Charles Ellicott Commentary Lamentations 4:1

"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." — Lamentations 4:1 (ASV)

How is the gold ... —The chapter, considered as a distinct poem, reproduces in its general character that of Lamentations 1:2, differing from them, however, in tracing more fully the connection between the sufferings and the sins of Judah. The “gold” and the stones of holiness are none other than the material treasures of palace or temple, and the repetition of the phrase in the top of every street, used in Lamentations 2:19 of children, seems intended to indicate that the words include all that was most precious among the possessions of Jerusalem.