An Estimate of Job's Wealth in Dollars: Just How Rich Was Job?

Some Bible scholars take Job to be a fictional character, but I am among those who think Job was a real person. Both Ezekiel the prophet and James the brother of Jesus mentioned Job as a historical person (Ezekiel 14:14,20; James 5:11). Job has been identified with Jobab, the second king of Edom (Genesis 36:33), but that is not a sure thing. The English name "Job" is actually "Iyowb" in Hebrew. It would have been better if the English translators rendered the name "Yob", since there is no "J" sound in Hebrew. By using "J" instead of "Y", every time we pronounce this man's name, we are forced to do the tongue trick of making "Job" sound different from "job" (as in employment)! Anyway, since everyone has learned the wrong pronunciation of the man's name, we'll just stick to that tradition.

Like most Bible names, the name "Job" has a significant meaning. There are two views about the meaning of Job's name. If the name is traced to the Hebrew language, then "Job" means "persecuted one". If we believe the name comes from the Arabic language, then "Job" means "repentant one". Good thing is, there is really no need to choose one or the other, since both meanings are true of what we learn of the man in the book that bears his name. Job was "persecuted" for doing nothing wrong, but he also had to "repent", because he insisted on his righteousness so much that he turned it into self-righteousness (Job 42:1-6). The name is further true of Job in that the word "repent" also means to return, to make a come back. Again, that was true of Job; he was the persecuted one who bounced back, when God restored his health and wealth (Job 42:12).

The truth remains that Job was a righteous person. The writer of the Book of Job gives us a four-fold description of just how godly Job was: "...that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1b). (a) Job was "blameless" – undefiled, honest, transparent in character. (b) He was "upright" – straight, without moral compromise. (c) Job "feared God" – he revered the Almighty; demonstrated reverence, showing the highest respect for God. (d) He "shunned evil" – he practically turned away from doing wrong; he actively wrested sin from his life whenever and wherever he noticed a flaw; he was sensitive to sin as an affront to godliness.

Alongside Job's spiritual and moral integrity was the fact that he was also very wealthy: Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East (Job 1:3).

Let's turn our attention to the list of Job's wealth by first pointing out that this list by no means tells us all about Job's wealth, nor do we have all the details of his streams of wealth listed here. (a) For example, we are not told of his land holdings. (b) We don't know how much grain or crop Job raised each year; such a wealthy figure who lived during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) probably grew his own food. (c) We are not given the number of his servants; Job would have been responsible to provide for his servants and their families, while those servants helped with managing Job's livestock, and serving as a private military force. Job could have easily owned as many servants as Abraham who had more than 318 battle-trained servants (Genesis 14:14), besides his other servants with their wives and children who could be deployed in turf warfare. (d) The writer does not mention the wealth Job amassed from trading with other wealthy businesspeople near and far. From Job's ownership of numerous camels, we get a hint that he was probably involved in trans-territorial trade.

With that said, let's estimate the value of Job's wealth as given to us in the text above. This is a very rough estimate, which I arrived at by finding out the present-day cost of the livestock listed in Job 1:3. (I also found out that the prices vary wildly as they do today in the futures market.) What we have here is what would have been like cash money in Job's day, or assets owned free and clear, no debt, which is the essence of what it means to be truly rich.

• 7,000 sheep. One sheep costs around $45, multiplied by 7,000 = $315,000 worth of sheep.
   
• 3,000 camels. One camel costs about $125, multiplied by 3,000 = $375,000 worth of camels.
   
• 500 yokes of oxen would be at least 1,000 oxen, because it takes at least 2 oxen (plural of ox) to form a yoke. One ox may cost around $4,000, multiplied by 1,000 = $4,000,000 worth of oxen.
   
• 500 female donkeys. One donkey costs about $1,200, multiplied by 500 = $600,000; Job probably owned male donkeys too, but their number is not given.
   

Thus Job's livestock assets (adding up the values of sheep, camels, oxen and female donkeys) roughly amounts to $5,290,000. Now, multiply that amount by 2, since we are told in Job 42:12 that God restored Job double for his trouble: "Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys."

That's $10,580,000. Remember, that amount would be like Job's cash account or liquid assets. Once you factor in the other possible assets not on this list, this man was not just a multimillionaire, in his day Job was Bill Gates, William Buffet, and Oprah Winfrey all rolled up in one bundle of wealth. No wonder, holy writ describes him as "the greatest of all the people of the East". He was a King Solomon in his own right centuries before Solomon was born.

Notice that in Job's life, there was no conflict between being godly and being wealthy. However, we read about Job's righteousness (verse 1) before we read of his riches (verse 3). That order reveals that Job used godly principles to manage his vast earthly possessions. That must still remain the order today: we should prefer being "godly wealthy" (God above money) to being "wealthy godly" (money before God).

Anyone who admires the faith of Job or desires the wealth of Job must always remember that Job put faith ahead of wealth. He made wealth a servant of God. It was by putting that priority in place that Job escaped the tendency to "serve God and wealth", as Jesus Christ later put it (Matthew 6:24). Job learned and lived the great secret of godly wealth: he did not serve AND wealth; he served God WITH wealth. He never allowed wealth to trap his heart and snap his love  away from God.

The Book of Job contains evidence that Job refused to treat God as his "Jinny in the Sky". The man held tight to his faith and remained true to his God when he lost all of his wealth, lost his ten children, and when he finally lost his health and remained severely ill for months. That's the kind of man the Almighty can entrust with abundant wealth, the man who will not replace God with wealth.