Jeremiah 8:20-22

8:20 “They cry, ¹  ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over, ² 

and still we have not been delivered.’

8:21 My heart is crushed because my dear people ³  are being crushed. ⁴ 

I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay. ⁵ 

8:22 There is still medicinal ointment ⁶  available in Gilead!

There is still a physician there! ⁷ 

Why then have my dear people ⁸ 

not been restored to health? ⁹ 

[8:20]  ¹ tn The words “They say” are not in the text; they are supplied in the translation to make clear that the lament of the people begun in v. 19b is continued here after the interruption of the Lord’s words in v. 19c.

[8:20]  ² tn Heb “Harvest time has passed, the summer is over.”

[8:21]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “Because of the crushing of the daughter of my people I am crushed.”

[8:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “I go about in black [i.e., mourning clothes]. Dismay has seized me.”

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”

[8:22]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”