Blows of a wound cleanse away evil: as do stripes the inner depths of the heart.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 20:30 Go To Proverbs 20
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
The sick are to be admonished to consider that through bodily affliction can come great gifts. It may be the occasion for cleansing of sins committed or the restraint of those that could be committed and lead from a troubled mind toward penitence inflicted by outward stripes. Hence Scripture says, “The blueness of a wound cleanses evils, and stripes in the more inward parts of the belly.” The blueness of a wound cleanses evil, that is, the pain of chastisement cleanses wickedness, whether meditated or perpetrated.… That is, when we are outwardly smitten, we are recalled, silent and afflicted, to the memory of our sins, and we bring before our eyes all the evil we have done, and in proportion as we suffer outwardly, the more do we grieve inwardly for our deeds. .
