Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 1:15

"For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah." — Jeremiah 1:15 (ASV)

I will call. —Literally, I am calling. The evil is not merely future, but is actually begun.

All the families of the kingdoms of the north.— In the Hebrew the words are in apposition, all the families, even the kingdoms of the north. The words point chiefly to the Chaldeans and other inhabitants of Babylonia, but may probably include also the Scythians, who about this time spread like a deluge over Asia Minor and Syria, and penetrated as far as Ascalon (Herodotus 1.105).

They shall set every one his throne. —that is, they will usurp the administration of justice, and set up their thrones of judgment in the space near the gates where kings usually sat to hear complaints and decide causes (2 Samuel 15:2; Psalms 127:5). In Jeremiah 39:3 we have a literal fulfillment of the prediction.

Against all the walls. —As the previous words speak of a formal usurpation of power, so these words also speak of invasion and attack, the storming of the lesser cities of Judah, while Jerusalem became the center of the foreign government.