faith she might have had". Additionally, it has been joked (by myself included) that satan took everything but left a nagging wife behind to further torture Job.

After rereading the book, considering it as a whole, and particularly considering the latter chapters, I would like to offer another possibility.

I've seen that even though Job's actions and speech appear to be upright and without sin early in the story, deep down in Job's heart he is actually self-righteous.

Early on, Job mouths lots of very good sounding words. However, when we get down to the core, we find him saying what he really thinks in his heart. Both Elihu and God rebuke Job because he is righteous in his own site.

In light of this, consider that in Job 2:8, Job is off sitting in a corner having a pity party and feeling sorry for himself.

Consider also that Job's wife probably knows more about Job than any other human in the story.

Frustrated with Job's self-pity, I can imagine Job's wife saying in 2:9 something to the effect of: "If all your going to do is sit there and feel sorry for yourself, why not get it over with and curse God and die."