A vivid and fierce visual appears to the prophet, sketching the source and threatening nature of a looming disaster. Following an initial vision that established the certainty and speed of the coming events, this next revelation uncovers the geographic direction of the threat and the immense pressure of an approaching siege. When God speaks to the prophet a second time, He is not speaking to him for the second time in his life. Rather, this is the second vision in the current prophetic sequence [רד״ק], specifically focusing on the destined destruction of Jerusalem [אברבנאל].
The prophet is shown a cooking pot, which serves as a metaphor for Jerusalem, while the contents inside represent the city's residents [רד״ק, מלבי״ם, אברבנאל]. Usually, a pot protects the food inside from the fire, just as city walls are meant to protect people from an enemy. Here, however, the enemy's fire is stronger than the pot, and the divine protection that once shielded the city from above has been removed [מלבי״ם].
The primary approach among commentators is that the pot is boiling and steaming. The water bubbles, swells, and releases steam, much like a person blowing air from their mouth [רש״י, רד״ק, מצודת ציון, מלבי״ם]. Alternatively, the imagery does not describe boiling water, but rather the act of blowing on a fire. The enemies use bellows, blowing fiercely to stoke the flames and speed up the cooking process. This symbolizes a swift and aggressive siege designed to consume the people trapped inside the city [אברבנאל, וכן מובא בביאור שטיינזלץ].
The vision highlights that the pot is facing north. Commentators offer different explanations for what the "face" of a pot actually is. It might be the side from which the food is poured [רד״ק, צאינה וראינה], or simply its front, most visible part [אברבנאל]. Others suggest it refers to the opening of the stove where the fire is placed [אביו של רד״ק], or the side where the water bubbles and boils most violently due to the extreme heat [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם].
Despite these differences, there is agreement that the northern direction points to the source of the disaster. The fire, and the enemies stoking it, come from north of the Land of Israel—the Babylonian empire [רד״ק, צאינה וראינה, אברבנאל]. The intense heat coming from the north causes the contents of the pot to boil over and try to escape to the opposite side. This mirrors the residents of Jerusalem attempting to flee the siege, only to ultimately spill out and fall into the hands of the Babylonians [מלבי״ם].
On a deeper level, the concept of the pot's face is also linked to the idea of being "before" or "earlier" in time. This hints that the first destruction of Jerusalem will arrive from the north by the hands of Babylon, carrying a subtle clue about a second, future destruction that will eventually come from a different direction, carried out by Rome [אברבנאל].