They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 4:14 Go To Lamentations 4
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
Here is secondly considered the insufficient correction. For, abstaining only from an entering into the temple, they believed themselves to make satisfaction. As said: "They wandered, blind, through the streets," That is, scattering through the streets blindly. As Wisdom 2:21 records: "for their wickedness blinded them." And: "so defiled with blood that none could touch their garments." Namely, the temple (like their garments), being cut garments, (in the manner of mirthful persons, as clowns), and repeatedly torn into strips. By this is shown that they did not cease from their pleasures, or non-sensible human behavior.
Or, according to another literal sense, "as lascivorous", which is plainer. As said in Isaiah 59:3: "For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity."
Moreover, such can be explained as to those persons corporeally blinded, when captured by enemies. Such were unable to enter dwellings by themselves, unless they attach themselves to the garments of a leader, as they follow.
