Jeremiah 8:22

The NET Bible®

There is still medicinal ointment available in Gilead! There is still a physician there! Why then have my dear people not been restored to health?

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?So why has the healing of my dear peoplenot come about?

Hebrew Names Version
Is there no balm in Gil`ad? is there no physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

King James Version
Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

English Standard Version
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

New American Standard Bible
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

New Century Version
Isn't there balm in the land of Gilead? Isn't there a doctor there? So why aren't the hurts of my people healed?

Amplified Bible
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the [spiritual] health of the daughter of my people been restored?

World English Bible
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Is there no balme at Gilead? is there no Physition there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recouered.

Legacy Standard Bible
Is there no balm in Gilead?Is there no physician there?Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people gone up?

Berean Standard Bible
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Contemporary English Version
If medicine and doctors may be found in Gilead, why aren't my people healed?

Complete Jewish Bible
Has Gil‘ad exhausted its healing resin? Is no physician there? If there is, then why is the daughter of my people so slow to recover her health? I wish my head were made of water and my eyes were a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!

Darby Translation
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is there no dressing applied for the healing of the daughter of my people?

Easy-to-Read Version
Surely there is some medicine in Gilead. Surely there is a doctor in Gilead. So why are the wounds of my people not healed?

George Lamsa Translation
Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no healer a there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people restored?

Good News Translation
Is there no medicine in Gilead? Are there no doctors there? Why, then, have my people not been healed?

Lexham English Bible
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Literal Translation
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for there is no more Triacle at Galaad, and there is no Phisician, that ca heale the hurte of my people.

American Standard Version
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Bible in Basic English
Is there no life-giving oil in Gilead? is there no expert in medical arts? why then have my people not been made well?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

King James Version (1611)
Is there no balme in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recouered?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Is there not triacle at Gilead? Is there no phisitio there? why then is not the health of my people recouered?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And is there no balm in Galaad, or is there no physician there? why has not the healing of the daughter of my people taken place?

English Revised Version
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether resyn is not in Galaad, ether a leche is not there? Whi therfor the wounde of the douytir of my puple is not heelid perfitli?

Update Bible Version
Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then hasn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Webster's Bible Translation
[Is there] no balm in Gilead: [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered.

New King James Version
Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?

New Living Translation
Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?

New Life Bible
Is there no healing oil in Gilead? Is there no doctor there? Why then have my people not been healed?

New Revised Standard
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Balsam, is there none, in Gilead? Is there no physician, there? Why hath not appeared the healing of the daughter of my people?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Is there no balm in Galaad? or is there no physician there? Why then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?

Revised Standard Version
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Young's Literal Translation
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? For wherefore hath not the health of the daughter of my people gone up?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?

Contextual Overview

¹³ I will take away their harvests, says the Lord . There will be no grapes on their vines. There will be no figs on their fig trees. Even the leaves on their trees will wither. The crops that I gave them will be taken away.'" ¹⁴ The people say, "Why are we just sitting here? Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. Let us at least die there fighting, since the Lord our God has condemned us to die. He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment because we have sinned against him. ¹⁵ We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it. We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror. ¹⁶ The snorting of the enemy's horses is already being heard in the city of Dan. The sound of the neighing of their stallions causes the whole land to tremble with fear. They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it! They are coming to destroy the cities and everyone who lives in them!" ¹⁷ The Lord says, "Yes indeed, I am sending an enemy against you that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away. And they will inflict fatal wounds on you." ¹⁸ Then I said, "There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart! ¹⁹ I hear my dear people crying out throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?'" The Lord answers, "Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?" ²⁰ "They cry, ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over, and still we have not been delivered.' ²¹ My heart is crushed because my dear people are being crushed. I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay. ²² There is still medicinal ointment available in Gilead! There is still a physician there! Why then have my dear people not been restored to health?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

no balm: Jeremiah 46:11, Jeremiah 51:8, Genesis 37:25, Genesis 43:11

no physician: Matthew 9:11, Matthew 9:12, Luke 5:31, Luke 5:32, Luke 8:43

why: Jeremiah 30:12-17

recovered: Heb. gone up, Isaiah 1:5, Isaiah 1:6

Reciprocal: Exodus 15:26 - for I am 2 Chronicles 7:14 - heal their land 2 Chronicles 16:12 - physicians Job 13:4 - physicians Psalms 38:5 - My wounds Jeremiah 6:26 - daughter Jeremiah 9:1 - the daughter Jeremiah 14:19 - no healing Jeremiah 30:13 - hast Lamentations 2:13 - who can Ezekiel 27:17 - balm Ezekiel 34:4 - diseased Ezekiel 47:12 - medicine Hosea 11:3 - I healed Hosea 14:4 - heal Mark 5:26 - had suffered Luke 16:20 - full

Cross-References

Genesis 8:8
Then Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters had receded from the surface of the ground.

