Jeremiah 1:13

"And the word of Jehovah came to me the second time, saying, what seest thou? and I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face thereof is from the north. Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north shall evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah."

"A boiling caldron ..." (Jeremiah 1:13). This boiling caldron was something similar to an old fashioned washpot; and its being tilted toward the south indicated that the disastrous judgments upon Jerusalem would come from military expeditions attacking from the north. Some think there may be a reference here to the Scythians; but we explored this possibility in the Introduction and rejected it. "The meaning was that the great Babylonian power at the north of Palestine would soon be directed against Judea."[12]

It may be objected that Babylon, strictly speaking, was not actually north of Judea; but military actions against Jerusalem invariably came from that direction. Herodotus informs us that the Babylonian assault against Jerusalem indeed came from that direction.

"Strictly speaking, the Babylonians were an eastern people from the point of view in Palestine; but the caravan-roads which the Chaldean armies had to take entered Palestine at Dan and then proceeded southward."[13]

"Evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land ..." (Jeremiah 1:14). A better word than `evil' in this place would be `calamity.' "The Hebrew word often means `misery,' `distress,' or `trouble,' as well as `evil.' "[14] `The inhabitants of the land' is a reference to the population of Palestine.

The fulfillment of this prophecy that foreign kings would set up their thrones in the gates of Jerusalem is recorded in Jeremiah 39:1-4.

Regarding verse 15, RKH pointed out that it is in no sense compatible with the theory that the passage here applies to a Scythian invasion.[15] There is no evidence whatever that any Scythian king ever set his throne in the gates of Jerusalem; but "All the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate" (Jeremiah 39:3); and the very next verse names no less than six members of the royalty who did so, "along with all the rest of the princes of the King of Babylon!" This of course, explains the use of the plural "kings" in the prophecy (v. 15).

Dummelow explained the purpose of kings sitting in the gates thus:

The function of administering justice was exercised by the king himself; and the neighborhood of the city gate was the ordinary place at which trials were held. The prophecy states that here then the rulers of the invader's army will sit in judgment on the conquered people.[16]