TRV
Translation
King James Version
His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
Complete Jewish Bible
his children are far from help, publicly humiliated, with no one to rescue;
American Standard Version
His children are far from safety, And they are crushed in the gate, Neither is there any to deliver them:
World English Bible Messianic
His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
Geneva Bible (1599)
His children shalbe farre from saluation, and they shall be destroyed in the gate, and none shall deliuer them.
Young's Literal Translation
Far are his sons from safety, And they are bruised in the gate, And there is no deliverer.
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In the KJVVerse 12,956 of 31,102
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Commentary on Job 5 verses 1–5
1 ¶ Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; and to which of the saints wilt thou turn?
2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.
3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
4 His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
5 Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.
A very warm dispute being begun between Job and his friends, Eliphaz here makes a fair motion to put the matter to a reference. In all debates perhaps the sooner this is done the better if the contenders cannot end it between themselves. So well assured is Eliphaz of the goodness of his own cause that he moves Job himself to choose the arbitrators (Job 5:1): Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; that is, 1. "If there be any that suffer as thou sufferest. Canst thou produce an instance of any one that was really a saint that was reduced to such an extremity as thou art now reduced to? God never dealt with any that love his name as he deals with thee, and therefore surely thou art none of them." 2. "If there be any that say as thou sayest. Did ever any good man curse his day as thou dost? Or will any of the saints justify thee in these heats or passions, or say that these are the spots of God's children? Thou wilt find none of the saints that will be either thy advocates or my antagonists. To which of the saints wilt thou turn? Turn to which thou wilt, and thou wilt find they are all of my mind. I have the communis sensus fidelium - the unanimous vote of the faithful on my side; they will all subscribe to what I am going to say." Observe, (1.) Good people are called saints even in the Old Testament; and therefore I know not why we should, in common speaking (unless because we must loqui cum vulgo - speak as our neighbours), appropriate the title to those of the New Testament, and not say St. Abraham, St. Moses, and St. Isaiah, as well as St. Matthew and St. Mark; and St. David the psalmist, as well as St. David the British bishop. Aaron is expressly called the saint of the Lord. (2.) All that are themselves saints will turn to those that are so, will choose them for their friends and converse with them, will choose them for their judges and consult them. See Psa 119:79. The saints shall judge the world, Co1 6:1, Co1 6:2. Walk in the way of good men (Pro 2:20), the old way, the footsteps of the flock. Every one chooses some sort of people or other to whom he studies to recommend himself, and whose sentiments are to him the test of honour and dishonour. Now all true saints endeavour to recommend themselves to those that are such, and to stand right in their opinion. (3.) There are some truths so plain, and so universally known and believed, that one may venture to appeal to any of the saints concerning them. However there are some things about which they unhappily differ, there are many more, and more considerable, in which they are agreed; as the evil of sin, the vanity of the world, the worth of the soul, the necessity of a holy life, and the like. Though they do not all live up, as they should, to their belief of these truths, yet they are all ready to bear their testimony to them.
Now there are two things which Eliphaz here maintains, and in which he doubts not but all the saints concur with him: -
I. That the sin of sinners directly tends to their own ruin (Job 5:2): Wrath kills the foolish man, his own wrath, and therefore he is foolish for indulging it; it is a fire in his bones, in his blood, enough to put him into a fever. Envy is the rottenness of the bones, and so slays the silly one that frets himself with it. "So it is with thee," says Eliphaz, "while thou quarrellest with God thou doest thyself the greatest mischief; thy anger at thy own troubles, and thy envy at our prosperity, do but add to thy pain and misery: turn to the saints, and thou wilt find they understand their interest better." Job had told his wife she spoke as the foolish women; now Eliphaz tells him he acted as the foolish men, the silly ones. Or it may be meant thus: "If men are ruined and undone, it is always their own folly that ruins and undoes them. They kill themselves by some lust or other; therefore, no doubt, Job, thou hast done some foolish thing, by which thou hast brought thyself into this calamitous condition." Many understand it of God's wrath and jealousy. Job needed not be uneasy at the prosperity of the wicked, for the world's smiles can never shelter them from God's frowns; they are foolish and silly if they think they will. God's anger will be the death, the eternal death, of those on whom it fastens. What is hell but God's anger without mixture or period?