Genesis 8:9
The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, and brought it back into the ark.

Genesis 8:11
When the dove returned to him in the evening, there was a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Genesis 8:12
He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but it did not return to him this time.

Genesis 8:16
"Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you.

Genesis 8:17
Bring out with you all the living creatures that are with you. Bring out every living thing, including the birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them increase and be fruitful and multiply on the earth!"

Genesis 8:20
Noah built an altar to the Lord . He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 45:6
For these past two years there has been famine in the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

Exodus 34:21
"On six days you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest; even at the time of plowing and of harvest you are to rest.

Jeremiah 5:24
They do not say to themselves, "Let us revere the Lord our God. It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time. It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Is there no balm in Gilead?.... Which was famous for it; see

Genesis 37:25, or rather turpentine or rosin, a gum which drops from pine trees and the like; since balm or balsam grew on this side Jordan, near Jericho and Engedi, and not beyond Jordan, in the land of Gilead; and rosin is good for healing. Some render it "treacle", but very wrongly, since, as Calvin observes, that is a composition of many things,

Is there no physician there? or surgeon, anyone that heals wounds and bruises; very probably there were many such lived in Gilead, since it was a place where proper medicines were to be got and applied: this may be understood of prophets and teachers, who, in a moral and spiritual sense, are instruments of healing of men, by showing them their evil, calling them to repentance, and directing where to go for healing or pardon of sin; namely, to Christ, the alone physician, and to his precious blood, shed for the remission of sins. Some reference may be had to Elijah, who was of Gilead, and to the school of the prophets there, 1 Kings 17:1. The Targum is,

"Jeremiah the prophet said, perhaps there are no good works in me, that I should supplicate for the house of Israel; should I not desire the doctrine of Elijah the prophet, who was of Gilead, whose words were healing?''

Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? that is, seeing there is balm in Gilead, and a physician there, how comes it to pass that such medicine is not made use of, and such a physician not applied to, that health might be restored? This shows the stupidity, sluggishness, and indolence of the people, and how inexcusable they were, as well as the prophet's great concern for their welfare; the want of means of deliverance, or non-attendance to them, or the failure of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

No physician there - i. e., in Gilead. Balm used to grow in Israel for the healing of the nations. Her priests and prophets were the physicians. Has Israel then no balm for herself? Is there no physician in her who can bind up her wound? Gilead was to Israel what Israel spiritually was to the whole world.

Why then is not the health ... recovered? - Or, “why then has no bandage,” or plaster of balsam, “been laid upon my people?”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 8:22. Is there no balm in Gilead? — Yes, the most excellent in the world. "Is there no physician there?" Yes, persons well skilled to apply it. "Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Because ye have not applied to the physician, nor used the balm. Ye die because ye will not use the remedy. But to apply this metaphor: - The Israelites are represented as a man dying through disease; and a disease for the cure of which the balm of Gilead was well known to be a specific, when judiciously applied by a physician. But though there be balm and a physician, the people are not cured; neither their spiritual nor political evils are removed. But what may all this spiritually mean? The people are morally diseased; they have sinned against God, and provoked him to destroy them. They are warned by the prophet to repent and turn to God: they refuse, and sin on. Destruction is come upon them. Might they not have avoided it? Yes. Was it the fault of God? No. Did he not send his prophets with the richest offers of mercy? Did he not give them time, the best instructions, and the most effectual means of returning to him? Has not mercy, the heavenly balm, been ever at hand? And has not GOD, the great Physician, been ever ready to apply it? Yes. Why then are they not converted and healed? Because they would not apply to the Divine Physician, nor receive the only remedy by which they could be spiritually healed. They, then, that sin against the only remedy must perish, because they might have had it, but would not. It is not because there is a deficiency of grace, nor of the means of grace, that men are not saved; but because they either make no use, or a bad use, of them. Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man; but few are saved, because they WILL NOT come unto him that they may have life.

In my old MS. Bible the text is rendered thus: -

Whether gumm is not in Galaad? Or a leche is not there? Why than the hid wounde of the daughter of my peple is not alle helid?

How shall they escape who neglect so great a salvation? Reader, lay this to heart; and, while there is time, apply heartily to the great Physician for thy cure.