Yeremia 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 

Yeremia 14:19

14:19 Then I said,

“Lord, ⁵  have you completely rejected the nation of Judah?

Do you despise ⁶  the city of Zion?

Why have you struck us with such force

that we are beyond recovery? ⁷ 

We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it.

We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. ⁸ 

Yeremia 30:17

30:17 Yes, ⁹  I will restore you to health.

I will heal your wounds.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁰ 

For you have been called an outcast,

Zion, whom no one cares for.”

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

[8:22]  sn This medicinal ointment (Heb “balm”) consisted of the gum or resin from a tree that grows in Egypt and Palestine and was thought to have medicinal value (see also Jer 46:11).

[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]  sn The prophet means by this metaphor that there are still means available for healing the spiritual ills of his people, mainly repentance, obedience to the law, and sole allegiance to God, and still people available who will apply this medicine to them, namely prophets like himself.

[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?”

[8:22]  sn Jeremiah is lamenting that though there is a remedy available for the recovery of his people they have not availed themselves of it.

[14:19]  ⁵ tn The words, “Then I said, ‘Lord” are not in the Hebrew text. It is obvious from the context that the Lord is addressee. The question of the identity of the speaker is the same as that raised in vv. 7-9 and the arguments set forth there are applicable here as well. Jeremiah is here identifying with the people and doing what they refuse to do, i.e., confess their sins and express their trust in him.

[14:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “does your soul despise.” Here as in many places the word “soul” stands as part for whole for the person himself emphasizing emotional and volitional aspects of the person. However, in contemporary English one does not regularly speak of the “soul” in contexts such as this but of the person.

[14:19]  sn There is probably a subtle allusion to the curses called down on the nation for failure to keep their covenant with God. The word used here is somewhat rare (גָּעַל, ga’al). It is used of Israel’s rejection of God’s stipulations and of God’s response to their rejection of him and his stipulations in Lev 26:11, 15, 30, 43-44. That the allusion is intended is probable when account is taken of the last line of v. 21.

[14:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “Why have you struck us and there is no healing for us.” The statement involves poetic exaggeration (hyperbole) for rhetorical effect.

[14:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “[We hope] for a time of healing but behold terror.”

[14:19]  sn The last two lines of this verse are repeated word for word from 8:15. There they are spoken by the people.

[30:17]  ⁹ tn Again the particle כִּי (ki) appears to be intensive rather than causal. Compare the translator’s note on v. 12. It is possible that it has an adversative sense as an implicit contrast with v. 13 which expresses these concepts in the negative (cf. BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.e for this use in statements which are contextually closer to one another).

[30:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”