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

English Standard Version

Lamentations 4:14

They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able 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.
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.
Berean Standard Bible
They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to 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

13 This was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous. 14 They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments. 15 "Away! Unclean!" people cried at them. "Away! Away! Do not touch!" So they became fugitives and wanderers; people said among the nations, "They shall stay with us no longer." 16 The Lord himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders. 17 Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save. 18 They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come. 19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness. 20 The breath of our nostrils, the Lord 's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, "Under his shadow we shall 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 for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
Genesis 4:6
The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
Genesis 4:11
And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:12
When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."
Genesis 4:13
Cain said to the Lord , "My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Genesis 4:14
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:15
Then the Lord said to him, "Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
Genesis 4:16
Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:20
Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.
Genesis 4:24
If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 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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