They build up Zion with blood. Blood is, as it were, the cement that binds the building together. They raise palaces with money gained by extortion, rapine, and judicial murders like that of Naboth (1 Kings 21:1-29.
; comp. Jeremiah 22:13, etc.; Ezekiel 22:27; Habakkuk 2:12). Cheyne thinks this to be a too dark view of the state of public morals, and would therefore consider "blood" to be used for violent conduct leading to ruin of others, comparing Isaiah 1:15; Isaiah 59:3; Proverbs 1:11.
In these passages, however, actual bloodshed may be meant; and we know too little of the moral condition of Judaea at this time to be able to decide against the darker view.