Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
Parallel translations
- WEB For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
- BSB For distress does not spring from the dust, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
- NKJV For affliction does not come from the dust, Nor does trouble spring from the ground;
- NASB “For disaster does not come from the dust, Nor does trouble sprout from the ground,
- NLT But evil does not spring from the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the earth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Affliction does not simply sprout from the dust or trouble from the ground on its own. Eliphaz means suffering has a cause, hinting it lies in human sin.
Overview
Eliphaz argues that hardship is not random or self-generating from the soil; it comes for a reason. He is steering toward the claim that Job's trouble traces back to wrongdoing. The observation that suffering has causes is fair, but the book complicates his neat moral arithmetic, since Job's affliction has a cause hidden in heaven, not in secret sin, teaching that we cannot always trace suffering to a victim's guilt.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Isa 45:7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
- 1 Sam 6:9And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us.
- Ps 90:7For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
- Job 34:29When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:
- Hos 10:4They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
- Amos 3:6Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
- Lam 3:38Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
- Heb 12:15Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
- Deut 32:27Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 5:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.