For death has crept in through our windows and has entered our mansions. It has killed off the flower of our youth: Children no longer play in the streets, and young men no longer gather in the squares.
Parallel translations
- WEB For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
- KJV For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
- BSB For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.
- NKJV For death has come through our windows, Has entered our palaces, To kill off the children— no longer to be outside! And the young men— no longer on the streets!
- NASB For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To eliminate the children from the streets, The young men from the public squares.
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
Death climbs through the windows and into the palaces, cutting off children and young men. No one is safe from the coming judgment.
Overview
Death is personified as an intruder that enters homes and palaces alike, striking down the young in streets and households. The imagery, possibly echoing how plague or invasion spares neither rich nor poor, conveys the inescapable reach of judgment. The verse underscores the universality of death as sin's wage, the very enemy Christ conquers in His resurrection.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Jer 6:11Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
- 2 Chr 36:17Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed. He gave them all into his hand.
- Jer 15:7I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn’t return from their ways.
- Ezek 9:5–6To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity.
- Ezek 21:14–15“You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together. Let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the fatally wounded. It is the sword of the great one who is fatally wounded, which enters into their rooms.
- Amos 6:10–11“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention Yahweh’s name.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 9:21 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.