The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; All her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh: Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
"The ways of Zion do mourn"  (Lamentations 1:4).  The `ways' were the roads leading to Jerusalem, which before the captivity were thronged with traffic as thousands made their way to the great annual festivals of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.  No one attended any more.  The inaccurate critical canard that, "The word Zion here was not a sanctuary name till after the exile,"[11] is disproved by the 43 times that Isaiah so used the term, plus the seventeen times Jeremiah used it, as well as many, many other times the term is found in Psalms, Amos, Joel and other prophets. Those who try to date Lamentations far later than the times of Jeremiah will need to come up with something a lot better than that.