Lamentations 4:1

How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.

² How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

³ Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.

Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.
KJV: How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
WEB: How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
ASV: How is the gold become dim! [how] is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
DARBY: How is the gold become dim! the most pure gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary poured out at the top of all the streets!
BLB: How the gold has grown dim, the pure gold has changed! The stones of holiness are poured forth at the head of every street.

ÅB: Hvor gullet blir mørkt, det edleste gull forandret, de hellige steiner strødd omkring ved alle gatehjørner!
OTB: Hvordan gullet er blitt matt, det rene gullet er forandret! De hellige steinene ligger strødd på hvert gatehjørne.
B1930: Hvor gullet blir mørkt, det edleste gull forandret, de hellige stener strødd omkring ved alle gatehjørner!

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Ezekiel 7:19–22
They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and gold cannot save them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs with wealth, for it became the stumbling block that brought their iniquity.
Read in context
Lamentations 2:19
Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.
Read in context
Isaiah 1:21
See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness resided within her, but now only murderers!
Read in context
2 Kings 25:9–10
He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
Read in context
Jeremiah 52:13
He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.
Read in context
Matthew 24:2
“Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Read in context
Isaiah 14:12
How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations.
Read in context
Mark 13:2
“Do you see all these great buildings?” Jesus replied. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Read in context