Jeremiah 1:13

13 Then the LORD spoke to me again and asked, “What do you see now?” And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water, spilling 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 Then the LORD said to me, “Look, Jeremiah! What do you see?” And I replied, “I see a branch from an almond tree.”

12 And the LORD said, “That’s right, and it means that I am watching, and I will certainly carry out all my plans.”

13 Then the LORD spoke to me again and asked, “What do you see now?” And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water, spilling from the north.”

14 “Yes,” the LORD said, “for terror from the north will boil out on the people of this land.

15 Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem. I, the LORD, have spoken! “They will set their thrones at the gates of the city. They will attack its walls and all the other towns of Judah.