Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Affliction cometh not forth of the dust - If there were not an adequate cause, thou couldst not be so grievously afflicted.

Spring out of the ground - It is not from mere natural causes that affliction and trouble come; God's justice inflicts them upon offending man.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust - Margin, “or iniquity.” The marginal reading here has been inserted from the different meanings attached to the Hebrew word. That word (און 'âven ) properly means nothingness, or vanity; then nothingness as to worth, unworthiness, wickedness, iniquity; and then the consequences of iniquity - adversity, calamity, affliction; Psalm 55:4; Proverbs 22:8; Psalm 90:10; Job 15:35. The Septuagint renders it κόπος kopos “labor,” or “trouble.” The Vulgate, Nihil in terra, sine causa - “there is nothing on the earth without a cause.” The general sense is plain. It is, that afflictions are not to be ascribed to chance, or that they are not without intelligent design. They do not come up like thistles, brambles, and thorns, from the unconscious earth. They have a cause. They are under the direction of God. The object of Eliphaz in the statement is, to show to Job that it was improper to complain, and that he should commit his cause to a God of infinite power and wisdom; Job 5:8 ff. Afflictions, Eliphaz says, could not be avoided. Man was born unto them. He ought to expect them, and when they come, they should be submitted to as ordered by an intelligent, wise, and good Being. This is one true ground of consolation in afflictions. They do not come from the unconscious earth: they do not spring up of themselves. Though it is true that man is born to them, and must expect them, yet it is also true that they are ordered in infinite wisdom, and that they always have a design.

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground - The Septuagint renders this, “Nor will affliction spring up from the mountains.”

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust,.... Or rather, "for" or "indeed"^F25כי "quia", Pagninus, Montanus; "etenim", Beza, Mercerus; "nam", Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens; so Broughton; "sane", Bolducius. , this being a reason showing that wicked men are justly afflicted and punished; seeing their afflictions come not from the creatures, though they may be instruments, but from God for the sins of men: the word for affliction also signifies iniquity or sin, the cause of affliction, as well as affliction the fruit of sin; and so does the word in the following clause; and Aben Ezra understands both, not of natural but moral evil, and so do others^F26און "iniquitas", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Bolducius, Schmidt, Michaelis; "improbitas", Codurcus. ; both senses may be taken in: sin does not come from God, the Maker of the dust of the earth, he is not the author of sin, nor does this spring out of the dust which he has made; good things, as Schmidt observes, come out of the earth for the use of man as well as beasts, bread, and wine, and oil, and all the necessaries of life; the precious things produced by the influence of the sun and moon, the precious things of the everlasting hills, and of the earth, and the fulness of it; indeed, the earth was cursed for the sin of men, but this is taken off; and, however, it is not owing to the soil, or to the air and climate in which a man lives, that he is sinful; for though there may be national vices or some sins peculiar to or more predominant in one nation than in another, yet this is not to be attributed to such causes; for all sin is from a man's self, and proceeds out of his own evil heart, which is desperately wicked and evil continually, and from whence all the impure streams of sin flow, see Matthew 15:19; and so afflictions are not to be ascribed to second causes, such as the things before mentioned, or Job's losses by the Sabeans and Chaldeans; nor did he place them to that account, but to the hand of God; nor to chance and fortune, or to be reckoned fortuitous events, as if they were chance productions, spontaneous things that spring up of themselves, and not under the direction of an all wise Providence; but they are to be considered as of God, and as of his appointment, and directed by his sovereign will and pleasure, and overruled for his glory; who has fixed what they shall be, of what kind and sort, what the measure of them, to what pitch they shall rise, and how long they shall last:

neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; the same thing as before in different words, neither sin, the cause of trouble, the effect of sin; sin may very fitly be expressed by a word^F1עמל "perversitas", Pagninus; "improbitas", Schultens. which signifies trouble, because it is both troublesome, wearisome, and offensive to God, and brings trouble to the bodies and souls of men here and hereafter. Here Eliphaz begins to lower the tone of his voice, and to speak to Job in a seemingly more kind and friendly manner, observing to him the spring of afflictions, and giving him advice how to behave under them.

Geneva Study Bible

(h) That is, the earth is not the cause of barrenness and man's misery, but his own sin.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Although — rather, “for truly” [Umbreit].

affliction cometh not forth of the dust — like a weed, of its own accord. Eliphaz hints that the cause of it lay with Job himself.

Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

The dust — It springs not up by merely natural causes, as herbs grow out of the earth: but from God. Eliphaz here begins to change his voice, as if he would atone for the hard words he had spoken.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Job 5:6 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

Ver. 6. Although addiction cometh not forth of the dust] It cometh not by fate or blind fortune, it haps not as it may that men suffer. Philistines indeed will say, haply, It is a chance, 1 Samuel 6:9, a common occurrence, that had a time to come in, and must have a time to go in; but every Naomi will in such case conclude, "The hand of the Lord is gone out against me," Ruth 1:13, and carry her sails accordingly, Job 5:20-21; and every good soul will cry out, I will bear the indignatiou of the Lord (who is the efficient cause of all my miseries), because I have sinned against him, which is the meritorious cause. The word here rendered affliction signifieth also iniquity; and well it may, since they are tied together with chains of adamant, as that heathen said; Flagitium et flagellum sunt sicut acus et filum, saith another. Man weaves a spider’s web of sin out of his own bowels, saith a third; and then he is entangled in the same web; the troubles which ensnare and wrap about him are twisted with his own fingers. "Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him?" Amos 3:5. Turdus sibi malum cacat, Of the blackbird’s dung is made the bird lime whereby he is taken; so out of the dung of men’s sins are made the lime twigs of their punishment.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Although, or for, or rather, because. So the following words may contain a reason why he should seek unto God, as he exhorts him, Job 5:8. Or, surely, as that particle is oft used. And so it is a note of his proceeding to another argument.

Affliction, or iniquity, as this word oft signifies; and of this the following sentence is true. And so this first branch speaks of sin, and the next branch of trouble, which is the fruit of sin; and both sin and trouble are said to come from the same spring. But this word signifies also affliction, or misery, or trouble, as Psalms 90:10 Proverbs 12:21; which seems most proper here, both because it is so explained by the following words,

trouble; and again, trouble, Job 5:7, the same thing being repeated in several words, as is usual in Holy Scripture; and because the great thing which troubled Job, and the chief matter of these discourses, was Job’s afflictions, not his sins. Cometh not forth of the dust; it springs not up by chance, as herbs which grow of their own accord out of the earth; or, it comes not from men or creatures here below; but it comes from a certain and a higher cause, even from God, and that for man’s sins; and therefore thou shouldst seek to him for redress, as it follows, Job 5:8.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Second strophe — Suffering is of divine appointment, Job 5:6-7.

This is shown by its being inseparable from the constitution of nature.

6.Although — Rather, for. He proceeds to give the reason why it is foolish to murmur over affliction: evil is not fortuitous, but due to the wickedness of man.

Affliction — ; evil.

Spring out — Sprout up like weeds. Man’s trouble is not a growth or offshoot of nature, but a divine appointment on account of sin. It belongs to a scheme subsequent to that of nature, in which man, a sinful race, grows up to trouble as naturally as the plant sprouts from the earth, or the spark springs upward from the burning coal. The true well-spring of misery is not in nature, but within man himself.

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments

Job 5:6. Although affliction cometh not forth out of the dust — The word

און, aven, here rendered affliction, rather signifies iniquity, and the clause is literally, Iniquity cometh not forth out of the dust; neither doth trouble spring out of the ground — That is, says Dr. Dodd, “As the wickedness of men does not proceed from any natural cause, but from their own free-will; so neither are their miseries to be considered as the effects of natural causes, but as the distributions of a free agent likewise, namely, of a just God, who suits men’s punishments to their crimes; and hence man, being prone to sin, is necessarily born to suffer,” as is signified in the next verse.

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Ground. If you had not sinned, you would not suffer. (Calmet)

Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible

"For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground": The source of the troubles does not come from the ground but from within the man.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

Although - rather, For truly (Umbreit).

Affliction cometh not forth of the dust - like a weed, of its own accord. Eliphaz hints that the cause of it lay with Job himself. The cause of afflictions is not to be sought for extrinsically, but in man himself.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

affliction

or, iniquity. trouble.

34:29; Deuteronomy 32:27; 1 Samuel 6:9; Psalms 90:7; Isaiah 45:7; Lamentations 3:38; Amos 3:6

spring out

Hosea 10:4; Hebrews 12:15