Job 5:4

“His children are far from safety, etc.] 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…”

“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.”

“His children are far from safety - That is, this is soon manifest by their being cut off or subjected to calamity. The object of Eliphaz is, to state the result of his own observation, and to show how calamity overtook the wicked though they even prospered for a time. He begins with that which a man would feel most - the calamity which comes upon his children, and says that God would punish him in them. Every word of this would go to the heart of Job; for he could not but feel that it was aimed at him, and that the design was to prove that the calamities that had come upon his children were a proof of his own wickedness and of the divine displeasure. It is remarkable that Job listens to this…”

“Children - Whose greatness he designed in all his enterprizes, supposing his family would be established for ever. Safely - Are exposed to dangers and calamities, and can neither preserve themselves, nor the inheritance which their fathers left them. There is no question but he glances here, at the death of Job's children. Job 5:5”

“5:4 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).”

“children: Job 4:10, Job 4:11, Job 8:4, Job 18:16-19, Job 27:14; Exo 20:5; Psa 109:9-15, Psa 119:155, Psa 127:5 they are crushed: Job 1:19; Luk 13:4, Luk 13:5 neither: Job 10:7; Psa 7:2 Job 5:5”