Fiction Friday - Satan's Vengeance

I read the Bible every year, and often think about backstories to characters that are not told. Why did Rebekah favor Jacob over Esau? What was Adam and Eve's relationship like before the fall into sin? How awful/exciting would it have been to live on the ark for all those months? I'm currently in the book of Job, and got to wondering about his wife...

Salmira brushed a hand over her hair and moved to the doorway. Her friend Leah was coming up the path, robes flapping in the hot breeze.

"Salmira, my friend, how are you holding up?" Leah asked as soon as she was in ear-shot.

"Oh Leah, come inside. Let me make us some tea. What a business this is!"

As the water boiled and she prepared the tea, Salmira thought over the last few weeks. Life had been good. Great, even. Then, out of the blue, everything fell apart. Flocks and herds gone, kids dead in a collapsed house, servants dead except for the few who survived each calamity by running from the trouble to inform Job. Only two had stayed, deciding Job and Salmira's luck must be over. 

She looked up to the heavens and let out a sigh. Job. Peeking out back to where he sat picking his sores in the ash, she shook her head in disgust.

Salmira brought the tea back into the front room and poured it out. "How is Eli?" she asked Leah as she poured. "And your boys?" A silence settled as she glanced down into her tea to hide the sting in her eyes from thinking of her own seven sons, crushed under the rubble of a collapsed house. She wasn't quick enough for Leah, though.

"Oh my dear..." Leah reached a gentle hand to still Salmira's shaking one. "Shh..." In a minute though, she could maintain the silence no longer. She removed her hand and began. "Now that your mourning days are over, Eli and a couple of the other men will be coming to speak to Job. Is he here?"

Salmira nodded, her resolve recovered. She gestured with her head toward the back of the house. "Out back, where he has sat for days. I don't know what is wrong with him." She didn't know what had caused the sores to break out all over her careful husband, but more than that, she didn't understand his actions now. "Honestly, in his current state I'm glad he prefers out there to being inside. Ugh!" She gave a shiver at the thought of his newly damaged appearance.

"In town, they are saying God is punishing him. But I always thought your husband was a fine, upstanding man." Leah waited for confirmation from her friend.

Salmira stared at Leah with wide eyes and nodded emphatically. "I thought so too! Why would God punish him for nothing?" Maybe Leah had heard more rumors. "I don't ask him about his business, but what does he do when he's away?"

"Are you thinking one of the caravans?" Leah had had suspicions herself. They were based on nothing more than that a good man was having a hard time, and the gossip that accompanied that: Job must have done something terrible. Salmira's reaction didn't help Leah though. Of course she hated to think of her husband that way, and her face showed doubt mixed with the disgust.

"Is it, is it very bad?" Leah had heard in town that Job was covered with sores, and the children even crossed to the other side of the road if they had to pass by where he sat scratching at himself.

"He disgusts me now. Come look!" Salmira was happy to have a friend to share in her distress. She escorted her friend to the back doorway and they looked out, watching Job sit by the road in the ashes, scraping at his skin. Soon Leah's husband and two other men came by, stopping to cry out when they saw Job's sorry situation. When they got as close as they dared, they sat with him in silence.

Leah returned to her earlier comment. "Well, maybe Eli and the others can help counsel him."

"Oh, I hope they help. I have no children, we lost all the animals, there is no business, and what am I without my husband? I would die!" Their tea sat cooling in the other room, but having a friend changed Salmira's attitude. The setting felt like all was normal again. "We can't stand here watching them forever."

They enjoyed tea and fig cakes for a while longer. When the sun was setting the women went to look out at the men. No one had moved. Salmira shook her head. "Men. Come, Leah, help me make something to eat. It seems they will stay for dinner."

Salmira called for one of the remaining servants to take out the food, but Leah volunteered. Salmira had a sneaking suspicion Leah was just being nosy, but couldn't stay in the house and let a guest serve. They went out together.

When they approached the men with the food, Job didn't even look up. The men were not talking at all, and didn't move to accept the meal. Salmira pursed her lips and plunked the food down on a nearby rock. They could eat it or not. Spinning on her heel, she returned to the house. Leah paused to look at her husband Eliphaz, urging him with eye movements to say something. He responded with a frown and turned away.

It was days before the men seemed to even move a muscle, although each time Salmira sent out food it was clear some of it was being eaten. Salmira saw Leah every day, and began talking about a future without Job, assuming he'd die soon. Little did she know that her part in Job's life was far from over!

Reference: Job's wife is mentioned once, in Job 2:9: "Then his wife said to him, 'Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.'" and then in verse 10, Job responds with "...Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil?" 

SIDEBAR: "The patience of Job" is an inaccurate metaphor if you ask me. Read the book! Job wasn't patient AT ALL! He was, however, faithful through all his hardships. I wish we could retire "the patience of Job" metaphor. Please?

Now, why did I call this story "Satan's Vengeance"? When God allowed Satan to mess with Job, his only rule was "don't take his life." Satan took all his goods, his children, and his health, but left him his wife... the woman who wished he would just die already. Then, (spoiler alert) when God restores Job's fortunes, he has 10 more kids, presumably with the same wife, since we are never told that she died. So Satan took away everything except this shrew-ish wife, who he then continued on with for 140 more years!!!