His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”
- KJV Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
- BSB Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
- NKJV Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
- NASB Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold firm your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job's wife urges him to curse God and die, voicing despair. Her words present a real temptation to abandon faith.
Overview
Crushed by shared grief, Job's wife counsels him to renounce God and end his torment, the very outcome Satan predicted. Faithful interpreters note she is herself a grieving sufferer, though her counsel is wrong. Her challenge sharpens the test, making Job's steadfast trust shine all the brighter against the lure of despair.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 2:3Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”
- Job 2:5But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”
- 2 Kgs 6:33While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, “Behold, this evil is from Yahweh. Why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?”
- Mal 3:14You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies?
- Job 1:11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”
- Job 21:14–15They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
- Gen 3:6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.
- 1 Kgs 11:4When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father was.
- Gen 3:12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 2:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.