Jeremiah 8:22

8:22 There is still medicinal ointment ¹  available in Gilead!

There is still a physician there! ² 

Why then have my dear people ³ 

not been restored to health? ⁴ 

Jeremiah 46:11

46:11 Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, ⁵ 

you dear poor people of Egypt. ⁶ 

But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; ⁷ 

there will be no healing for you.

[8:22]  ¹ tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”

[8:22]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:22]  ⁴ tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”

[46:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “balm.” See 8:22 and the notes on this phrase there.

[46:11]  ⁶ sn Heb “Virgin Daughter of Egypt.” See the study note on Jer 14:17 for the significance of the use of this figure. The use of the figure here perhaps refers to the fact that Egypt’s geographical isolation allowed her safety and protection that a virgin living at home would enjoy under her father’s protection (so F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 379). By her involvement in the politics of Palestine she had forfeited that safety and protection and was now suffering for it.

[46:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “In vain you multiply [= make use of many] medicines.”