The book of Job is an emotional story, from suffering to rescue to restoration. While the book is centered around Job, we can learn much from the life and death of Job’s daughters (both at the story’s beginning and end).
There’s a reason why you don’t hear of many people who name their child Job. Just the moniker conjures up horrendous suffering at the hands of what some people may say is a cruel God. But I contend that God allowed Job’s trial because He knew what Job did not know: He would be the One to carry Job through the trial. He would show Job His magnificent power, glory, grace, and mercy in doing so. Getting to know the God of the universe better changed man and would have had a definite impact on Job’s daughters, those whom God gifted him once his trial was over.
But let’s start at the beginning of Job’s story.
What Do We Learn about Job and His Daughters at the Beginning?
Job was a man who lived in a land called Uz, a larger territory east of the Jordan River. Though we don’t have a time frame for his life or know who wrote the book (though there are some clues in the text), we do know the most important thing there was to know about Job: he “was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). We learn he was quite a wealthy man with seven sons and three daughters. They seemed to be a tight-knit family because the sons used to take turns hosting feasts and invite Job’s daughters to eat and drink with them. Job was always concerned about whether one of his children may have sinned during one of these celebrations, so he would have them “purified” by sacrificing a burnt offering, believing, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts” (Job 1:5).
We then get a glimpse of a conversation between God and Satan, where Satan questioned the authenticity of Job’s faithfulness to God, saying, “Does Job fear God for nothing? . . . stretch out your hand and strike everything he has and he will surely curse you to your face.” God then allowed Satan free reign to anything Job had but told Satan not to lay a hand on Job himself. In a devastating move, God allowed a mighty wind to move in from the desert that destroyed the house where Job’s daughters and sons were feasting, killing them all. The rest of the book is mostly filled with Job and his friends discussing why God would allow physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain. In the end, Job gets a lesson that he never could have learned without having been a pawn in Satan’s attempt to destroy him.
How Many Daughters Did Job Have?
As mentioned, Job had three daughters that he lost to his first “test” from Satan. They were eating and drinking at the oldest brother's house when the wind came and, as a messenger reported, the “struck the four corners of the house . . . [the house] collapsed on them and they are dead.” Job was so distraught he tore his robe and shaved his head.
To lose one child is painful enough, but to lose all of your children, after being committed to respecting and following the Lord your whole life, was more than Job could handle. Then, when he experienced the physical trial of boils all over his body—that caused tremendous discomfort—things got worse. Job’s wife encouraged him to “curse God and die.”
What Do Job’s Friends Say About His Daughters Dying?
Job’s friends arrive after his tragedies, but their presence only adds insult to injury.
There are three instances when Job’s so-called friends commented about the deaths of Job’s daughters.
- Eliphaz said, “His children are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender” (Job 5:4). In other words, “Job, you didn’t protect your children; some sin of yours or theirs has caused this, and now your children have no one to help them plead their case before God.” He believed that no one perished if they were innocent.
- Like Eliphaz, Bildad said, “When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin” (Job 8:4). Again, he blamed the tragedy on the children. Matthew Henry wrote in his famous Bible commentary, “It is true that we and our children have sinned against God, and we ought to justify him in all he brings upon us and ours; but extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces; and, in our judgment of another's case (unless the contrary appears), we ought to take the more favorable side, as our Savior directs…”
- Finally, Zophar offered, “His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth” (Job 20:10). How insensitive of Zophar to speak as if Job’s daughters were still alive.
God had a word about these men at the end of the book. “. . . he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” They were wrong about everything, including what they spoke about Job’s daughters and sons. Then, in His actions to bless Job more than before, God shows that Job’s trial was not about his sin (or God would not bless him, according to the three friends). It was about trust, even when God doesn’t explain or provide immediate relief.
Does God Ever Tell Job Why His Daughters Died?
In his trauma and pain, Job complained to God and accused Him of doing the wrong things in Job’s life. Then God spent chapters 38-41 asking questions back to Job. “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” God says. “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me” (Job 38:2-3).
In all of His questioning, God never explains why he allowed the trial in Job’s life, including the death of Job’s daughters. Instead, he asks Job about things that don’t seem to have anything to do with Job’s plight. With each question, I can imagine Job becoming more and more humbled as God asks about things that only God can do, putting Job’s life in perspective. They also detail God’s design in his creation.
God asks him questions like, “Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me” (Job 41:11). God points Job to hints of his sovereignty and mercy in the world around him. Job replies with humility: “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
In “5 Important Things to Know About the Story of Job,” Aaron D’Anthony Brown writes, “No one can fully understand God, and that gives us all the more reason to pray. And when we pray and while we wait, we know in the end God will make us into someone better than where we started. Job proved that.” The Lord believed that Job needed to know and trust God more, and in his waiting, he would learn more than he could in any other way. It’s the purpose of all human suffering.
How Many Daughters Did Job Have Later in Life?
But God, in His infinite mercy, turned Job’s life around 180 degrees from that moment. He took Job’s friends to task and said Job would pray for them. Then, with incredible generosity, God restored double of all Job’s property and gave him a second set of seven sons and three daughters.
Interestingly, the Bible only tells us what Job named his daughters, not his sons. The oldest was named Jemimah (which meant “dove”); the middle daughter was Keziah (which meant “cinnamon”), and the youngest was named Keren-Happuch. There are several translations, but the name means something akin to “horn of beauty” or “radiate with beautified eyes.”
The Bible also notes that Job’s daughters each received a portion of Job’s inheritance, similar to the sons. This tells me that they were highly prized, and not necessarily that they did not have a husband to cover them financially. Especially since we have a clue that Job’s daughters may have had children since one of the last verses in his book says that Job lived to “see his children, and their children to the fourth generation” (Job 42:16).
What Can We Learn About God’s Goodness in the Story of Job’s Daughters?
First, Job's story must be evaluated from the “behind-the-scenes” view of God and Satan’s conversation. God knew that Job would not “curse God” in the end because He would ensure that Job had enough faith to get through to the end of the trial. He wasn’t about to be beaten by Satan in this challenge to His sovereignty.
Secondly, the fact the first set of daughters died doesn’t communicate that God cared more about the second set. His plan for the first daughters included the day of their death, and that plan was part of His will to work all things together for good. Third, the fact that God gave Job three daughters after his trial is beyond generous. Job giving an inheritance to his daughters mirrors God’s generosity.
Finally, though Job had every reason to be crushed by the loss of his daughters, he learned (and we learn) that it’s acceptable to question God and cry out to Him, but another thing to accuse Him. The Psalms are a great example, especially when the psalmist cries out to God in fear or anger and then follows up with confirmation that God is still sovereign and good. For example, we read at the beginning of Psalm 13, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” Yet later in the Psalm, we read, “But I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). God can handle our questions, but always calls us to remember who He is, what He has done throughout eternity, and the untold blessings that He has brought into our lives, especially when we are suffering.
Photo Credit:©GettyImages/Povozniuk
Mary Oelerich-Meyer is a Chicago-area freelance writer and copy editor who prayed for years for a way to write about and for the Lord. She spent 20 years writing for area healthcare organizations, interviewing doctors and clinical professionals and writing more than 1,500 articles in addition to marketing collateral materials. Important work, but not what she felt called to do. She is grateful for any opportunity to share the Lord in her writing and editing, believing that life is too short to write about anything else. Previously she served as Marketing Communications Director for a large healthcare system. She holds a B.A. in International Business and Marketing from Cornell College (the original Cornell!) When not researching or writing, she loves to spend time with her writer daughter, granddaughter, rescue doggie and husband (not always in that order).
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