6:26 So I said, 1 “Oh, my dear people, 2 put on sackcloth
and roll in ashes.
Mourn with painful sobs
as though you had lost your only child.
For any moment now 3 that destructive army 4
will come against us.”
8:21 My heart is crushed because my dear people 5 are being crushed. 6
I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay. 7
8:22 There is still medicinal ointment 8 available in Gilead!
There is still a physician there! 9
Why then have my dear people 10
not been restored to health? 11
1 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.
2 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.
3 tn Heb “suddenly.”
4 tn Heb “the destroyer.”
5 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
6 tn Heb “Because of the crushing of the daughter of my people I am crushed.”
7 tn Heb “I go about in black [i.e., mourning clothes]. Dismay has seized me.”
8 tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”
9 tn Heb “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” In this context the questions are rhetorical and expect a positive answer, which is made explicit in the translation.
10 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
11 tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”