Jeremiahchapter 8
22 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
These words continue the preaching that began at the temple gate, spoken to a generation that had scrolls, scribes and teachers. The people could read, and they still could not read the times they lived in. The chapter moves from the graves outside the city to the sky above it, and then into the prophet's own grief. Listen for the birds that keep their seasons and for the scribes whose pens have been turned to lies. Listen for the change in the speaker near the end, where the prophet mourns with those he warned. Read it as a lament over a city that would not admit it was wounded.
Context
- Who
- A literate, well-taught generation that had scrolls and teachers and still could not read the season
- What
- An oracle of judgment on Judah's dead and living, followed by the prophet's lament over his people.
- Where
- Jerusalem, with its rock-cut tombs outside the walls and its scribes and teachers within.
- When
- The chapter carries no date; it follows the temple sermon and is usually placed in the reign of Jehoiakim, about 609 to 605 BC.
- Why
- To show that a well-taught people had rejected the word of the LORD, and to grieve over the judgment that would follow.
Historical context
The chapter opens with the worst thing an ancient conqueror could do to a city. Judeans were buried in rock-cut chambers outside the walls, laid on stone benches until the flesh was gone and the bones were gathered into a pit with the family's ancestors. To break into those chambers and scatter the bones on the ground under the sun and the stars they had worshipped was to attack the dead as well as the living.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Then a bird-watching argument. The stork, the turtledove, the swift and the thrush pass over that country on schedule twice a year, the Jordan valley is one of the world's great migration flyways, and the birds arrive within days of the same date every spring. They keep an appointment they were never taught. Judah cannot manage it.
The reference to the lying pen of the scribes points at a real profession. Scribes copied, taught, drafted contracts, and produced the written material a temple state ran on. They wrote with a cut reed on papyrus or leather using ink made from soot and gum.
Gilead, east of the Jordan, exported a resin used as a wound dressing and traded all over the region. Asking whether there is balm in Gilead is like asking whether the pharmacy is open. Everyone knew it was.
Significance
For a first audience the horror of the opening was not theological, it was familial. Those were their grandparents' bones.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the closing question turns the knife. The medicine exists, the physician exists, and the patient is still dying. The failure is not in the supply of mercy; it is in a nation that will not admit it is wounded.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The first three verses of this chapter are read in the synagogue. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records Jeremiah 7:21 to 8:3 and 9:22 to 9:23 as the Haftarah of Tzav (Leviticus 6:1 to 8:36), in both rites. The reading runs on from the end of chapter 7 into the burial scene of this chapter's opening verses.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Rashi reads the bones spread before the sun as the work of the besieging army, which camps in the tombs of the princes. He explains the choice of death over life: "the distress of the living is worse than that, and they will choose death" (Rashi on Jeremiah 8:2:1 and 8:3:1). The adders that cannot be charmed he reads through the deaf asp of the Psalms (Rashi on Jeremiah 8:17:1).
On the harvest that is past Rashi reads the people's hope for help from Egypt. They waited through the harvest in Iyar and the summer in Tammuz, and no help came (Rashi on Jeremiah 8:20:1). The balm of Gilead he reads as a question about teachers: "Did they not have any righteous men from whom to learn so that they should improve their ways?" (Rashi on Jeremiah 8:22:1).
The corpus numbers by the Hebrew text, which ends this chapter at verse 23. That verse is 9:1 in an English Bible.
The corpus carries five further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 8:1:1. The same holds for Radak on Jeremiah 8:1:1, 8:10:1, 8:15:1 and 8:23:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 4 in the Talmud and 36 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:40, Midrash Tehillim 79:3 and Sanhedrin 96b:14. On verse 2 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 6:14, Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 6:16 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 242:1. On verse 4 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7, Midrash Shmuel 7:7 and Sifrei Bamidbar 42:2. On verse 5 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:91 and Sanhedrin 105a:2. On verse 7 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 11:16:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 18:27:11 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:1:1.
On verse 8 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:1 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 15:6. On verse 11 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 2:14:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13:3. On verse 13 it holds Megillah 31b:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Tazria 13:2 and Midrash Tanchuma, Tazria 9:1. On verse 14 it holds Sotah 5a:2 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 30:4. On verse 15 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations, Introduction 1. On verse 16 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 42:2, Bereshit Rabbah 43:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:36.
