Lamentations 4:18

18 1They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; 2our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.

Lamentations 4:18 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 4:18

They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets
The Chaldeans, from their forts and batteries, as they could see, they watched the people as they came out of their houses, and walked about the streets, and shot their arrows at them; so that they were obliged to keep within doors, and not stir out, which they could not do without great danger: our end is near, for our days are fulfilled; for our end is come;
either the end of their lives, the days, months, and years appointed for them being fulfilled; or the end of their commonwealth, the end of their civil and church state, at least as they thought; the time appointed for their destruction was not only near at hand, but was actually come; it was all over with them.

Lamentations 4:18 In-Context

16 The LORD himself has scattered them; he will regard them no more; no honor was shown to the priests, no favor to the elders.
17 Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.
18 They dogged our steps so that we could not walk in our streets; our end drew near; our days were numbered, for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles in the heavens; they chased us on the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the LORD's anointed, was captured in their pits, of whom we said, "Under his shadow we shall live among the nations."

Cross References 2

  • 1. Lamentations 3:52
  • 2. Ezek. 7:2, 3, 6; Amos 8:2
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.