Lamentations 4:18 Meaning and Explanation

'They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets.' The enemy stalks the people even within their own city, so that they cannot walk their own streets in safety. The hunters are everywhere; there is no freedom of movement, no safe passage. The city has become a trap for its own inhabitants.

'Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.' The repetition of 'our end' tolls like a death knell. The people sense that the final hour has arrived, that their time has run out. It is the language of those who can see no future, who feel history closing in upon them. Yet the book as a whole, with its central word of mercies new every morning, will not let 'our end is come' be the true last word for a people God has not finally abandoned.