On verse 18 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 31 and Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 32. On verse 19 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 74:3 and Ruth Rabbah, Petichta 6. On verse 20 it holds Midrash Tehillim 119:24, Midrash Tehillim 40:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 34. On verse 21 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 3:48:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 33:1:2. On verse 22 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:7 and Ein Yaakov, Taanit 1:9.
On verse 23 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:52 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:42:1.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 8:2:1 to 8:22:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 8:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 8:1:1, 8:10:1, 8:15:1 and 8:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/8.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 8: a Haftarah use, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Bones Spread Before the Sun; the Stork Knows Her Season
Jeremiah 8:1-3
The bones of kings, priests, prophets and people are exposed to “all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped”. The objects of their devotion become witnesses of their shame, and worship offered to the sky is repaid by exposure under it.
Jeremiah 8:1
“Not the living only but the dead shall be exposed to the ruthless violence of the enemy, who will ransack the graves of the wealthier classes.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 8:1
“The victorious Babylonians were about to violate the sanctuaries of the dead in search of plunder; for ornaments, treasures, and insignia of royalty were usually buried with kings. Or rather, their purpose was to do the greatest dishonor to the dead (Isa 14:19).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped: Barnes notes the order of the five verbs: loved comes first, and the heart's love for the sun and moon leads to all the rest. Calvin adds that burial was a badge of the resurrection. These bones are exposed on the ground.
Jeremiah 8:2
“They sought them, consulted them as oracles, appealed to them as judges, implored their favour, and prayed to them as their benefactors. They worshipped them, gave them divine honour, as having a sovereign dominion over them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:2
“The faithful, as I have said, suffer no loss, when burial is denied them; but yet they do not disregard burial, inasmuch as it is a badge of the resurrection.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
The remnant of this evil family are the survivors the LORD has banished to other lands. Gill describes their life among the nations as so hard that death becomes the choice, and he sets the verse beside Revelation 9. Survival itself becomes the sentence.
Jeremiah 8:4-7
The LORD asks whether men “fall and not get up again”, the ordinary law of falling and rising that Judah alone has suspended. The stork, the turtledove, the swift and the thrush keep their seasons, “but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD”.
They cling to deceit: Barnes renders the question as a people turning away with a perpetual turning, the same root as the turn and return of verse 4. He takes deceit to mean idolatry, false in what it worships and false to those who worship. Jerome stresses that they refused.
Jeremiah 8:5
“When men act as in Jer 8:4, why is God’s own people alone an exception? Slidden back ... backsliding - The same words as “turn” and “return” in Jer 8:4. They should be rendered, “Why doth this people of Jerusalem turn away with a perpetual turning?” Deceit - i. e., idolatry; because men worship in it that which is false, and it is false to the worshippers. Refuse - From a feeling of dislike.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:5
“Sin is a great cheat, and they hold it fast; they love it dearly, and resolve to stick to it, and baffle all the methods God takes to separate between them and their sins. The excuses they make for their sins are deceits, and so are all their hopes of impunity; yet they hold fast these, and will not be undeceived, and therefore they refuse to return.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
like a horse charging into battle: The LORD listened and heard before he passed sentence, as at the tower of Genesis 11:5, Barnes notes. He renders the repentance clause as no man pitying his own wickedness. Each one charges on like a horse into battle.
Jeremiah 8:6
“I hearkened and heard - God, before passing sentence, carefully listens to the words of the people. Compare Gen 11:5, where the divine judgment is preceded by the Almighty going down to see the tower. Not aright - Or, “not-right;” which in the Hebrew idiom means that which is utterly wrong. No man repented - The original phrase is very striking: No “man had pity upon his own wickedness.” If men understood the true nature of sin, the sinner would repent out of very pity upon himself.”
Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons: Barnes notes that the stork reaches the land in late March and flies high in the sky by day. Jerome records how the Greek translators rendered the names of the turtledove, swift and thrush differently. Each bird knows its seasons.
