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.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- 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 6:17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
- Rom 3:15–17Their feet are swift to shed blood:
- Prov 1:16For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
- Mark 7:21–22For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
- Isa 59:3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
- Lam 4:13For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
- Ezek 9:9Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
- Ezek 22:6Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
- Acts 8:20–22But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
- Rev 17:6And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
- Prov 24:9The thought of foolishness is sin: and the scorner is an abomination to men.
- Prov 15:26The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
- Isa 60:18Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
- Jer 22:17But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
- Matt 23:31–37Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which 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.