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?
Rather, the apodosis to Job 31:33, "Then let me be (or, I must have been) fear-stricken before a great multitude; let the contempt (or the contempt, etc., must have terrified me) etc.; let me keep silence (the greatest disgrace to a patriot, heretofore so prominent in assemblies), and not go out' (or, And I, brought to silence, durst not again have gone out of the door), etc. A just retribution, that he who hides his sin from God should have it exposed before man (2 Samuel 12:12). But Job had not been so exposed, but, on the contrary, was esteemed in the assemblies of the tribe ("families"): a proof, he implies, that God does not hold him guilty of hiding sin (Job 24:16, contrast with Job 29:21-25). Maurer does not make the apodosis come until Job 31:40, "(Then) let thistles grow," etc. So he translates this Job 31:34 as giving the reason which might have induced him, had he yielded to the temptation, to "cover his transgressions" - namely, 'because I feared a great multitude, and because the contempt of the tribes terrified me so that I should keep quiet and not go out of doors.'