Job’s wife receives a fair amount of criticism, and perhaps, justly. Calvin, the famous theologian of Geneva, called Job’s wife “an instrument of Satan.” This is probably based on the fact that the words of Job’s wife immediately follow Satan’s attack upon Job (2:7–8). Many other Bible commentators follow this line of reasoning. Let us keep in mind that the apostle Peter had also once been the mouthpiece of Satan (Mt. 16:23), and he was forgiven by his Lord. Her words, “curse God and die,” have been interpreted as calling for her husband to commit suicide. In fact, however, she probably believed he was about to die from his afflictions. To her credit, she did at least recognize that Job was pious: “Do you still hold fast to your integrity?” That is more than Job’s friends said about him.

Perhaps we should extend to Job’s wife a little grace. She too had lost all seven of her children, had lost her home, and had seen her husband’s health taken away. She was in shock and in deep mourning herself. Job appears to recognize this when he says to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks” (2:10). In other words, she was speaking out of character, not as she normally would. Job had made “a covenant” with his eyes (31:1), which speaks to Job’s personal integrity. But it also suggests he honored his wife and that she was worthy of honor.

God eventually replaced all of the children that Job had lost (42:12–15). There is no biblical indication that Job ever remarried, so we must assume that it was the same woman who gave birth to them. She had suffered too, and God replaced to her what she had lost. God told Job to forgive his friends, but his wife’s failure during his time of suffering was not even mentioned. Job had already forgiven her.