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New Life Version

Lamentations 4:14

They walked as blind men through the streets. They were made unclean with blood so that no one could touch their clothing.

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.
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 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 because of the sins of her men who spoke in God's name, and the sins of her religious leaders, who killed those within her who were right and good. 14 They walked as blind men through the streets. They were made unclean with blood so that no one could touch their clothing. 15 People cried to them, "Go away! You are unclean! Leave! Go away! Do not touch!" So they ran away and traveled from place to place. Men among the nations said, "They must not stay with us any longer." 16 The Lord Himself has sent them everywhere. He will not care about them any more. They did not honor the religious leaders or favor the leaders of the people. 17 Our eyes have become weak in looking for help that did not come. In our watching we have waited for a nation that was not able to save us. 18 They kept following after our steps so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end came near. Our days were finished, for our end had come. 19 Those who came after us were faster than the eagles of the sky. They came after us on the mountains. They hid and waited for us in the desert. 20 The Lord's chosen one, our very breath, was caught in their traps. We had said about 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 respect for Cain and his gift. So Cain became very angry and his face became sad.
Genesis 4:6
Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why are you looking down?
Genesis 4:11
Now you are cursed because of 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 will no longer give its strength to you. You will always travel from place to place on the earth."
Genesis 4:13
Then Cain said to the Lord, "I am being punished more than I can take!
Genesis 4:14
See, this day You have made me go away from the land. And I will be hidden from Your face. I will run away and move from place to place. And whoever finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:15
So the Lord said to him, "Whoever kills Cain will be punished by Me seven times worse." And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that any one who found him would not kill him.
Genesis 4:16
Then Cain went away from the face of the Lord, and stayed in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:20
Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who live in tents and have cattle.
Genesis 4:24
If those who hurt Cain are punished seven times worse, then those who hurt Lamech will be punished seventy-seven times worse."

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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