Jeremiah 8:7
“It is an instance of their sottishness that, though they are God's people, and therefore should readily understand his mind upon every intimation of it, yet they know not the judgment of the Lord; they apprehend not the meaning either of a mercy or an affliction, not how to accommodate themselves to either, nor to answer God's intention in either.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:7
Jeremiah appeals to the obedience which migratory birds render to the law of their natures. The “stork” arrives in Palestine about March 21, and after a six weeks’ halt departs for the north of Europe. It takes its flight by day, at a vast height in the air (“in the heaven”). The appearance of the “turtle-dove” is one of the pleasant signs of the approach of spring. The crane and the swallow - Rather, “the swift and the crane.”
The Lying Pen of the Scribes; No Grapes on the Vine
Jeremiah 8:8-9
The wise claim “We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us”. The answer is that “the lying pen of the scribes has produced a deception”. The wise “will be put to shame” because “they have rejected the word of the LORD”.
Jeremiah 8:8
The blessed prophet Jeremiah loudly condemned the ignorance, at once, and pride of the Jews, rebuking them in these words; "How say you that we are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? In vain is the lying cord of the scribes. The wise men are ashamed: they trembled, and were taken: what wisdom have they, in that they have rejected the Word of the Lord!"
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 131patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 8:8
“God has indeed made it able to make men wise to salvation, but as to them it is made so in vain, for they are never the wiser for it: The pen of the scribes, of those that first wrote the law and of those that now write expositions of it, is in vain. Both the favour of their God and the labour of their scribes are lost upon them; they receive the grace of God therein in vain.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 8:8
“The pen of the scribes is in vain - The deceitful pen of the scribes. They have written falsely, though they had the truth before them. It is too bold an assertion to say that “the Jews have never falsified the sacred oracles;” they have done it again and again. They have written falsities when they knew they were such.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 8:8
“How - These things considered where is your wisdom? He speaks to the whole body of the people. The Lord - This may have a more special eye to the priests.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
they have rejected the word of the LORD: Matthew Henry names the wise of this verse as the priests and false prophets who claimed the Law. Barnes notes that in the scribes' hands it had become a code of ceremony, and he compares Mark 7:13. Wisdom without the word has nothing left.
Jeremiah 8:9
“They have rejected the word of the Lord - It became in the hands of the Soferim or scribes a mere code of ceremonial observance. Compare Mar 7:13.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:9
“None to any purpose; none that will be found to their praise at the great day, how much soever it is found to their pride now. The pretenders to wisdom, who said, " We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us, " were the priests and the false prophets; with them the prophet here deals plainly. He threatens the judgments of God against them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 8:10-12
I will give their wives to other men: The penalty answers in kind, wives and fields given to others because “from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain”. Verse 11 repeats the charge of 6:14, “saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all”, a wound dressed “with very little care”.
Jeremiah 8:10
“Therefore will I give their wives unto others,.... To strangers, to the Gentiles; than which nothing could be more disagreeable to them, or a sorer punishment, of a temporal one: and their fields to them that shall inherit them; or, to the heirs (i); other and new ones; and who should possess them as if they were the true and rightful heirs of them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:10
“These verses are almost identical with Jer 6:12-15. Jer 8:10 To them that shall inherit them - Rather, “to those that shall take possession of them, i. e., “to conquerors who shall take them by force.”
The healers here are the prophets and priests of verse 10. Jerome applies the verse in a letter to anyone who professes peace in words and overthrows it in deeds. The false word came from those trusted to tell the truth.
Jeremiah 8:11
“But what can I do, I who can only wish for peace and have no power to bring it about? Even though the wish may win its reward with God, its futility must still sadden one who cherishes it. When the apostle said, "as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all," he knew quite well that the realization of peace depends on the consent of two parties. The prophet truly cries, "They say Peace, peace: and yet there is no peace." To overthrow peace by actions while professing it in words is not hard.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTER 82.2patristic
they do not even know how to blush: Jerome reads the first line as a question expecting the answer no, and the Berean follows that reading. The sentence that comes next ties the fall to the time of punishment, the day the LORD visits. Those who could not blush will fall among the fallen.
Jeremiah 8:12
“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? In these verses we have, I. God threatening the destruction of a sinful people.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 8:13-14
There will be no grapes on the vine: The LORD pictures judgment as a failed harvest, “no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the tree, and even the leaf will wither”. The people answer with a call to flee to the fortified cities. The crowd supplies the cause itself, “because we have sinned against the LORD”.
