Job 5:4

they are crushed in the gate The gate of the town is the seat of the Oriental court of law, where justice is administered, ch. Job 29:7; Job 31:21; Psalms 127:5. The words are crushedmight be reciprocal, "crush one another;" more likely the word means exactly, "must let themselves be crushed," as the last clause indicates: having none to deliver them. In the East he has right who has power (ch. Job 22:8), and the poor, who cannot bribe the judge or find powerful men to speak for them, go to the wall.

The iniquity of the father is visited upon the children, Exodus 20:5, a law of providence which does not quite meet Job's approval, ch. Job 21:19-20. That this principle created difficulty to thoughtful men about this time appears also from Ezekiel 18:19 seq.