“Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.”
Job's wife—until this moment unmentioned—speaks a tempter's line, urging Job to curse God and die, suggesting that she has succumbed to despair or has become an instrument of Satan's pressure. Her counsel represents the human temptation to view the suffering as incompatible with divine justice and to see death as preferable to continued existence in such conditions. Her role as the one to voice the very curse that Satan predicted reveals how suffering can corrupt even intimate relationships and test solidarity.
Church Fathers on Job 2:9
Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. The old adversary is wont to tempt mankind in two ways; viz. so as either to break the hearts of the stedfast by tribulation, or to melt them by persuasion. Against blessed Job then he strenuously exerted himself in both; for first upon the householder he brought loss of substance; the father he bereaved by the death of his children; the man that was in health he smote with putrid sores.…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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