What Does Lamentations 4:13 Mean in the King James?
For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes spiritual authority answerable for the blood poured out in the community it is meant to guide.
THE MEANING
The verse names a wound inside the community: those entrusted with speaking and tending its life are implicated in bloodshed among its people. The authority meant to guard life instead participates in its loss, so the violence cannot be concealed behind a sacred role.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that a religious title makes its bearer safe to trust, or that violence by a sacred authority is beyond naming.
THE ROOT
הַשֹּׁפְכִים
ha-shofkhim
GROWS FROM
שפך
sh-p-k
pour out, spill
“shed” in this verse is ha-shofkhim. The verb for shedding blood grows from the word for pouring something out. English can make the violence sound like a bare result; the Hebrew carries the image of blood being poured forth inside the community.
ALSO GROWS
shafakh: to pour out, spill
שָׁפַךְ
This is the verb form at the root of “shed,” making the act of bloodshed a kind of pouring out.
nishpakh: was poured out
נִשְׁפַּךְ
This passive form uses the same root and brings the image of poured-out blood into focus.
shefichat damim: bloodshed
שְׁפִיכַת דָּמִים
This expression names bloodshed with the same pouring root, connecting the verse’s verb to the wider language of violent killing.
חַטֹּאת
ḥaṭṭoʾt
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
miss, err
“sins” in this verse is ḥaṭṭoʾt. The root carries the sense of missing, while the verse names the prophets’ missing alongside the blood they shed. The word holds failure and its consequence together: this is not an abstract flaw but a failure with blood in its midst.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: to miss, err
חָטָא
The verb gives the root’s basic sense and shows that “sins” carries the image of missing the mark.
ḥeṭʾ: a miss, an offense
חֵטְא
This noun from the same root makes the prophets’ failure concrete as a particular offense.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: offense; offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The same root appears in a word for an offering associated with the missing, showing how widely this root gathers the language of failure.
צַדִּיקִים
ṣaddiqim
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
rightness, justice, alignment
The people whose blood is shed are called “just” through a root associated with alignment and justice. The verse sets their alignment against the crooked action of leaders who should have guarded the community.
ALSO GROWS
ṣedeq: justice, rightness, alignment
צֶדֶק
This noun shares the root and clarifies the quality named in the people called just.
ṣedaqah: justice, right action
צְדָקָה
This related form brings the root into action, sharpening the contrast between the just people and the conduct of their leaders.
ṣaddiq: a just or aligned person
צַדִּיק
The singular form shares the root with the verse’s plural and names each person whose blood is shed.
THE PATTERN
The office meant to guide a people magnifies accountability when it becomes a source of harm.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.THE THREAD
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.Genesis 9:6 uses the same pouring verb twice: once for the one shedding blood and once for blood shed. That shared root makes the charge here unmistakable: the leaders are implicated in the act named by the verse’s blood-shedding language.
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