Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. desolation and destruction are in their paths.
Parallel translations
- KJV Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
- BSB Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
- NKJV Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
- NASB Their feet run to evil, And they hurry to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing, Devastation and destruction are in their paths.
- NLT Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Their feet rush to evil and to shed innocent blood, leaving ruin in their paths. They are eager and quick to do wrong.
Overview
God describes a people whose feet hasten toward evil and bloodshed, whose thoughts are iniquity and whose ways leave desolation. Paul cites this verse in Romans 3 to prove universal human sinfulness. It thus contributes to the biblical diagnosis that all have sinned, underscoring the need for the justification God offers through faith in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 6:17haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;
- Rom 3:15–17“Their feet are swift to shed blood.
- Prov 1:16for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.
- Mark 7:21–22For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
- Isa 59:3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
- Lam 4:13It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.
- Ezek 9:9Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’
- Ezek 22:6“‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
- Acts 8:20–22But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
- Rev 17:6I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.
- Prov 24:9The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.
- Prov 15:26Yahweh detests the thoughts of the wicked, but the thoughts of the pure are pleasing.
- Isa 60:18Violence shall no more be heard in your land, nor desolation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
- Jer 22:17But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
- Matt 23:31–37Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 59:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.