For affliction comes not forth from the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
All Commentaries on Job 5:6 Go To Job 5
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
13. For on this account it often happens that even a slothful man receives ability, that he may be the more deservedly punished for his carelessness, because he scorns to acquaint himself with that which he might attain to without labour. And on this account the earnest person is straitened with slowness of understanding, that he may obtain so much the larger rewards of compensation, the more he toils in anxiety to find out. Therefore ‘there is nothing in the earth without cause,’ since slowness stands the earnest mind in stead for a reward, and to the slothful quickness only thrives for punishment. But for the understanding of those things that be right, we are at one time instructed therein by earnestness of labour, at another time by pains of affliction. Hence after it has been said, There is nothing in the earth without cause, it is fitly added thereupon,
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground.
14. For ‘trouble springeth out of the ground,’ as it were, when man, being created after the image of God, is scourged by things without sense. But because it is by reason of the hidden deserts of men's souls that the open scourges of chastisements are sent forth, it happens at the same time that ‘trouble springeth not out of the ground,’ since it is the perversity of our sense, which requires that it should be stricken by things that have no sense. For thus we see that for our correction the looked for rain is withheld from the parched earth, and the vaporous air is scorched by the fiery heat of the sun; the sea rages with bursting tempests, and some embarked to cross its bosom it cuts off, and others are debarred the longed-for passage by the rampant water; the earth not only yields sparingly the produce of her fertility, but also destroys the seeds she has received. In all which circumstances we clearly discern that which a wise man testifies concerning God, And the world shall fight with Him against the unwise. [Wisd. 5, 20] For ‘the world fights with the Lord against the unwise,’ when even the very contrariety of the elements does service in the chastisement of offenders. Yet neither doth ‘trouble Spring out of the ground,’ for each insensate thing is put in motion to our annoyance, only by the impulse of our own doings. ‘Trouble does not spring out of the ground,’ for chastisement never a whit springs from that creature that strikes the blow, but from that one, without doubt, which, by committing sin, drew forth the severity of the stroke. But we must take great and diligent heed, that, when in outward circumstances we are afflicted with a weight of grief, we reach forward in hope to things above; that the mind may attain the heights above, in proportion as we are chastened by the external punishment.
