“But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground,
And the east wind dried up her fruit,
Her strong rods were broken off and withered,
The fire consumed them.
And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land,
And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, it has devoured her fruit,
So that there is in her no strong rod, to be a sceptre to rule.”
Here is the depiction of the failure of the kingship, and of the people. The glory of Israel-Judah was plucked up and cast down, and her rulers (‘strong rods') were broken off and withered, and consumed by fire. Israel-Judah was transplanted to an unfruitful desert place, and her misfortunes will have resulted from her king who had brought about her misery (fire has gone out from him), leaving her with no one to rule her. And the whole finally resulted from the failure of Zedekiah to obey God and remain in submission to Babylon (Jeremiah 27:12-13).
The whole lament is a stark recognition of failure, both of their kings and of the people. What God had made prosperous had languished, and finally withered, through their disobedience to His covenant.