8:21 My heart is crushed because my dear people 1 are being crushed. 2
I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay. 3
8:22 There is still medicinal ointment 4 available in Gilead!
There is still a physician there! 5
Why then have my dear people 6
not been restored to health? 7
1 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
2 tn Heb “Because of the crushing of the daughter of my people I am crushed.”
3 tn Heb “I go about in black [i.e., mourning clothes]. Dismay has seized me.”
4 tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”
5 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.
6 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
7 tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”