Jeremiah 1:11-19

YHWH Gives Jeremiah Two Signs, One Of Which Was The Certainty Of YHWH's Watchfulness Over His Purposes, And The Second A Sign Which Demonstrated The Judgments That Were To Come From The North Because Of Israel's Idolatry And Unfaithfulness (Jeremiah 1:11).

YHWH now gave Jeremiah two signs of what He intended to do. The first sign was a simple branch from an almond tree (shoqed) which indicated the ‘watching' (shaqed) of YHWH. He would ‘watch over' His word in order to bring it about. The second was a boiling cauldron with its open part pointing from the north so that its scalding contents could be poured over Judah, indicating the terrible things that were shortly coming on Judah from YHWH. The contrast is vivid. The beauty of the almond tree expressing YHWH's control over events, and the boiling cauldron emphasising His judgment. At the same time He warned Jeremiah that he was not going to have an easy time of it.

We should, however, note that Jeremiah carefully distinguishes the two signs, the first being introduced with the words ‘the word of YHWH came to me saying --', and the second with the words ‘the word of YHWH came to me a second time saying --'. The signs are thus deliberately shown to be distinctly separate, each bringing its own assurance.