What Does Lamentations 4:18 Mean in the King James?
They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The hunt reaches the steps themselves: the end is not only forecast, but closes around a path that can no longer be taken.
THE MEANING
The voice speaks from inside a pursuit where streets cease to be routes and become exposure. The days feel filled to capacity, and the end is named twice: first as drawing near, then as having arrived. The verse holds the pressure of being unable to go forward while time seems to have run out.
THE ROOT
צָדוּ
tsadu
GROWS FROM
צוּד
tsud
To hunt, pursue, or catch.
צָדוּ (tsadu, they hunt) stands beside צְעָדֵינוּ (tse’adenu, our steps). צוּד (tsud, hunt) and צעד (tsa’ad, step) are distinct roots, but their צ־ד sound-shape makes the steps themselves echo as the quarry. Branches such as צַיִד (tsayid, game or prey) and מְצוּדָה (metsudah, hunting net or stronghold) sharpen the image: movement has become what is hunted and what the net closes around.
ALSO GROWS
tsayid: Game or prey; that which is hunted.
צַיִד
The hunted steps become the quarry, not merely the route the hunted person takes.
metsudah: Hunting net or stronghold.
מְצוּדָה
The word evokes pursuit closing around movement until escape routes disappear.
קָרַב
qarav
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To draw near, approach, or come close.
The end is described as drawing near into the present, not simply as a date on a calendar. This root also carries the language of nearness in קָרְבָּן (qorban, drawing near) and קִרְבָה (qirvah, nearness), so the verse makes proximity itself feel immediate.
ALSO GROWS
qorban: Drawing near; an offering brought near.
קָרְבָּן
It shows the root’s movement toward something, the same approach expressed by the end drawing near.
qirvah: Nearness or closeness.
קִרְבָה
The verse’s threat is not remote: the end has entered the space of the present.
מָלְאוּ
male'u
GROWS FROM
מלא
m-l-ʾ
To be full or to fill.
“fulfilled” in this verse is male'u. The days are pictured as reaching fullness, as though their measure has been filled. Beside the repeated word for end, that fullness makes the ending feel like a measure reaching its limit.
ALSO GROWS
male: To be full; full.
מָלֵא
It gives the days’ completion a concrete sense of fullness rather than mere passage.
mille: To fill or complete.
מִלֵּא
It extends the same root into the act of filling a measure to completion.
THE PATTERN
Pursuit closes ordinary routes and makes the ending feel present before any path remains.
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.THE THREAD
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.Both verses join קֵץ (qets, end) with מלא (male, be full): here the days are filled as the end arrives; there the earth is filled with violence as the end comes. The shared roots make the ending feel like a measure filled by accumulated violence, holding the severity of this verse in full view.
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