Bible Strands
Lamentations 4:14
They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the immediate aftermath of Jerusalem’s fall, addressing a community witnessing total societal collapse. The moment captures the transition from siege survival to complete social and religious exile.
The words — נָעוּ (na‘û) means “they wandered,” and נְגֹאֲלוּ (nĕgō‘ălû) translates to “they were defiled.” These terms record the physical displacement and ritual impurity of the survivors.
The thread — The imagery of blood-stained garments and ritual exclusion runs through Jeremiah 2:34 and the defilement regulations of Numbers 19:16. Isaiah 1:15 connects this physical contamination to the cessation of divine attention toward worship.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that corporate sin produces irreversible social rupture and ritual separation. It demands recognition that human guilt destroys community bonds and access to God without offering consolation.
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
They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 1:15 When 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.
- 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
- Numbers 19:16 Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
- Deuteronomy 28:28 The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind,
- Isaiah 56:10 Israel’s watchmen are blind, they are all oblivious; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they are dreamers lying around, loving to slumber.
- Numbers 35:33 Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- 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.
- Isaiah 59:9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
- Hosea 4:2 Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- Micah 3:6 Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.