Jeremiah 6:26

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.”

Jeremiah 8:21-22

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 

[6:26]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.

[6:26]  ² tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.

[6:26]  ³ tn Heb “suddenly.”

[6:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “the destroyer.”

[8:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “Because of the crushing of the daughter of my people I am crushed.”

[8:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “I go about in black [i.e., mourning clothes]. Dismay has seized me.”

[8:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”

[8:22]  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.

[8:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:22]  ¹¹ tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”