II. That their prosperity is short and their destruction certain, Job 5:3-5. He seems here to parallel Job's case with that which is commonly the case of wicked people. 1. Job had prospered for a time, seemed confirmed, and was secure in his prosperity; and it is common for foolish wicked men to do so: I have seen them taking root - planted, and, in their own and others' apprehension, fixed, and likely to continue. See Jer 12:2; Psa 37:35, Psa 37:36. We see worldly men taking root in the earth; on earthly things they fix the standing of their hopes, and from them they draw the sap of their comforts. The outward estate may be flourishing, but the soul cannot prosper that takes root in the earth. 2. Job's prosperity was now at an end, and so has the prosperity of other wicked people quickly been. (1.) Eliphaz foresaw their ruin with an eye of faith. Those who looked only at present things blessed their habitation, and thought them happy, blessed it long, and wished themselves in their condition. But Eliphaz cursed it, suddenly cursed it, as soon as he saw them begin to take root, that is, he plainly foresaw and foretold their ruin; not that he prayed for it (I have not desired the woeful day), but he prognosticated it. He went into the sanctuary, and there understood their end and heard their doom read (Psa 73:17, Psa 73:18), that the prosperity of fools will destroy them, Pro 1:32. Those who believe the word of God can see a curse in the house of the wicked (Pro 3:33), though it be ever so finely and firmly built, and ever so full of all good things; and they can foresee that the curse will, in time, infallibly consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof, Zac 5:4. (2.) He saw, at length, what he had foreseen. He was not disappointed in his expectation concerning him; the event answered it; his family was undone, and his estate ruined. In these particulars he plainly and very invidiously reflects on Job's calamities. [1.] His children were crushed, Job 5:4. They thought themselves safe in their eldest brother's house, but were far from safety, for they were crushed in the gate. Perhaps the door or gate of the house was highest built, and fell heaviest upon them, and there was none to deliver them from perishing in the ruins. This is commonly understood of the destruction of the families of wicked men, by the execution of justice upon them, to oblige them to restore what they have ill-gotten. They leave it to their children; but the descent shall not bar the entry of the rightful owners, who will crush their children, and cast them by due course of law (and there shall be none to help them), or perhaps by oppression, Psa 109:9, etc. [2.] His estate was plundered, Job 5:5. Job's was so. The hungry robbers, the Sabeans and Chaldeans, ran away with it, and swallowed it; and this, says he, I have often observed in others. What has been got by spoil and rapine has been lost in the same way. The careful owner hedged it about with thorns, and then thought it safe; but the fence proved insignificant against the greediness of the spoilers (if hunger will break through the stone walls, much more through thorn hedges), and against the divine curse, which will go through the thorns and briers, and burn them together, Isa 27:4.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 1–5. Public domain.
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Gregory the DialogistAD 604
9. For as the entrance of a city is called the ‘gate,’ so is the day of Judgment the gate of the Kingdom, since all the Elect go in thereby to the glory of their heavenly country. And hence when Solomon saw this day approaching for the recompensing of Holy Church, he said, Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land. [Prov. 31, 23] For the Redeemer of mankind is the ‘husband’ of Holy Church, Who shows Himself ‘renowned’ in the gates. Who [A.B.C.D. ‘because he’] first came to sight in degradation and in mockings, but shall appear on high at the entering in of His kingdom: and ‘He sitteth among the elders of the land,’ for that He shall decree sentence of condemnation together with the holy preachers of that same Church, as Himself declares in the Gospel, Verily I say unto you, Ye which leave followed Me, in the Regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [Matt. 19, 28] Which same Isaiah also foretelling long before uses these words, The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of His people. [Is. 3, 14] Of these gates Solomon says again, Give her of the fruit if her hands, and her own works shall praise her in the gates. [Prov. 31, 31] For Holy Church then receives of ‘the fruit of her hands,’ when the recompensing of her labours lifts her up to the entertainment of heavenly blessings, for her ‘works then praise her in the gates,’ when the words are spoken to her members in the very entrance to His kingdom; For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me. [Matt. 25, 35] The children then of this foolish man are lifted up before ‘the gate,’ but ‘in the gate they shall be crushed;’ in that the followers of this world carry themselves proudly in the present life, but in the very entrance of the kingdom they are struck with an everlasting visitation. And it is well added, Neither is there any to deliver them. For ‘Truth’ delivers from eternal woe those whom in temporal weal She straitens by discipline. He, then, that now refuses to be straightened, is left then without the means to be ‘delivered,’ For Him, Whom they care not to have as a Father in training, the wicked in the season of their calamity never find a deliverer in succouring. It proceeds;
Whose harvest the hungry one shall eat up.
