Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?
All Commentaries on Job 31:34 Go To Job 31
John Chrysostom
AD 407
“Because I did not turn away,” he says, “from the great multitude of my people,” that is, away from my subjects, from those who were aware, who knew even the character itself of my fault. This is real wisdom. “First of all confess spontaneously your sins in order to be justified.” So I took nobody as a witness of my good works, because I wanted everybody to be aware of my faults and errors. That is the summit of wisdom, that is the rule of virtue: to hide one’s good work and to expose one’s faults in public. But the people of today just do the opposite.
