Lives of Scripture

Jemimah was the first of three daughters born to Job after "the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12), restoring him following the catastrophic loss of his first ten children, his health, and his wealth. Alongside seven new sons, Job had three daughters, and Scripture names each of them: Jemimah, then Keziah, then Keren-happuch (42:13-14). The text singles out these daughters for two things: "in all the land no women were found so beautiful as Job's daughters," and their father "gave them an inheritance among their brothers" (42:15) -- a detail worth noting, since inheritance in Israelite and broader ancient Near Eastern custom ordinarily passed only to sons unless there were no male heirs (compare the exceptional case of Zelophehad's daughters in Numbers 27). Job had seven sons as well, so giving Jemimah and her sisters a share was not a legal necessity but a deliberate act of favor by their father. Jemimah herself speaks no words and performs no independent deed in the text; she is named and described only as part of the record of Job's full restoration -- long life, a large family, and, in her case specifically, a father's generosity that went beyond what custom required.