Job 31:34 · World English Bible
Job 31:34 Meaning Because I Feared the Great Multitude
because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—
What does Job 31:34 mean?
So much of a life is ruled by fear of the crowd, by the terror of what families and multitudes might think of you. The ego feeds on the opinions of others, and so it hides behind the door, keeping silence, shrinking from their contempt.
From the Ego v. Being reading below.
Job 31:34 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Ego v. Being
EGO & BEING
Ego v. Being
So much of a life is ruled by fear of the crowd, by the terror of what families and multitudes might think of you. The ego feeds on the opinions of others, and so it hides behind the door, keeping silence, shrinking from their contempt. That fear is not truly yours. It belongs to the mind-made self that needs approval to feel real.
When you rest in presence, the multitude loses its power over you. You no longer need their praise, so their contempt can no longer terrify you. Then you step through the door and speak freely, because the frightened self was never who you are.
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Ego v. Being lens
Live Job 31:34 today
- Post, send, or say the honest thing you have been sitting on, then put the phone face down and go do something else. Let the reaction land without you standing over it.
- Tell one person something true that might not flatter you. The small fear you feel before speaking is the whole thing you have been living under.
- In a meeting, say the unpopular but accurate thing once, plainly and without heat. The room's approval was never holding you up anyway.
Where am I still standing behind the door, waiting for permission?
The same truth in other traditions
Tao Te Ching
Praise and blame both put you on a hook. Once you stop needing the crowd's approval, there is nothing in you left for the crowd to pull on.
Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius
Spend no more energy on what other people think of you, and see how much life comes back. Their opinions are their business, happening in their own heads.
Buddhism · worldly winds
Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, praise and blame: these keep blowing, and the trained mind stops being moved by them. Standing still in that wind is freedom.
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