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.'