Bible Strands
Jeremiah 2:34
Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah delivers this indictment to Judah, portraying them as a guilty party whose actions contradict their claims of innocence. The prophet speaks at a moment when the nation denies divine wrath despite accumulating evidence of their corruption.
The words — The Hebrew נְקִיִּ֑ים (ne.ki.Yim) denotes those who are legally or morally innocent, contrasting with the בִּ/כְנָפַ֙יִ/ךְ֙ (bi.kh.na.Fa.yi.kh) or "skirts" that bear the stain. These terms ground the accusation in concrete imagery of guilt transferred to the perpetrator's garments.
The thread — This motif of unprovoked violence against the defenseless appears in 2 Kings 21:16 and 2 Kings 24:4 regarding Manasseh and the final kings of Judah. Jeremiah 19:4 similarly links the nation's abandonment of God to the defilement of their sacred spaces.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment of concrete harm before any claim of religious standing is considered valid. It requires readers to confront the reality of their actions rather than rely on self-justification.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Also 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.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 21:16 Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.
- Jeremiah 19:4 because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
- Exodus 22:2 If a thief is caught breaking in and is beaten to death, no one shall be guilty of bloodshed.
- Psalms 106:37 They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
- Isaiah 57:5 who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
- Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
- Jeremiah 6:15 Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.
- Jeremiah 7:31 They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.
- Ezekiel 16:20 You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?