They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not 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.
- BSB They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to 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 1:15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
- Jer 2:34Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
- Num 19:16And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
- Deut 28:28–29The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:
- Isa 56:10His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
- Matt 15:14Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
- Isa 59:9–11Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
- Num 35:33So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
- Hos 4:2By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
- Mic 3:6–7Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
- Eph 4:18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
- Isa 29:10–12For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
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