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.
These terrible lines must rank among the saddest words ever written. They described the horrors of the awful famine that preceded the flight of Zedekiah the king of Israel and the terrible destruction that followed. The actual fall of Jerusalem was an awesome event.  The Temple was looted; the houses (all of them) were burned; the walls were thrown down; Zedekiah was captured; his sons were slaughtered in his presence, and then his eyes were gouged out by the Babylonians; many thousands were brutally butchered; other thousands were led away as captives, either to be sold, or to die of starvation and abuse on the journey; but these verses have no word at all concerning all those terrors.  What is described here is the unspeakable horrors of the siege that preceded all that.