“His sons are far from safety, They are also oppressed at the gate, And there is no one to save them.
Parallel translations
- WEB His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,
- KJV His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.
- BSB His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
- NKJV His sons are far from safety, They are crushed in the gate, And there is no deliverer.
- NLT Their children are abandoned far from help; they are crushed in court with no one to defend them.
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
The fool's children are left without safety, crushed in the city gate with no one to deliver them. It paints the ruin that Eliphaz believes overtakes the wicked's family.
Overview
Eliphaz describes the offspring of the foolish suffering injustice at the gate, the place of legal judgment, with no rescuer. The cutting implication is that Job's bereavement signals such judgment. While sin's consequences can indeed touch families, Eliphaz wrongly reads Job's grief as proof of guilt, and the reader knows from the prologue that Job's losses came not from his sin but from a heavenly test.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 127:5Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
- Job 18:16–19His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.
- Ps 119:155Salvation is far from the wicked, for they don’t seek your statutes.
- Ps 109:9–15Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
- Job 8:4If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience.
- Amos 5:12For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins — you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.
- Job 4:10–11The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
- Exod 20:5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
- Luke 13:4–5Or those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them; do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem?
- Ps 7:2lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.
- Job 10:7Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
- Job 1:19and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
- Job 27:14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
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 5:4 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.