Lamentations 1:4

The ways of Zion do mourn The approaches to Jerusalem are meant. They are desolate, without the usual throng of those coming up to the feasts.

For the thought of inanimate objects as sympathising with human affairs cp.

"Call it not vain they do not err,

Who say, that, when the Poet dies,

Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,

And celebrates his obsequies."

Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto V.

All her gates are desolate See on Jeremiah 14:2.

her priests do sigh in the absence of sacrifices, their livelihood has disappeared.

Her virgins are afflicted They are mentioned as taking part in religious ceremonies. See Exodus 15:20; Judges 21:21; Psalms 68:25; Jeremiah 31:13. It is clear from this passage that when the poem was written, there was no attempt at worship on the Temple site, though it may have continued for a while after the destruction of the city (see on Jeremiah 41:5).