Refinement from Tribulation

And not only [so], but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; Romans 5:3

Our word " tribulation " is derived from the Latin tribulum— a wheat drag/sled, consisting of a heavy piece of wood, armed underneath with pieces of iron or sharp flints, which is drawn over the grain by a yoke of oxen,—either the driver or a heavy weight being placed upon it,—for the purpose of separating the grain from the husk and cutting the straw.

As the tribulum was also used for separating beans from the pods enclosing them, it had to be adapted in its construction and weight to the kind of pods over which it was passed; so that, in any case, it might break the husks without crushing the seeds.

Thus a divinely appointed tribulation, God's tribulum, is intended to separate the evil without injury to the good. Wherefore "we glory in tribulation also." It builds our character.