Lamentations 4:14
in Lamentations 4They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men cannot 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.
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This verse in Lamentations 4
Commentary
4 notes on this verseThey have wandered as blind men in the streets - Rather, “They ran frantic through the streets, they were stained with blood.” This was in their pretended zeal for their cause. Bishop Bonner, who was at the head of those sanguinary executions in England, was accustomed to buffet the poor Protestants, when on their examinations they were too powerful for him in argument: - “He proved his doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks.” Just as his elder brethren, the false priests and prophets of Jerusalem.
This site's exposition
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests
on Lamentations 4:13-15
Verse 13 lays the disaster at a specific door, the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, false leadership named as the wound behind the famine and the fire. Verses 14 and 15 follow them into exile still marked: they wander blind and blood-polluted so that no one will touch their garments, and the very nations who receive them cry depart, it is unclean, refusing them any lasting home. The bench reads the scene as guilt made visible on the body, a leadership once trusted now avoided on sight.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
on Lamentations 4:13-14
Note, Nothing ripens a people more for ruin, nor fills the measure faster, than the sins of their priests and prophets. The particular sin charged upon them is persecution; the false prophets and corrupt priests joined their power and interest to shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, the blood of God's prophets and of those that adhered to them.
They have so polluted themselves with innocent blood, the blood of the saints, that men could not touch their garments; they made themselves odious to all about them, so that good men were as shy of touching them as of touching a dead body, which contracted a ceremonial pollution, or of touching the bloody clothes of one slain, which tender spirits care not to do.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
The blind slithered in the streets. When the blind would walk in the street, they would stagger, and their feet would slip on the blood of the slain, 19 Alternatively, ‘they wandered through the streets blindly.’ whom the wicked were slaying in its [Yerusholayim] midst.
2 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
For the sins of her false prophets. [Because of the] false [prophets], this evil has befallen her. 18 Alternately, ‘because of the sins committed against the prophets,’ namely the murder of Zecharyah, this evil has befallen her.
Get away. From us, you unclean ones, who are sullied with blood.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| נָע֤וּ | nau | they wandered | H5128 → | 40 times |
| עִוְרִים֙ | ʾivrim | blind [people] | H5787 → | |
| בַּֽחוּצ֔וֹת | bachutzot | in the streets | H2351 → | 164 times |
| נְגֹֽאֲל֖וּ | negoalu | they were defiled | H1351 → | |
| בַּדָּ֑ם | badam | by the blood | H1818 → | |
| בְּלֹ֣א | belo' | in not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| יֽוּכְל֔וּ | yukhelu | people were able | H3201 → | |
| יִגְּע֖וּ | yigeu | people touched | H5060 → | 150 times |
| בִּלְבֻשֵׁיהֶֽם׃ ס | bilvusheihem | <in> clothes their | H3830 → |
נָע֤וּthey wandered
nauH5128 →40 times
עִוְרִים֙blind [people]
ʾivrimH5787 →
בַּֽחוּצ֔וֹתin the streets
bachutzotH2351 →164 times
נְגֹֽאֲל֖וּthey were defiled
negoaluH1351 →
בַּדָּ֑םby the blood
badamH1818 →
בְּלֹ֣אin not
belo'H3808 →5168 times
יֽוּכְל֔וּpeople were able
yukheluH3201 →
יִגְּע֖וּpeople touched
yigeuH5060 →150 times
בִּלְבֻשֵׁיהֶֽם׃ ס<in> clothes their
bilvusheihemH3830 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 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.
it leads to
- Micah 3:4
Then they will cry out to the LORD, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
- Isaiah 59:2–3
But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
- Proverbs 1:28
Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.
- Zechariah 7:13
And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.
- Micah 3:4
Through
Isaiah 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.
it leads to
- Ezekiel 33:6
But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away…
- Isaiah 29:10
For 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.
- Matthew 15:14
Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”
- Philippians 3:2
Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!
- Ezekiel 33:6
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.