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, Psalms 39:2, and he had well deserved it, Micah 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., Psalms 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, Genesis 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, 1 Kings 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, Hebrews 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 Malachi 1:10; Malachi 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.