How the gold has lost its luster! Even the finest gold has become dull. The sacred gemstones lie scattered in the streets!
Parallel translations
- 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.
- 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.
- BSB How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.
- NKJV How the gold has become dim! How changed the fine gold! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered At the head of every street.
- NASB How dark the gold has become, How the pure gold has changed! The sacred stones are spilled out At the corner of every street.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The glory of Zion has been tarnished, like pure gold gone dim and sacred stones scattered.
Overview
Chapter 4 opens by lamenting how the once-glorious city and temple have been defiled and ruined. The dimmed gold and scattered sanctuary stones picture the loss of Jerusalem's former splendor and holiness. This fading of earthly glory underscores the need for a lasting, unfading inheritance secured in Christ (1 Pet. 1:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ezek 7:19–22They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls, neither fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.
- Lam 2:19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
- Isa 1:21How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
- Jer 52:13He burned Yahweh’s house, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.
- Isa 14:12How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
- Matt 24:2But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”
- 2 Kgs 25:9–10He burned Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.
- Mark 13:2Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down.”
- Luke 21:5–6As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 4:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.