The American-English phrase (as) poor as Job’s turkey is a humorous variant of (as) poor as Job, meaning: extremely poor.
—Cf. also the American-English phrase (as) poor as Job’s cat.
In those phrases, Job is the name of a patriarch of the land of Uz, the eponymous protagonist of a book of the Old Testament, taken as the type of extreme poverty, destitution, etc.
—Cf. also the phrase Job’s comforter, which refers to the Book of Job, 16:2, and the phrase by the skin of one’s teeth, which refers to the Book of Job, 19:20.
The phrase (as) poor as Job is first recorded in the following from Confessio Amantis, by the English poet John Gower (c.1330-1408) [Book 5, lines 2499-2505]:
—text: Russell A. Peck (editor), Andrew Galloway (translator) – Robbins Library Digital Projects – University of Rochester (New York):
Confessor “Mi sone, hast thou such covoitise?”
Amans “Nai, fader, such love I despise,
And whil I live schal don evere,
For in good feith yit hadde I levere [i.e., rather],
Than to coveite in such a weie,
To ben forevere til I deie
As povere as Job, and loveles.”
The phrase (as) poor as Job’s turkey occurs, for example, in a review of America Dreaming, broadcast on BBC Radio 4—review by Tom Widger, published in The Sunday Tribune (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Sunday 5th May 1996 [Vol. 17, No. 17; Magazine: page 33, column 6]:
Simon Dring travelled south to the buckle of the Bible Belt: Carter County in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains in the banjo-pickin’, tabacca-chewin’, god-fearin’ state of Tennessee […].
[…]
[…] Mike McKinney, a mountain man, called his county God’s Promised Land: “But poor, very poor. Poor as Job’s Turkey,” he pointed out. “Was Joe’s Turkey very poor?” Dring inquired. “Job’s! Job’s Turkey!” Mike pointed out with some vim. The biblically informed and the biblically ignorant.
The earliest occurrences of the phrase (as) poor as Job’s turkey that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:
1-: From Notes to Canto Third, in Blue Lights, Or, The Convention. A Poem, in Four Cantos (New York: Charles N. Baldwin, 1817), by Jonathan M. Scott [page 137]:
Art thou as that turkey poor,
Which, at Uz, by famine died.
This is one of the many scripture traditions, current in New-England, serving to illustrate the extreme poverty to which the patient Job was reduced. To be as poor as Job’s turkey, has passed into a proverb.
2-: From the third edition of The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan. By Hector Bull-us (Philadelphia: M. Carey and Son, 1819), by the U.S. author James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860) [page 22]:
Beau Napperty, as I have heard say, was called Beau, because he was noted for laying out all the money he could rake and scrape together upon his back. He lived upon soup, and dressed like a little king, so that, though he was as fine as Cuffy, he was as poor as Job’s Turkey. He strutted about in a big cocked hat.
Note: The phrase (as) poor as Job’s turkey occurs neither in The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan. By Hector Bull-us (New York: Inskeep & Bradford; and Bradford & Inskeep, Philadelphia – 1812) nor in The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan. By Hector Bull-us (London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1813).
3-: From A Wife, published in Mrs. A. S. Colvin’s Weekly Messenger (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of Saturday 5th August 1826 [Vol. 1, No. 3, page 10, column 3]:
On a gentleman being asked why he did not marry? he said, “Because I cannot get a wife corresponding with the following description, which I conceive could alone afford me any prospect of happiness through this dreary journey of life. […]
[…]
[…] Not possessing any fortune myself, being as poor as Job’s turkey, as the saying is, let her have a neat little fortune of twenty thousand dollars to begin upon.”
4-: From Walter the Murderer; Or, The Mysteries of El Dorado. An Historical Romance (London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1827), by C. A. Bolen [Vol. 3, page 4]:
“I declare, I think he has brought you here to marry you to his youngest cub, Leon; I am to be united to the eldest: he knows your father would give a round sum to have you kept out of the way; so I suppose he’ll engage to lock you up here a prisoner for life, and honour you with the title of wife to don Leon: I would wager any thing I have hit the exact truth: money is all they want, for the marquis, as he is called, is as poor as Job’s turkey.”
5-: From the Buffalo & Black Rock Gazette (Buffalo, New York, USA) of Thursday 17th January 1828 [Vol. 4, No. 3, page 4, column 2]:
Why don’t it Snow?—The blushing maiden, as she looks through the casement, upon the bare and frozen earth, exclaims, “why don’t it snow?” The ball at the Eagle on the 8th, would have been still more delightful, if the sleigh-bells had kept time! yes”…“Yes” grumbled an old 56-er, with eye-brows like a bush-heap, ‘the belles in sleigh, and bells on noble steeds,’ will dance and jingle, sing and ring, away all the cash from the young Blades, and leave ’em poor as Job’s turkeys!”
6-: From Mystery. A Modern Story. Tale VI, in Tales of the Emerald Isle; Or, Legends of Ireland. By a Lady of Boston (New York: W. Borradaile, November 1828), by Elizabeth H. Stebbins [page 209]:
“Why, Faulkener, my good fellow, you look as if you had lost your friends, your money, and your mistress.” Faulkener started.—“You wince, I see,” said his tormentor; “which of these is the case? I cannot help you to money, for I am as poor as Job’s turkey; I cannot help you to friends, for I have none myself; but as for a mistress, why, man, there are plenty of them.”
7-: From Chronicles of Turkeytown; Or, The Works of Jeremy Peters. First Series (Philadelphia: R. H. Small, 1829), by the U.S. author and lawyer Thomas Lacey Smith (1805-1875) [page 3]:
WHOEVER Consults the Gazetteer, will find, or ought to find, the description of a village that exists in a certain part of the state of New Jersey, and which has been long known under the appellation of Turkeytown. Some persons, who seem to have been more desirous to attract notice by a witty saying, than to elicit truth, have started an opinion, that this name owes its derivation to an old byword, signifying, “that all the inhabitants were as poor as Job’s turkey.” Now, whether Job’s turkey was poor or otherwise, or whether he even possessed such a bird, is really more than I can inform the reader.
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