His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
Job 5:4 belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends over the meaning of his afflictions, a debate carried on through three rounds of speeches by each disputant. The words are those of Eliphaz. They assert that the children of the wicked man are far from safety, are crushed in the gate — that is, suffer defeat in public judgment — and have no one to deliver them.
This reflects the general contention of the friends that evil is punished. As directed against Job it was misapplied, since suffering does not prove that the sufferer is under God's displeasure. Because Eliphaz's speech includes false accusations against Job, it cannot be taken as reliable in itself apart from confirmation by other inspired teaching, so what the verse implies concerning Job's children is not established as fact.
Job 5:4 belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends over the meaning of his afflictions, a debate carried on through three rounds of speeches by each disputant. The words are those of Eliphaz. They assert that the children of the wicked man are far from safety, are crushed in the gate — that is, suffer defeat in public judgment — and have no one to deliver them.
This reflects the general contention of the friends that evil is punished. As directed against Job it was misapplied, since suffering does not prove that the sufferer is under God's displeasure. Because Eliphaz's speech includes false accusations against Job, it cannot be taken as reliable in itself apart from confirmation by other inspired teaching, so what the verse implies concerning Job's children is not established as fact.