There is none to plead thy cause... — The words bring before us two images of extremest misery — the criminal who, standing before the dread judgment-seat, has no advocate, the plague-stricken sufferer who has no physician. The word is that used of Josiah in Jeremiah 22:16. There, and commonly elsewhere, it is translated “judge.” The second part of the sentence is better rendered, with a different punctuation, by Thou hast no healing medicines for binding up. It continues the symbolism of Jeremiah 30:12, and reproduces that of Isaiah 1:6. There, and in Isaiah 38:21; Hosea 5:13, and probably in Proverbs 3:8, we have indications of the prominence given to external applications such as plasters, bandages, and the like, in the Eastern treatment of disease.

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