10. Even the foolish man has a ‘harvest,’ when any wicked man is vouchsafed the gift of a right understanding, is instructed in the sentences of Holy Writ, speaks good words, yet never in any wise does the thing that he says; gives forth the words of God, yet does not love them; by his praise magnifies them, by his practice tramples on them. Thus because this foolish man both understands and speaks that, which is right, yet does not love this in his doings, while he has a harvest, he goes starving. Which same ‘the hungry eateth up,’ in that he, who pants after God with holy desires, learns what he hears, and practises what he has learnt. And, whilst he is invigorated by the right preaching of a wrong teacher, what else is this than that he is filled with the produce of the foolish? Did not ‘Truth’ charge His ‘hungry ones’ to eat up the ‘harvest’ of the foolish, when, they being inflamed by holy desires, He charged them concerning the Pharisees, saying, All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, observe and do; but do not ye after their works. [Matt. 23, 3] As though He said plainly; ‘By speaking they rear the harvest of the word, but by evil living they touch it not. Let this harvest then be the refreshment for your hunger, for it is for you that they reserve it in their own infatuated loathing.’
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 6.4
All who are given birth through the preaching of unbelief are “the children” of this foolish man. These “are far from safety,” for though they enjoy the temporal life without trouble, they are struck more severely with eternal vengeance. As the Lord says concerning these same sons of such a person, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel over land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are.” The text continues, “And they are crushed, neither shall there be any to deliver them.” Who else is to be understood by the name of “gate” but the Mediator between God and man, who says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” The sons, then, of this foolish man do not advance through the gate.
Gregory the DialogistAD 604
4. They all are ‘the children’ of this foolish man, who are generated by the preaching of that unbelief, and these ‘are far from safety,’ for though they enjoy the temporal life without trouble, they are stricken the worse with eternal vengeance, as the Lord says concerning these same sons of such an one, Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made ye make him twofold more the child of hell than, yourselves. [Matt. 23, 15] It follows, And they are crushed in the gate, neither shall there be any to deliver them. Who else is to be understood by the name of gate, but the Mediator between God and Man, Who saith, I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. [John 10, 9] The sons, then, of this foolish man advance without the gate, and they are ‘crushed in the gate,’ for the evil offspring of the Jews, before the Mediator's coming, prospered in the observance of the Law, but in the presence of our Redeemer itself they fell away from the service of the Divine Being, proving outcasts by the deserts of their faithlessness. And verily there is none ‘to rescue them,’ for while they strive by their persecution to kill the Redeemer Himself, they cut themselves off from the proffered means of their rescue
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Job 5:4 encapsulates Eliphaz the Temanite's rigid articulation of traditional wisdom, asserting that the wicked and their descendants inevitably face ruin and public humiliation without any hope of rescue. This verse serves as a direct, albeit indirect, accusation against Job, implying that his profound suffering, particularly the tragic loss of his children, is a direct consequence of unconfessed sin, thereby reflecting a simplistic, retributive understanding of divine justice prevalent in ancient Near Eastern thought.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Eliphaz's speech in Job 5:4 employs several potent literary devices to convey his message with dramatic effect. Imagery is central, particularly with the phrase "crushed in the gate," which conjures a vivid picture of public, decisive, and irreversible defeat occurring in a place of judgment. This specific imagery is a form of Metonymy, where "the gate" stands for the entire legal and public system itself, representing the authority and judgment of the community. There is a profound underlying Irony in Eliphaz's confident pronouncements, as the entire Book of Job ultimately serves to dismantle the simplistic theology he espouses, revealing that suffering is far more complex than mere divine retribution for sin. His words, intended to condemn Job, inadvertently highlight the very human vulnerability and the desperate need for a true deliverer that the book, and indeed the entire biblical narrative, will ultimately address.