“Raise the signal to go to Zion!

    Flee for safety without delay!
For I am bringing disaster from the north,
    even terrible destruction.” Jeremiah 4:6

            Later in this book, Jeremiah will name that nation directly.

I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin.  Jeremiah 25:9

            Babylon defeated the nation of Assyria during the Battle of Nineveh in 612 BC.  Nobody thought such a powerhouse like Assyria would ever fall, but it did and Nebuchadnezzar took over from 605 to 562 BC.  His army sieged Jerusalem in 597 BC and again in 587 BC.  Jeremiah’s prophecy directly pointed to these invasions of Babylon (now modern day Iraq to the north of Israel).