Jeremiah 1:13

13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and its face is from the north.

Jeremiah 1:13 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 1:13

And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time
In the same vision: saying, what seest thou?
besides the almond tree rod; which perhaps was now removed out of sight, and another object appears: and I said, I see a seething pot;
a pot with fire under it, boiling and bubbling up: and the face thereof was towards the north;
either the mouth of the pot where it boiled up, which might be turned to the north in the vision; or that side of the pot, as Kimchi thinks, on which the liquor was poured out; it may be that side of it on which the fire was put to cause it to boil; and so denotes from what quarter the fire came, and was put under it, and the wind that blew it up. The Targum paraphrases the words thus,

``and I said, I see a king boiling as a pot, and the banner of his army, which was brought and came from the north.''

The explanation follows:

Jeremiah 1:13 In-Context

11 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond-tree.

12 Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well: for I keep watch over my word to give effect to it.

13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and its face is from the north.

14 Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north evil will come, bursting out on all the people of the land.

15 For see, I will send for all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they will come, everyone placing his high seat at the way into Jerusalem, and against its walls on every side, and against all the towns of Judah.