Josh Groban: Weeping Meaning

Weeping Lyrics

I knew a man who lived in fear
It was huge, it was angry,
It was drawing near.
Behind his house a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon
He could never face.

He built a wall of steel and flame
And men with guns to keep it tame
Then...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jan 15th 2007 !⃝

   Weeping was written by a South African soldier who was fed up with apartheid (the whites ruling the blacks). Josh Groban heard the song while in South Africa and wanted everyone to know about the sadness of apartheid. Listen to the song again - it will mean so much more when you realize what it's about.

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   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jan 13th 2012 !⃝

   I personally took this song as an allagory. The "man who lived in fear" could apply to anyone who has broken dreams and hurts from his past still haunting him (the shadow of a demon he could never face). He pretends "it doesn't matter now, it's over anyhow, he tells the world that it's sleeping" but somehow he can't let go of the pain, and "the fear and the fire and the guns remain." He may try to protect himself by having a tough front (roaring), but weeps during the night when no one is watching. People look on and say this guy has a lot of steam, but they can't see what's really fueling the bluster of the man. I'm sure we all know (or are) someone just like that, who is weeping inside but tries desparately to cover up the pain with a front. Praise God that He is able to take the sting of the pain away and heal hearts, not that He necessarily erases the memories, but He enables us to go on. It's a touching song.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Apr 29th 2014 !⃝

   Josh Groban may have made this song more accessible to the international community but it is in fact a song about apartheid South Africa. It was written by Dan Heymann of the South African band Bright Blue, while completing his compulsory 2-years of National Service in the South African army in the mid-1980's. From Dan's own website:
   
   "I've been asked many times about the symbolism in the Weeping lyrics, so maybe I should say something here.
   The man referred to in the Weeping lyrics is the late P. W. Botha, one of the last white leaders of South Africa before the end of the Apartheid regime;
   The demon he could never face in the Weeping lyrics refers to the aspirations of the oppressed majority,
   while the Weeping lyrics also refer to the neighbors, literally the journalists from other countries who were monitoring the situation in South Africa."
   
   Further notes from Dan's website:
   
   "Weeping had its debut in South Africa in 1987, as a protest song about the oppressive white government. The writer of Weeping, Dan Heymann, was an unwilling white soldier, drafted into the Army. Weeping began as an instrumental piece, expressing his unhappines at being drafted by the regime, and later he wrote words to Weeping when the government declared a State of Emergency and imposed a ban on media-coverage of the situation in South Africa."
   
   It is an extraordinarily powerful song, and was voted the "All-time Favourite South African Song" in 1999.
4. anonymous

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   Jan 21st 2023 !⃝

   Weeping can be anywhere, by anyone.
   I see an innocent boy, humiliated by his brother, neglected by his mother, falsely accused, bullied, abused. Convinced at puberty that he would never have it any other way and receive love, he developed maladaptive behaviors that were not violent, but further separated him from his feelings--including the that elusive love.
   Decades later, after achieving modest academic success and trying awkwardly to date, he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and called attention to himself after horrible crimes took place where he was and where he came from. He was exonerated, but local authorities never told higher authorities, and he spent years weeping behind walls, threatened with guns, and all alone fighting his demon. When he identified it and sought help exorcising it, he was told that he must be diagnosed, that in his infirmity and old age that he must pay consequences, and that he was bound to get worse and worse. All of his work was sabotaged, and any new and creative contributions were rejected because the word was passed around that he was a terrorist and a threat.
   He is fighting to find hope in his heart, but it is still weeping.
   
   
   
5. anonymous

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   Jul 8th 2014 !⃝

   I have always interpreted the weeping as the pain of the oppressed African people. The leader tells the world that they're sleeping (complacent, apathetic or powerless), but yet there is evidence of their struggle all around. On the other hand there is the fear that is kept alive that the Africans are like a roaring lion, wishing to violently devour the whites. The writer is almost saying: "Can't you see, they're not roaring (in bloodthirsty violence) but weeping" - crying for their rights. Weeping is not to be interpreted as powerless, but the very power of the oppressed. It is a call to humanity.
6. anonymous

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   Jul 19th 2011 !⃝

   Some are weeping, some are actually roaring, others are planning on how and when to bite.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Jun 27th 2011 !⃝

   i love, how you linked it to the situation in the middle east! Wow, they really are weeping and not roaring...

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Apr 17th 2011 !⃝

   Perhaps not the original intentions of the lyricist, but this song can easily be applied to the Middle East, a "shadow of a demon" to Americans, who must tame it with guns and fire without explanation to people. Meanwhile, the Middle East weeps, behind a steel wall of media lies.
   Beautiful song, anyway.
9. hudna1

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   Nov 22nd 2010 !⃝

   It's Mecca Y'all!
   
   Revelation 13, 17, 18
   The no. of the beast is inscribed in the stones
   The Kaaba is it's home.
   Muhammed is the man who lived near the cave
   Who discovered the old serpent's rave
   He renounced the gods to keep it tame
   and gave it a nonsense name.
   
   Al - La means nothing
   And meccans made it something
   They drew the line and made a toast
   For each man's ego - there they boast
   
   It's a serpent with it's head cut off
   The hindu knows that it was bought
   By blood that is to pay a price
   For conquest, moolah and gold like ice
   
   Needless to say
   Muhammed left it
   He discovered Zion
   But too late to regret it
   All the Meccans
   got drunk for their lives are at threat!
   
   I hope you get the lesson of the story
   Read it again the look up Mecca's history
   
   But let's replay
   And heed no attention
   To any old lame serpent
   and it's dominion
   
   Jesus Christ claim the thrown
   And serpent's power long gone
   Except for those who wish to grow
   It's hills and horns!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

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    Oct 22nd 2007 !⃝

    My interpretation was also of it in Africa, though I thought of the refugees all over the central African area. I thought of how the government would keep these people in silence and always in need. The guns and the fire and the men are the soldiers who are hired my the government to "guard" such people.
11. anonymous

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    Feb 9th 2007 !⃝

    My interpretation of this song is that he is actually facing his own demons and fears. He is saying that he built a wall of steel and men with guns to protect the wall.
    Then he is saying that "he tells the world that it is sleeping" it wasn't roaring it was weeping....
    That is his fears and his demons that he just can't face.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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