29 Bible Verses about Public Opinion

You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;

if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart, because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door?

The people said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it. As the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day." So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.

Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd one prisoner, whom they desired. They had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called Messiah?"read more.
For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. But the governor answered them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" They said, "Barabbas." Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do to Jesus, who is called Messiah?" They all said, "Let him be crucified." But he said, "Why? What evil has he done?" But they shouted all the louder, saying, "Let him be crucified." So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this man. You see to it." All the people answered, "May his blood be on us, and on our children." Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus he flogged and delivered to be crucified.

When he saw that it pleased the Jewish people, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread.

"This is what the LORD of hosts says: These people say, 'The time hasn't yet come, the time for the LORD's house to be built.'" Then the Word of the LORD came by Haggai, the prophet, saying, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?read more.
Now therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you aren't filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it." This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified," says the LORD. "You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts, "Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands."

We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh Barnea. I said to you, "You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the LORD our God gives to us. Behold, the LORD your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; do not be afraid, neither be dismayed."read more.
You came near to me everyone of you, and said, "Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come." The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe: and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out. They took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, "It is a good land which the LORD our God gives to us." Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God: and you murmured in your tents, and said, "Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart to melt, saying, 'The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.'" Then I said to you, "Do not dread, neither be afraid of them. The LORD your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that the LORD your God bore you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place." Yet in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God, who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day. The LORD heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying, "Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children, because he has wholly followed the LORD." Also the LORD was angry with me for your sakes, saying, "You also shall not go in there: Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there: encourage you him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Sea of Suf."

Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; and they said to him, "Behold, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." Samuel prayed to the LORD.read more.
The LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you. Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the way of the king who shall reign over them."

Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you keep limping between two positions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." But the people did not answer him a word.

Generation, consider the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?' "Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number. How well you prepare your way to seek love. Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways.read more.
Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things. "Yet you said, 'I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.' "Behold, I will judge you, because you say, 'I have not sinned.'

The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. It happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, "You shall surely die. Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, 'This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant?'" All the people were gathered to Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.read more.
When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house. Then spoke the priests and the prophets to the officials and to all the people, saying, "This man is worthy of death; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears." Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in your eyes. Only know for certain that, if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city, and on its inhabitants; for of a truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears." Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets: "This man is not worthy of death; for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God."

The LORD heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and the LORD said to me, "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have well said all that they have spoken. Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever.

Joshua said to the people, "You can't serve the LORD; for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. If you forsake the LORD, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good." The people said to Joshua, "No; but we will serve the LORD."read more.
Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you the LORD, to serve him." They said, "We are witnesses." "Now therefore put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the LORD, the God of Israel." The people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God, and we will listen to his voice."

Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?" They said, "Some say John the Baptist, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"read more.
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" They answered him, "John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, but others: one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah."

It happened, as he was praying alone, that the disciples were with him, and he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" They answered, "'John the Baptist,' but others say, 'Elijah,' and others, that one of the old prophets is risen again." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Messiah of God."

Some of the crowd therefore, when they heard these words, said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Messiah." But some said, "What, does the Messiah come out of Galilee? Hasn't the Scripture said that the Messiah comes of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"read more.
So there arose a division in the crowd because of him.

Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.

There was much murmuring among the crowds concerning him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others said, "Not so, but he leads the crowd astray."

Some therefore of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath." Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" There was division among them.

Therefore a division arose again among the Jewish people because of these words.

At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead. That is why these powers work in him." For Herod had arrested John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.read more.
For John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." And though he wanted to kill him, he feared the crowd because they regarded him as a prophet.

Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

But the governor answered them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" They said, "Barabbas." Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do to Jesus, who is called Messiah?" They all said, "Let him be crucified." But he said, "Why? What evil has he done?" But they shouted all the louder, saying, "Let him be crucified."read more.
So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this man. You see to it." All the people answered, "May his blood be on us, and on our children." Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus he flogged and delivered to be crucified.

Now about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hands to oppress some of the church. He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jewish people, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread.

And though he wanted to kill him, he feared the crowd because they regarded him as a prophet.

Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jewish leaders.

So there arose a division in the crowd because of him.