On Women and Honor in the Testament of Job

Abstract

A variety of explanations has been offered for the prominent role women play in the Testament of Job. This article argues that the women should be understood within the context of the Testament’s larger theme of prescribing a response to sudden loss of wealth and honor. The Testament serves as a lesson on the transience of acquired honor in contrast to the permanence of honor ascribed by God. The women of the account were essential to this lesson’s clarity, epitomizing both of its parts: the anxieties and failures of the Egyptians Sitidos and the maidservant embody the futility of clinging to acquired honor and the fate of Job’s Israelite daughters signals the merit of trusting in honor ascribed by God.