They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.
Parallel translations
- WEB They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments.
- KJV They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
- NKJV They wandered blind in the streets; They have defiled themselves with blood, So that no one would touch their garments.
- NASB They wandered, blind, in the streets; They were defiled with blood, Such that no one could touch their garments.
- NLT They wandered blindly through the streets, so defiled by blood that no one dared touch 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
The defiled leaders staggered blindly through the streets, polluted with blood and untouchable.
Overview
The corrupt prophets and priests wander as blind men, so stained with bloodguilt that none may touch them. Their moral pollution becomes a ceremonial uncleanness that isolates them. The picture shows how sin defiles and separates, pointing to the cleansing from defilement that only Christ's blood provides (Heb. 9:14; 1 John 1:7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 1:15When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.
- Jer 2:34Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things
- Num 19:16Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
- Deut 28:28–29The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind,
- Isa 56:10Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.
- Matt 15:14Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
- Isa 59:9–11Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
- Num 35:33Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- Hos 4:2Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- Mic 3:6–7Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.
- Eph 4:18They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.
- Isa 29:10–12For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 4:14 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.