a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
far
יִרְחֲק֣וּyir.cha.Ku
H7368
to widen (in any direction) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
safety
מִיֶּ֑שַׁעmi.Ye.sha'
H3468
liberty · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
crushed
וְיִֽדַּכְּא֥וּve.yid.da.ke.'U
H1792
to crumble · conjunction + verb, hithpael, 3rd person masculine plural
gate
בַ֝שַּׁ֗עַרva.Sha.'ar
H8179
an opening · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
deliver
מַצִּֽילma.Tzil
H5337
to snatch away · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 127:5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Job 18:16-19 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
Psalms 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon…
Job 1:19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they…
Job 4:10-11 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
Job 8:4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;
Job 10:7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 5:1-5
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 n…
His children . . . crushed in the gate--A judicial formula. The gate was the place of judgment and of other public proceedings (Psa 127:5; Pro 22:22; Gen 23:10; Deu 21:19). Such propylÃ&brvbra have been found in the Assyrian remains. Eliphaz obliquely alludes to the calamity which cut off Job's children.
John Gill on Job 5:4
His children are far from safety,.... From outward safety, from evils and dangers, to which they are liable and exposed, not only from men, who hate them for their father's sake, who have been oppressors of them, or from God, who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children; and from spiritual and eternal safety or "salvation", or from salvation in the world to come, as the Targum, they treading in their fathers steps, and imitating their actions:
and they are crushed in the gate; or openly, publicly, as Aben Ezra and others; or in the courts of judicature whither they are brought by those their parents had oppressed, and where they are cast, and have no favour shown them; or litera…
1 Call now, - is there any one who will answer thee?
And to whom of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
2 For he is a fool who is destroyed by complaining,
And envy slays the simple one.
3 I, even I, have seen a fool taking root:
Then I had to curse his habitation suddenly.
4 His children were far from help,
And were crushed in the gate, without a rescuer;
5 While the hungry ate his harvest,
And even from among thorns they took it away,
And the intriguer snatched after his wealth.
The chief thought of the oracle was that God is the absolutely just One, and infinitely exalted above men and angels. Resuming his speech from this point, Eliphaz tells Job that no cry for help can avail him unless he su…
The Church Fathers
"And let them be crushed at the door of the weak," that is to say, the humble, when they are received in the room of the bridegroom and the foolish will be left outside (1).
MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION. His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither shall there be any to deliver them. 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. 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. 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.
MORAL INTERPRETATION. And they shall be crushed in the gate; neither shall there be any to deliver them. 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. For the Redeemer of mankind is the 'husband' of Holy Church, Who shews Himself 'renowned' in the gates. Who 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 have 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. Which same Isaiah also foretelling long before uses these words, The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of His people. Of these gates Solomon says again, Give her of the fruit of her hands, and her own works shall praise her in the gates. 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. 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…
Dictionary and topics
Courts Of Justice · Inferior court: Held at the gates — Inferior court: Held at the gates
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The court (literally the gate) was the site of legal and commercial deliberations in which Job had participated (29:7; see Deut 21:19-21; Ruth 4:1-11).
Rashi on Job 5:4
May his sons distance themselves from salvation This is the curse with which I cursed him.
and may they be crushed It is punctuated with a dagesh: וְיִדַּכְּאוּ, and may they be crushed, but if it was punctuated without a dagesh (וִידַכְּאוּ), it would mean that they should crush others.
