Job 28:5

Job 28:5 [As for] the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

Ver. 5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread] That is, grain. Alma Tellus, plentifully yieldeth those precious fruits of hers, as they are called, James 5:11, Fertilis et ferax (Vatab.). These fruits lie hidden in the seed for a season; and so doth likewise fire in the flint (whereof some understand the following words), yet are they brought at length into the light.

And under it is turned up as it were fire] That is, materials of fire, as coals of, &c., or brimstone, which hath fire in it, and doth sometimes take fire in the mines; or gold, which is to be tried in the furnace, and various sparkling stones created from a sulphureous matter, such as is that which Pliny and Isidore call pyrites persicus, and tell us, that if it be held hard in a man's hand it burneth. As also that which Hiarchas in Philostratus calleth pantarbe which burneth with a kind of sweet brightness, saith that author, that dazzleth the eyes of the beholder, and hath a strange attractive virtue. Thus it sometimes happens that the upper part of a ground is fruitful, and brings forth grain and grass, and underneath are precious stones and metals. But commonly where there is gold below there is the barrenest soil above. God and nature thereby teaching us, that where the love of money (that root of all evil) groweth there is no good to be found. A harvest may as well be looked for in a hedge as true grace in a gold thirsty heart.