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Lamentations 4:18

They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!
Lamentations 4:18 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB They hunt our steps, so that we can’t go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end has come.
  • KJV They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
  • NKJV They tracked our steps So that we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near; Our days were over, For our end had come.
  • NASB They hunted our steps So that we could not walk in our streets; Our end drew near, Our days were finished For our end had come.
  • NLT We couldn’t go into the streets without danger to our lives. Our end was near; our days were numbered. We were doomed!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Enemies stalked their every step, so that the end of the city had clearly come.

Overview

The people could not even walk the streets without being hunted, and they recognized their days were numbered. The sense that 'our end has come' marks the finality of judgment. This despair over a doomed city underscores humanity's helplessness apart from divine rescue, the rescue God grants in Christ (Lam. 4:17-19).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 14

  • Amos 8:2“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the LORD said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”
  • Ezek 7:2–12“O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
  • Ps 140:11May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.
  • Jer 16:16But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
  • Lam 3:52Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
  • 2 Kgs 25:4–5Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
  • Jer 1:12“You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”
  • Ezek 12:27“Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’
  • Ezek 12:22–23“Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’?
  • Job 10:16Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
  • Jer 51:33For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
  • Jer 39:4–5When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they went out along the route to the Arabah.
  • Jer 52:7–9Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
  • 1 Sam 24:14Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Lamentations videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Lamentations 4:18YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on LamentationsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.

How Lamentations 4:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.