Jeremiah 8:22

Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? IS THERE NO BALM - balsam; to be applied to the wounds of my people. Brought into Judea first from Arabia Felix, by the Queen of Sheba, in Solomon's time (Josephus, 'Antiquities,' 8: 2). The opobalsamum of Pliny; or else (Bochart) the resin drawn from the terebinth. It abounded in Gilead, east of Jordan, where, in consequence, many 'physicians' established themselves (Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 51:8; Genesis 37:25; Genesis 43:11). Why ... is...

The Prophet intimates in these words that the slaughter of the people would be so fatal that they would in vain seek remedies; as though he had said, that the disease would be incurable, and altogether deadly. The people, no doubt, ever devised for themselves many kinds of aids, according to what is commonly done; for ungodly men, when any danger appears, look around them on all sides; and when they think that they can be protected by any kind of assistance, or by any of the means they contrive, they rest secure and free from every trouble. Hence the Prophet, that he might dispel such vain confidences, says that there _would be no rosin _to heal their diseases. The rosin is a liquid which flows, not from every tree, but from the pine, and trees of that kind. _We _may conclude from this passage, as well as from other passages, that the best and the most valuable rosin was found in that pa...

14-22 At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the Physician there, all-sufficient; so that the people may be healed, but will not. Thus men die unpardoned and unchanged, for they will not come to Christ to be saved....

Verse Jeremiah 8:22. IS THERE _NO BALM IN GILEAD?_] Yes, the most excellent in the world. "Is there no physician there?" Yes, persons well skilled to apply it. "Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" Because ye have not applied to the physician, nor used the balm. Ye die because ye will not use the remedy. But to apply this metaphor: - The _Israelites_ are represented as a _man dying_ through disease; and a disease for the cure of which the _balm of Gilead_ was well known to be a _specific_, when judiciously applied by a physician. But though there be _balm_ and a _physician_, the people are not cured; neither their spiritual nor political evils are removed. But what may all this _spiritually_ mean? The people are morally diseased; they have sinned against God, and provoked him to destroy them. They are warned by t...

NO PHYSICIAN THERE - i. e., in Gilead. Balm used to grow in Israel for the healing of the nations. Her priests and prophets were the physicians. Has Israel then no balm for herself? Is there no physician in her who can bind up her wound? Gilead was to Israel what Israel spiritually was to the whole world. WHY THEN IS NOT THE HEALTH ... RECOVERED? - Or, “why then has no bandage,” or plaster of balsam, “been laid upon my people?”...

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 8:1 Punishment will even overtake the sinners who have long since been deceased. JEREMIAH 8:1 THEY SHALL BRING OUT THE BONES. Not only shall many of the dead bodies remain unburied, but the sepulchers of those who have till now "lain in honor, each one in his house" (Isaiah 14:18), shall be violated. THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM meant are evidently those of the upper class, for the others were buried, with but little regard to the security of the corpses, in the valley of Kedron (2 Kings 23:6). According to some, the mot

IS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD?.... Which was famous for it; see Genesis 37:25, or rather turpentine or rosin, a gum which drops from pine trees and the like; since balm or balsam grew on this side Jordan, near Jericho and Engedi, and not beyond Jordan, in the land of Gilead; and rosin is good for healing. Some render it "treacle", but very wrongly, since, as Calvin observes, that is a composition of many things, IS THERE NO PHYSICIAN THERE? or surgeon, anyone that heals wounds and bruises; very probably there were many such lived in Gilead, since it was a place where proper medicines were to be got and applied: this may be understood of prophets and teachers, who, in a moral and spiritual sense, are instruments of healing of men, by showing them their evil, calling them to repentance, and directing where to go for healing or pardon of sin; namely, to Christ, th

Jeremiah 8:1. _At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:_ The prophet Jeremiah had to foretell terrible judgments upon the guilty people, who had been often warned, but who had at last gone beyond all bearing, and were about to be destroyed by the Chaldeans, for here we have the picture of Judah and Jerusalem invaded by the Chaldeans and Babylonians, just before the city was utterly destroyed. It was a very common practice to bury treasure with the bodies of kings, hence when any land was invaded by foreign foes, they broke open the tombs, and searched for hidden valuables and it was a sign of the special detestation of the enemy, and of their fury against the people, when they dragged

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The horrors of the invasion (Jeremiah 8:1) _ 2. Hardened hearts and retribution (Jeremiah 8:4) 3. Utter destruction threatened (Jeremiah 8:13) 4. The prophet's lamentation (Jeremiah 8:18) Jeremiah 8:1. These verses must not be detached from the preceding chapter. The division of Chapter s is often unfortunate in this book. The invaders from the north would even have digged out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people who had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars shoul

JEREMIAH 8:18 TO JEREMIAH 9:1. JEREMIAH'S SORROW OVER JUDAH'S SUFFERING. The prophet, in sorrowful sympathy with his people, hears in anticipation the cry of the exiles and Yahweh's answer. They reproach Him with His abandonment of Zion; He points to their idolatry, and introduction of foreign (strange) deities. The people lament (apparently in proverbial form) the disappointment of their hope of deliverance; it is as when the hope of harvest (April-June) has been destroyed, and the failure of the autumn ingathering (Jeremiah 8:20 _mg._) has removed the remaining expectation; they (emph.) have not been rescued from their distress (the reference in saved is to material prosperity, not to a spiritual change). The prophe