Jeremiah 8:13
“Or, “I will gather and sweep them away, saith Jehovah: there are no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is dry: therefore will I appoint those that shall pass over them.” Judah is a vine which bears no fruit: a tree which makes even no profession of life, for her leaf is dry. Many explain the last words of an army sweeping over the land like a flood.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:13
“It is expounded in the last clause: The things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Note, God's gifts are upon condition, and revocable upon non-performance of the condition. Mercies abused are forfeited, and it is just with God to take the forfeiture.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Is There No Balm in Gilead?
Why are we just sitting here?: Gill, following Kimchi, hears the prophet speaking here in the people's voice. Barnes notes that perish renders a word meaning to be silenced, and that the poisoned water may be drawn from a plant like nightshade. The crowd now admits its sin.
Jeremiah 8:14
“The people rouse one another to exertion. “Why,” they ask, “do we remain here to be overwhelmed?” They are ready now to follow the command given (see the marginal reference), but with the conviction that all hope is over. Let us be silent there - Rather, let us perish there, literally “be put to silence.” Water of gall - i. e., poison. The word rendered “gall” was probably the belladonna, or night-shade, to the “berries” of which the grapes of Israel were compared.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:14
“Why do we sit still?.... In the country, where were barrenness and want of provisions; in the villages and unwalled towns, where they were exposed to the spoils and ravages of the enemy. These words, with what follow, are the words of the prophet, in the language of the Israelites, as Kimchi observes.”
Jeremiah 8:15-17
We hoped for peace, but no good has come: The cry “We hoped for peace, but no good has come” answers the false prophets of 6:14 and 8:11. The invasion is announced by sound, “The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan”. The “vipers that cannot be charmed” picture an enemy immune to the usual remedies.
The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan: Clarke places the army after the battle of Carchemish, when Nebuchadnezzar entered the land from the north in pursuit of the Egyptians. Wesley notes that the prophets speak of a certain thing as already done. The land quakes before the city falls.
Jeremiah 8:16
“The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan - From this to the end of Jer 8:15 is repeated from Babylon to Jerusalem; and it was by this city, after the battle of Carchemish, that Nebuchadnezzar, in pursuing the Egyptians, entered Palestine. The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones - Of his war horses. This is a fine image; so terrible was the united neighing of the cavalry of the Babylonians that the reverberation of the air caused the ground to tremble.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:16
“The snorting - The fury of the Chaldeans march is described by the snorting of their horses, which is a noise they make through their nostrils. Heard - Even to Jerusalem. Have devoured - It is spoken in a prophetical style, who use to express the certainty of what shall be, as if it actually were already.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
vipers that cannot be charmed: Barnes notes how quickly Jeremiah changes his figures, from horses to snakes within a verse. Gill and Barnes both recall the serpents sent among Israel in the wilderness at Numbers 21:5-6. The LORD sends these as well.
Jeremiah 8:17
“I will send - Or, am sending. No prophet changes his metaphors so suddenly as Jeremiah. The invading army is now compared to snakes, whom no charming can soothe, and whose bite is fatal. Compare Num 21:5-6. Cockatrices - “Vipers.” See Isa 11:8 note.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 8:17
“For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,.... The Chaldeans, comparable to these noxious and hurtful creatures, because of the mischief they should do unto them. The Targum is, "for, lo, I will raise up against you people that kill as the destroying serpents.'' These were raised up by the Lord, and sent by him, just as he sent fiery serpents among the Israelites in the wilderness, when they sinned against him; there literally, here metaphorically.”
Jeremiah 8:18-22
my heart is faint within me: The words “My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me” turn the chapter from indictment to the prophet's own grief. The unit closes on the book's best-known line of grief, the question of balm in Gilead, left with no answer in the text.
Jeremiah 8:18
“Rather, “O my comfort in sorrow: my heart faints for me.” The word translated “comfort” is by some supposed to be corrupt. With these mournful ejaculations a new strophe begins, ending with Jer 9:1, in which the prophet mourns over the miserable fate of his countrymen, among whom he had been earnestly laboring, but all in vain.”
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 8:18
“When I would comfort myself against terror,.... Either naturally, by eating and drinking, the necessary and lawful means of refreshment; or spiritually, by reading the word of God, and looking over the promises in it: my heart is faint in me; at the consideration of the calamities which were coming upon his people, and which were made known to him by a spirit of prophecy, of which he had no room to doubt. So the Targum takes them to be the words of the prophet, paraphrasing them, "for them, saith the prophet, my heart grieves.''”
