4:17 The Hebrew text begins with an adverb (ʿod) that could be translated in the sense of duration (“All the while”; CSB) or addition (“Moreover”; NIV). The ESV appears to translate the word according to the sense of duration: “ever watching.” This makes good sense in the context: while the nation’s leadership was devastated, the nation looked in vain for help from another nation. The “eyes” have played a prominent part in the book so far, mainly in association with tears (1:1a; 2:11, 18; 3:48, 49). Here they are used as the organ of searching for help. This idea of looking to others for help was expressed first in 1:12, as the personified city called on passersby to “look and see” her unmatched sorrow. The refrain, appearing seven times in the opening chapter, underscored the point that there was “none to comfort her” (1:2, 7, 9, 16, 17, 21).

This verse, however, states that it was not for want of trying. What Judah looked for intently was a nation to save them. In the past they had looked to Egypt for help against the Assyrians (cf. Isa. 31:1–3; 36:4–6), and they looked in that direction again when the Babylonians besieged them (cf. Jer. 37:5–10). However, it was all in vain. Egypt was, literally, “our vain help.” The word “vain” (hebel) is the same word used in Ecclesiastes to describe the “vanity of vanities.” It is used here appropriately, since, as God had forewarned through the prophet Isaiah, he alone was Israel’s helper (Isa. 41:13).

4:18–19 The text now switches to talking about the enemy nations: they are simply “they,” unnamed and unidentified, even though the reader knows them to be the Babylonians and Edomites. Not only was there no nation willing to help Judah, but these nations were merciless and relentless. They hunted them in the city streets (Lam. 4:18), pursued them on the mountains, and lay in wait for them in the wilderness (v. 19). Verse 18 states that there was nowhere to hide, while verse 19 states that there was nowhere to run. The locations frame the verses, underscoring the fact that there was no way of escape. This is further underlined by the fact that the prepositional phrases “on the mountains” and “in the wilderness” are fronted in verse 19b. The enemy’s pursuit is relentless: the hunting in the city was of such a nature that the residents had to go into hiding, unable to walk in their own streets (v. 18); the pursuit in the open plains was “swifter than the eagles in the heavens” (v. 19), which was heightened by the fact that the fugitives had become starving scavengers before they had to flee for their lives. The merciless enemy was not content to let Judahites flee to the mountains to live as wandering nomads; instead, they pursued them even on mountains and desert plains. It is no wonder, then, that the people resign themselves to complete defeat and utter hopelessness (v. 18b). In verse 18b the thrice-used “our” and the twice-used “end” indicate that the whole community accepted its end had finally come: the end drew near, the days were fulfilled, the end came—as uninvited as the enemy itself.

4:20 This verse highlights the complete hopelessness of the situation for the nation by speaking of its last hope: the king. “The breath of our nostrils” is a unique descriptor in the OT, but its reference to the king is made clear by the appositional phrase “the Lord’s anointed” (cf. Ps. 2:2). Surely he could help in the city streets? Surely he could confront the pursuers and slay them in the wilderness? Alas, no! He too was captured and put in a pit.105 Second Kings 25:1–7 and Jeremiah 52:1–10 record the night flight of King Zedekiah out of Jerusalem. His men abandoned him on the open plains and left him to be captured by the Babylonians, who bound him and cast him into prison until the day of his death. The capture of Zedekiah sealed the end of all hope for Judah as a nation, since they viewed the king as their protector under whose shadow they lived among the nations (Lam. 4:20). The captivity of Judah’s king in a pit in Babylon was of no small significance, given the divine promises that God had established his king in Zion and that one day his king would crush the nations (Psalm 2). The promise of Psalm 2 could not be further from the present reality.