Job 6:21

6:21 For now ¹  you have become like these streams that are no help; ² 

you see a terror, ³  and are afraid.

Job 16:2

16:2 “I have heard many things like these before.

What miserable comforters ⁴  are you all!

Jeremiah 6:14

6:14 They offer only superficial help

for the harm my people have suffered. ⁵ 

They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’

But everything is not all right! ⁶ 

Jeremiah 8:22

8:22 There is still medicinal ointment ⁷  available in Gilead!

There is still a physician there! ⁸ 

Why then have my dear people ⁹ 

not been restored to health? ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 30:13

30:13 There is no one to plead your cause.

There are no remedies for your wounds. ¹¹ 

There is no healing for you.

Jeremiah 46:11

46:11 Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, ¹² 

you dear poor people of Egypt. ¹³ 

But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; ¹⁴ 

there will be no healing for you.

Ezekiel 34:4

34:4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness ¹⁵  you have ruled over them.

Hosea 5:13

5:13 When Ephraim saw ¹⁶  his sickness

and Judah saw his wound,

then Ephraim turned ¹⁷  to Assyria,

and begged ¹⁸  its great king ¹⁹  for help.

But he will not be able to heal you!

He cannot cure your wound! ²⁰ 

Mark 2:17

2:17 When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. ²¹  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 5:26

5:26 She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

[6:21]  ¹ tn There is a textual problem in this line, an issue of Kethib-Qere. Some read the form with the Qere as the preposition with a suffix referring to “the river,” with the idea “you are like it.” Others would read the form with the Kethib as the negative “not,” meaning “for now you are nothing.” The LXX and the Syriac read the word as “to me.” RSV follows this and changes כִּי (ki, “for”) to כֵּן (ken, “thus”). However, such an emendation is unnecessary since כִּי (ki) itself can be legitimately employed as an emphatic particle. In that case, the translation would be, “Indeed, now you are” in the sense of “At this time you certainly are behaving like those streams.” The simplest reading is “for now you have become [like] it.” The meaning seems clear enough in the context that the friends, like the river, proved to be of no use. But D. J. A. Clines (Job [WBC], 161) points out that the difficulty with this is that all references so far to the rivers have been in the plural.

[6:21]  ² tn The perfect of הָיָה (hayah) could be translated as either “are” or “have been” rather than “have become” (cf. Joüon 2:373 §113.p with regard to stative verbs). “Like it” refers to the intermittent stream which promises water but does not deliver. The LXX has a paraphrase: “But you also have come to me without pity.”

[6:21]  ³ tn The word חֲתַת (khatat) is a hapax legomenon. The word חַת (khat) means “terror” in 41:25. The construct form חִתַּת (khittat) is found in Gen 35:5; and חִתִּית (khittit) is found in Ezek 26:17, 32:23). The Akkadian cognate means “terror.” It probably means that in Job’s suffering they recognized some dreaded thing from God and were afraid to speak any sympathy toward him.

[16:2]  ⁴ tn The expression uses the Piel participle in construct: מְנַחֲמֵי עָמָל (mÿnahame ’amal, “comforters of trouble”), i.e., comforters who increase trouble instead of relieving it. D. W. Thomas translates this “breathers out of trouble” (“A Note on the Hebrew Root naham,” ExpTim 44 [1932/33]: 192).

[6:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “They heal [= bandage] the wound of my people lightly”; TEV “They act as if my people’s wounds were only scratches.”

[6:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[8:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “balm.” The more familiar “ointment” has been used in the translation, supplemented with the adjective “medicinal.”

[8:22]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Or more clearly, “restored to spiritual health”; Heb “Why then has healing not come to my dear people?”

[30:13]  ¹¹ 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.”

[46:11]  ¹² tn Heb “balm.” See 8:22 and the notes on this phrase there.

[46:11]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “In vain you multiply [= make use of many] medicines.”

[34:4]  ¹⁵ tn The term translated “harshness” is used to describe the oppression the Israelites suffered as slaves in Egypt (Exod 1:13).

[5:13]  ¹⁶ tn Hosea employs three preterites (vayyiqtol forms) in verse 13a-b to describe a past-time situation.

[5:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “went to” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); CEV “asked help from.”

[5:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “sent to” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[5:13]  ¹⁹ tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a contentious king”). This is translated as a proper name (“king Jareb”) by KJV, ASV, NASB. However, the stative adjective יָרֵב (“contentious”) is somewhat awkward. The words should be redivided as an archaic genitive-construct מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “great king”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) which preserves the old genitive hireq yod ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 10:6.

[5:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your wound will not depart from you.”

[2:17]  ²¹ sn Jesus’ point is that he associates with those who are sick because they have the need and will respond to the offer of help. A person who is healthy (or who thinks mistakenly that he is) will not seek treatment.