Jeremiah 8:18
“The lamentation of the prophet for the impending calamity of his country. against sorrow--or, with respect to sorrow. MAURER translates, "Oh, my exhilaration as to sorrow!" that is, "Oh, that exhilaration ('comfort', from an Arabic root, to shine as the rising sun) would shine upon me as to my sorrow!" in me--within me.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 8:18
“Death shall not now be, as it always used to be--the repose of the dead. When Job makes his court to the grave it is in hope of this, that there he shall rest with kings and counsellors of the earth; but now the ashes of the dead, even of kings and princes, shall be disturbed, and their bones scattered at the grave's mouth, Ps. cxli.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Two voices meet in the verse. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear the people crying from a distant land, and the question as the LORD's reply that their idols are the cause. Jerome hears the cry as Jerusalem wailing while the enemy enters.
Jeremiah 8:19
“In the latter half of the verse God replies that their own idolatry, not want of faithfulness on His part, is the cause. because of them that dwell in a far country--rather, "from a land of distances," that is, a distant land (Isa 39:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Clarke reads the saying as a proverb of the siege, which lasted two years, as 2 Kings 25:1-3 records. The harvest of grain ended, then the summer fruit of grapes and figs, and the people were still waiting to be saved. Hope failed twice.
Jeremiah 8:20
The harvest is past - The siege of Jerusalem lasted two years; for Nebuchadnezzar came against it in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and the city was taken in the eleventh; see 2Ki 25:1-3. This seems to have been a proverb: “We expected deliverance the first year - none came. We hoped for it the second year - we are disappointed; we are not saved - no deliverance is come.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 8:20
“Note, The salvation of God's church and people often goes on very slowly, and God keeps his people long in the expectation of it, for wise and holy ends. Nay, they stand in their own light, and put a bar in their own door, and are not saved because they are not ready for salvation.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 8:20
“THIS is a very mournful chapter, especially if we include in it, as we rightly should, the first verse of the ninth chapter: "O that my head were waters." The passage is full of lamentation and woe and yet it is somewhat amazing that the chief mourner is not one who was likely to be in trouble. Jeremiah was under the special protection of God and he escaped in the evil day. Even when Nebuchadnezzar was exercising his utmost rage, Jeremiah was in no danger, for the heart of the fierce monarch was kindly towards him.”
I am crushed: The Hebrew plays on one root: for the brokenness of the daughter of the people the speaker is crushed and broken. Gill names three readings of the speaker, God in Jerome, Jerusalem in the Targum and the prophet in Kimchi. Grief darkens the mourner.
Jeremiah 8:21
“For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt,.... These are the words, not of God, as Jerom; nor of Jerusalem, as the Targum; but of the prophet, as Kimchi observes, expressing his sympathy with the people in their affliction: and they may be rendered, "for the breach of the daughter of my people" (o), which was made when the city was broken up and destroyed, Jer 52:7. I am broken; in heart and spirit: I am black; with grief and sorrow.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 8:21
“For the hurt ... hurt - literally, “Because of the breaking ... broken.” These are the words of the prophet, whose heart is crushed by the cry of his countrymen. I am black - Or, I go mourning.”
Jeremiah 8:21
“Jeremiah had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, and, though the truth of his prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the truth of his prophecy was questioned, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the truth of it by the accomplishment of it, preferring the welfare of his country before his own reputation.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Is there no balm in Gilead?: Gill takes the balm to be a resin from pine trees, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that physicians settled in Gilead where it grew. They read the Hebrew for health as the long bandage laid over a wound. The remedy was near and unused.
Jeremiah 8:22
“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 (Jer 46:11; 43:11). health . . . recovered--The Hebrew is literally, "lengthening out . . . gone up"; hence, the long bandage applied to bind up a wound.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 8:22
“The physician and physic were both ready, but the patient was wilful and irregular, would not be tied to rules, but must be humoured. Note, 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, both sufficient, all-sufficient, so that they might have been healed, but would not.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 8:22
“Is there no balm in Gilead?.... Which was famous for it; see Gen 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.”
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome; John Calvin; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.