4:22 for they are life to those who find them
and healing to one’s entire body. 1
16:24 Pleasant words are like 2 a honeycomb, 3
sweet to the soul and healing 4 to the bones.
147:3 He heals 5 the brokenhearted,
and bandages their wounds.
1:6 From the soles of your feet to your head,
there is no spot that is unharmed. 6
There are only bruises, cuts,
and open wounds.
They have not been cleansed 7 or bandaged,
nor have they been treated 8 with olive oil. 9
30:12 Moreover, 10 the Lord says to the people of Zion, 11
“Your injuries are incurable;
your wounds are severe. 12
30:13 There is no one to plead your cause.
There are no remedies for your wounds. 13
There is no healing for you.
1 tn Heb “to all of his flesh.”
2 tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
3 sn The metaphor of honey or the honeycomb is used elsewhere in scripture, notably Ps 19:10 [11]. Honey was used in Israel as a symbol of the delightful and healthy products of the land – “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Deut 6:3).
4 sn Two predicates are added to qualify the metaphor: The pleasant words are “sweet” and “healing.” “Soul” includes in it the appetites, physical and spiritual; and so sweet to the “soul” would summarize all the ways pleasant words give pleasure. “Bones” is a metonymy of subject, the boney framework representing the whole person, body and soul. Pleasant words, like honey, will enliven and encourage the whole person. One might recall, in line with the imagery here, how Jonathan’s eyes brightened when he ate from the honeycomb (1 Sam 14:27).
5 tn Heb “the one who heals.”
6 tn Heb “there is not in it health”; NAB “there is no sound spot.”
7 tn Heb “pressed out.”
8 tn Heb “softened” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “soothed.”
9 sn This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.
10 tn The particle כִּי (ki) here is parallel to the one in v. 5 that introduces the first oracle. See the discussion in the translator’s note there.
11 tn The pronouns in vv. 10-17 are second feminine singular referring to a personified entity. That entity is identified in v. 17 as Zion, which here stands for the people of Zion.
12 sn The wounds to the body politic are those of the incursions from the enemy from the north referred to in Jer 4:6; 6:1 over which Jeremiah and even God himself have lamented (Jer 8:21; 10:19; 14:17). The enemy from the north has been identified as Babylon and has been identified as the agent of God’s punishment of his disobedient people (Jer 1:15; 4:6; 25:9).
13 tc The translation of these first two lines follows the redivision of the lines suggested in NIV and NRSV rather than that of the Masoretes who read, “There is no one who pleads your cause with reference to [your] wound.”