Jemima (Bible)

For other people of the same name, see Jemima (disambiguation).

Job with his three daughters by William Blake

Jemima (also written Jemimah, Hebrew: יְמִימָה‎, Yemimah) was the oldest of the three beautiful daughters of Job, named in the Bible as given to him in the later part of his life, after God made Job prosperous again. Jemima's younger sisters are named as Keziah and Keren-Happuch. Job's sons, in contrast, are not named.

Jemima, along with her sisters, was described as more beautiful than all the other women in the land. Also, unusually and in common with her sisters, Jemima was granted an inheritance by her father, with her brothers as might have been expected. (Job 42–15) Apart from these brief references at the end of the Book of Job, Jemima is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.

The name Jemima in Hebrew literally means "warm", i.e. affectionate and hence it is taken to mean dove, which in Hebrew is also derived from the word for warmth.

In Job 42:14 (ESV):

"And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch"

Possible Arabian queen

The Christian theologian John Gill notes that Jemima may mean either "day" or "dove", the latter by association with the Arabic word يمامة yamāmah. Noting that there is a land in Arabia with the name al-Yamama, which had a queen called Zarqāʼ al-Yamāmah, he conjectures that the Biblical Jemima may be connected with the Yamamah of Arabic folklore.