They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
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.
- BSB 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!
- 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 8:2And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
- Ezek 7:2–12Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land.
- Ps 140:11Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
- Jer 16:16Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
- Lam 3:52Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
- 2 Kgs 25:4–5And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.
- Jer 1:12Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
- Ezek 12:27Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.
- Ezek 12:22–23Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?
- Job 10:16For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
- Jer 51:33For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
- Jer 39:4–5And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
- Jer 52:7–9Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.
- 1 Sam 24:14After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
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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.