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Friday, July 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Lamentations 4:14

They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Minister, Christian;   Thompson Chain Reference - Estrangement;   Fellowship-Estrangement;   Wanderers;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Murder;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Consecrate;   God;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Lamentations, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Acrostic;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Messiah;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Blind, they stumbled in the streets,defiled by this blood,so that no one daredto touch their garments.
Hebrew Names Version
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments.
King James Version
They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
English Standard Version
They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
New American Standard Bible
They wandered, blind, in the streets; They were defiled with blood, Such that no one could touch their garments.
New Century Version
They wandered in the streets as if they were blind. They were dirty with blood, so no one would touch their clothes.
Amplified Bible
They wandered, blind, in the streets; They were defiled with blood So that no one could touch their garments.
World English Bible
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They haue wandred as blinde men in the streetes, and they were polluted with blood, so that they would not touch their garments.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
They wandered, blind, in the streets; They were defiled with blood So that no one could touch their garments.
Legacy Standard Bible
They wandered, blind, in the streets;They were defiled with bloodSo that no one could touch their garments.
Contemporary English Version
Yes, her prophets and priests were covered with blood; no one would come near them, as they wandered from street to street.
Complete Jewish Bible
They wander in the streets like the blind; they are so polluted with blood that nobody is able even to touch their clothing.
Darby Translation
They wandered about blind in the streets; they were polluted with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
Easy-to-Read Version
The prophets and priests walked around like blind men in the streets. They had become dirty with blood. No one could even touch their clothes because they were dirty.
George Lamsa Translation
Her princes wander in her streets, they wallow in blood, so that no one could touch their garments.
Good News Translation
Her leaders wandered through the streets as though blind, so stained with blood that no one would touch them.
Lexham English Bible
They wander blindly in the streets; they were defiled with the blood, their clothes could not be touched.
Literal Translation
they reeled blind in the open places. They are defiled with blood, so that not any are able to touch their garments.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
So that these blynde men wete stomblinge in the stretes, and stayned themselues wt bloude, which els wolde touche no bloudy cloth.
American Standard Version
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men cannot touch their garments.
Bible in Basic English
They are wandering like blind men in the streets, they are made unclean with blood, so that their robes may not be touched by men.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, so that men cannot touch their garments.
King James Version (1611)
They haue wandred as blind men in the streetes, they haue polluted themselues with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
As blinde men went, they stumbling in the streetes, and stayned them selues with blood, insomuch that the heathen woulde in no wyse touche their garmentes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
NUN. her watchmen staggered in the streets, they were defiled with blood in their weakness, they touched their raiment with it.
English Revised Version
They wander as blind men in the streets, that are polluted with blood, so that men cannot touch their garments.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Nun. Blynde men erryden in stretis, thei weren defoulid in blood; and whanne thei miyten not go, thei helden her hemmes.
Update Bible Version
They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments.
Webster's Bible Translation
They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
New English Translation

נ (Nun)

They wander blindly through the streets, defiled by the blood they shed, while no one dares to touch their garments.
New King James Version
They wandered blind in the streets; They have defiled themselves with blood, So that no one would touch their garments.
New Living Translation
They wandered blindly through the streets, so defiled by blood that no one dared touch them.
New Life Bible
They walked as blind men through the streets. They were made unclean with blood so that no one could touch their clothing.
New Revised Standard
Blindly they wandered through the streets, so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
They have wandered - blind - in the streets, have defiled themselves with blood; so that men may not touch their garments.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Nun. They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they were defiled with blood: and when they could not help walking in it, they held up their skirts.
Revised Standard Version
They wandered, blind, through the streets, so defiled with blood that none could touch their garments.
Young's Literal Translation
They have wandered naked in out-places, They have been polluted with blood, Without [any] being able to touch their clothing,
THE MESSAGE
These prophets and priests blindly grope their way through the streets, grimy and stained from their dirty lives, Wasted by their wasted lives, shuffling from fatigue, dressed in rags.

Contextual Overview

13But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst. 14They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.15"Go away! Unclean!" men shouted at them. "Away, away! Do not touch us!" So they fled and wandered. Among the nations it was said, "They can stay here no longer." 16The LORD Himself has scattered them; He regards them no more. The priests are shown no honor, the elders find no favor. 17All the while our eyes were failing as we looked in vain for help. We watched from our towers for a nation that could not save us. 18They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come! 19Those who chased us were swifter than the eagles in the sky; they pursued us over the mountains and ambushed us in the wilderness. 20The LORD's anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, "Under his shadow we will live among the nations."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

have wandered: Deuteronomy 28:28, Deuteronomy 28:29, Isaiah 29:10-12, Isaiah 56:10, Isaiah 59:9-11, Micah 3:6, Micah 3:7, Matthew 15:14, Ephesians 4:18

they have polluted: Numbers 35:33, Isaiah 1:15, Jeremiah 2:34

so that men could not touch: or, in that they could not but touch, Numbers 19:16, Hosea 4:2

Reciprocal: Numbers 19:11 - toucheth the dead Isaiah 43:27 - and thy Isaiah 59:10 - grope Jeremiah 26:8 - the priests Jeremiah 26:19 - Thus Lamentations 3:45 - as Ezekiel 9:9 - and the land Zephaniah 1:17 - they shall Matthew 23:35 - upon Hebrews 11:37 - were slain

Cross-References

Genesis 4:5
but He had no regard for Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell.
Genesis 4:6
"Why are you angry," said the LORD to Cain, "and why has your countenance fallen?
Genesis 4:11
Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:12
When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."
Genesis 4:13
But Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Genesis 4:14
Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:15
"Not so!" replied the LORD. "If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold." And the LORD placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him.
Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:20
And Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and raise livestock.
Genesis 4:24
If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They have wandered [as] blind [men] in the streets,.... That is, the false prophets and wicked priests; and may be understood either literally, that when the city was taken, and they fled, they were like blind men, and knew not which way to go to make their escape, but wandered from place to place, and could find no way out; or spiritually, though they pretended to great light and knowledge, yet were as blind men, surrounded with the darkness of ignorance and error, and were blind leaders of the blind:

they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments; or, "could not but touch it with their garments" c; or, "might not" d; it was not lawful for them to do it: the sense is either, that, which way soever these men took to make their escape, they found so many dead carcasses in the streets, and such a profusion of blood by them, that they could not but touch it with their garments; or being besmeared with it, were so defiled, that others might not touch them, even their garments; or these men had defiled themselves with the shedding of the blood of righteous persons; so that they were odious to men, and they shunned them as they would do anything that by the law rendered them in a ceremonious sense unclean, and therefore said as follows:

c בלא יוכלו יגעו בלבושיהם "quem non possunt, quin tangent vestimentis suis", "Junius & Tremellius. d "Tangebant eum (nempe sanguinem) vestibus eorum quem non potuerunt", i.e. "jure", Gataker.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They have wandered - God’s ministers, consecrated to His service, wandered through the city blinded by the insatiable lust of slaughter. It was a pollution to touch their garments.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 14. They 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.


 
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