Jeremiah 1:14

The Lord explained that the contents of the boiling pot represented an evil that would overflow upon all the inhabitants of Judah from the north. Many of the commentators, and I, believe this refers to Babylon (cf. Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 39), but a few think it refers to the Scythians. [Note: See Harrison, Introduction to . . ., pp. 803-4; Feinberg, pp. 361-62; or Graybill, p. 657, for further discussion of the foe from the north.] The major threat to Judah when Jeremiah began his ministry was Assyria, but Assyria soon declined and Neo-Babylonia took its place. Whereas Babylon (and Assyria) lay to the northeast of Palestine, its invading armies would descend from the north, since the Arabian Desert kept them from advancing directly from the east.