Job 5:4

His children are far from safety . The sins of the fathers arc visited upon the children. Eliphaz makes covert allusion to the death of Job's children ( Job 1:19 ). Feeling, however, that he is on delicate ground, he goes on into details which in no way fit their case. And (he says) they are crushed in the gate ; i.e. they are oppressed, crushed, by litigations. The house once smitten of God, human beasts of prey enter in; claims are made against the children; lawsuits commenced; all the arts of chicanery set in motion; every effort made to strip them of their last penny. (For the sense here assigned to "the gate," see Job 29:7 and Job 31:21 .) Neither is there any to deliver them . No one intercedes on their behalf, undertakes their detente in the courts, or makes any effort to avert their ruin. This picture of legal oppression accords very closely with what we know of the East in all ages (comp. Isaiah 1:17 , Isaiah 1:23 ; Isaiah 3:14 , Isaiah 3:15 ; Isaiah 5:23 ; Isaiah 10:2 , etc.). Oriental cowardice causes men to shrink from casting in their lot with those whom Misfortune has marked as her own.