In vane, in vain, in vein
These texts deal with the vanity of life. Jeremiah lived in a time when the world, as he
knew it, was coming apart. While it was clear, in no uncertain terms, that things in his
world would not remain as they were, it was very unclear as to how, when, or if things
would stabilize at some point. In a sense, he lived as a vane, pointing in the clear
direction of the coming judgment of Judah that will blow in from the north. He also had
no problem pointing in the direction of a broken cultic and national moral life as the
cause of the judgment that is surely to come.
