Everyone is watching. When everything is upside down then we notice the passersby 'watching'. When all is well there is no such preoccupation. So it is particularly interesting reading the rest of the chapter of lament describing would be 'faithful' Israeli's, except they weren't. They were status quo believers. Everything seems good except for that radical Jeremiah who kept up on justice, kindness, releasing fellow Jewish slaves. Caring for the poor. Easy words for him, he was a prophet, he didn't have much property to maintain, he didn't have children to provide for, he didn't ... the list went on
Now Jerusalem is down, every one who thought they had power is gone, the temple is not only ruins it is not functioning so the priests have no work, no income.vs13 and following would lead you to believe that God was the bad guy, unfair, God caused all this suffering.
vs18 the young ones are gone as prisoners but if you stop and think they are free from the cultural norms of "doing it this way' they went off to Babylon free of religious trappings and able to chose to follow God in a strange land.
We too are in a strange land, what trappings do we hold on to? What God will we follow and how. Stu
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