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Eliphaz's assertion in Job 5:4, while rooted in a common understanding of divine justice prevalent in his era, ultimately represents a limited and flawed theological perspective that the Book of Job profoundly challenges. While the Bible does acknowledge the principle of sowing and reaping and the potential for generational consequences of sin (e.g., Exodus 20:5), Eliphaz's rigid application fails to account for the complexities of suffering, the sovereignty of God, and the reality of righteous individuals enduring hardship. His view simplifies God's justice into a mechanistic system of immediate retribution, overlooking the nuances of divine providence, the role of testing, and the ultimate purpose of suffering in refining faith. The book of Job serves as a powerful counter-narrative, demonstrating that not all suffering is punitive and that God's ways are often beyond human comprehension or simplistic categorization.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Eliphaz's words in Job 5:4 serve as a profound cautionary tale for believers across the ages. They challenge us to resist the temptation to offer simplistic explanations for human suffering or to quickly attribute misfortune to divine judgment. Instead, this passage calls us to cultivate a posture of humility and empathy when encountering those who suffer, recognizing that God's ways are often mysterious and transcend our limited understanding. It compels us to move beyond a transactional view of faith, where blessings are merely rewards for good behavior and suffering is solely punishment for sin. Ultimately, the lament that "neither is there any to deliver them" should stir within us a deep appreciation for the true deliverer, God Himself, who offers refuge and salvation far beyond what any human system or legal structure can provide, reminding us that our ultimate safety and hope rest not in our own righteousness, but in His grace and power.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does Job 5:4 mean that children always suffer for their parents' sins?
Answer: No, not in a universal or deterministic sense. Eliphaz's statement reflects a common ancient Near Eastern belief and a strain within Israelite wisdom literature that often linked the well-being of descendants to the righteousness of their parents. While the Bible does acknowledge the concept of generational consequences for sin (e.g., Exodus 34:7), it also strongly emphasizes individual accountability, particularly in later prophetic books (e.g., Ezekiel 18:20). The Book of Job itself serves as a profound challenge to this simplistic cause-and-effect theology, demonstrating that righteous individuals can suffer immensely without direct punitive cause, and that God's justice operates on a far more complex and sovereign level than human wisdom can grasp. Job's own experience, where his children died despite his righteousness, is the primary counter-example to Eliphaz's claim.
What is the significance of "crushed in the gate"?
Answer: The phrase "crushed in the gate" is highly significant, drawing on the cultural context of ancient Near Eastern cities. The "gate" (Hebrew: shaʻar) was the central public space where legal proceedings, business transactions, and social gatherings took place. It was the seat of justice and authority. To be "crushed" (Hebrew: dâkâʼ, meaning broken, oppressed, or utterly defeated) in this location signifies a public, undeniable, and complete downfall. It implies a legal or social condemnation from which there is no appeal or escape, a public humiliation and ruin that is witnessed and confirmed by the community, leaving the individual utterly without recourse or defense. It speaks to a comprehensive and visible destruction of one's standing and future.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Eliphaz's despairing declaration that "neither is there any to deliver them" in Job 5:4, while intended as a condemnation, paradoxically highlights humanity's deepest need for a true deliverer, a need profoundly met in Jesus Christ. The very helplessness and public ruin described by Eliphaz find their ultimate answer in the Gospel. While the wicked are "crushed in the gate" without hope, Christ, the Righteous One, was willingly "crushed for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:5), enduring public shame and a judicial death on a cross, not for His own sin, but for ours. His public defeat became our ultimate victory, transforming the symbol of judgment into the means of salvation. Where Eliphaz saw no advocate, the New Testament proclaims Jesus as our great High Priest and Advocate (Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1), who stands before God on our behalf, ensuring that those who trust in Him are never left without deliverance. Through His sacrifice, the children of God are brought from a state of being "far from safety" in the world's terms, into the eternal safety and security of His unshakeable kingdom (Colossians 1:13).