They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
Many apply this verse to the Egyptians, that they insidiously enticed the Jews to flee to them in their difficulties. It is indeed, true, that the Jews had been deceived by their false promises; and, as a harlot draws to herself young men by wicked arts, so also the Jews had been captivated by the enticements of the Egyptians.
The prophets and priests bear chief fault, not that the people were innocent, but these watchmen should have warned them and did not. They shed the blood of the righteous to please their people and advance their false religion. Nothing ripens a nation for ruin faster than the sins of those set to teach the truth.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 4:13-20
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...