Lamentations 4:18

18 Our steps were tracked; we could no longer walk in our streets. Our end had drawn near; our days were done—our end had definitely 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 It was the LORD's presence that scattered them; he no longer notices them. They didn't honor the priests' presence; they didn't favor the elders.

17 Our eyes continually failed, looking for some help, but for nothing. From our watchtower we watched for a nation that doesn't save.

18 Our steps were tracked; we could no longer walk in our streets. Our end had drawn near; our days were done—our end had definitely come.

19 Our hunters were faster than airborne eagles. They chased us up the mountains; they ambushed us in the wilderness.

20 The LORD's chosen one, the very breath in our lungs, was caught in their traps— the one we used to talk about, saying, Under his protection we will live among the nations."