Jeremiah 8:22

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

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.

Gilead was eminent for balm, , taken for rosin or turpentine, which is a kind of more liquid rosin, and either flows or drops from certain trees of its own accord, or their juice flows from several holes pierced into them, as from the pine, cedar, cypress, or terebinth tree. Heb. tseri; Gr. rhtinh, from rew, to flow, or run; Lat. resina; Engl. rosin. A near affinity of the words in each language, the nature whereof is to dissolve hardness, to clear and close up wounds. Physician, or chirurgeon: probably in a country where were such plenty of remedies there could not want artists, whereby their cures might be facilitated, by means of which the Gileadites and Arabians did excel there. Recovered, Heb. gone up; the like expression , the work was perfected; Heb. the healing went up upon the work; and so : the prophet expresseth his grievous complaint by way of admiration, by a metaphor, implying the inveteracy and obstinacy of their hearts, that either would not come to the physician, or that they should be thus incurable, where they wanted not for prophets and teachers, or for any spiritual means, flowing down daily upon them; can Jerusalem and Judea be without spiritual physicians? Some understand it by way of sarcasm: q.d. Where are your medicines, your arms, your counsels, your confederates? And where are your physicians, your princes and priests, that promised you relief? Without God you see no help in any means. But the former more natural, and agrees best with the beginning of the next chapter.

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?Ver. 22. Is there no balm in Gilead?] Yes, surely, there or nowhere; in Gilead grew a balsam, good to make salves for all sores, they say. This balsam grew there only in two large gardens, which belonged to the king. The nature of the tree could not abide iron, but presently died if cut never so small a depth; they used, therefore, glass, bone knives, sharp stones, to get the gum out of the tree. Is there no physician there?] Or, No surgeon there, where this medicinal simple so aboundeth but this people’ s sorrow is immedicable, their disease desperate - docta plus valet arte malum. The learned is more strong by the knowledge of evil. The balm of the soul is prayer, saith the Chaldee paraphrast; is repentance, saith Jerome; is Christ applied by faith, say we. Sanguis medici est curatio phrenetici. The blood of the doctor is the cure of the mad. To this almighty Physician no disease can be incurable.

(22) Is there no balm in Gilead . . .?—The resinous gums of Gilead, identified by some naturalists with those of the terebinth, by others with mastich, the gum of the Pistaccia lentiscus, were prominent in the pharmacopœia of Israel, and were exported to Egypt for the embalmment of the dead (Genesis 37:25; Genesis 43:11; Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 51:8). A plaister of such gums was the received prescription for healing a wound. The question of the prophet is therefore a parable. “Are there no means of healing, no healer to apply them, for the spiritual wounds of Israel? The prophets were her physicians, repentance and righteousness were her balm of Gilead. Why has no balsam-plaister been laid on the daughter of my people? Why so little result from the means which Jehovah has provided?” The imagery re-appears in Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 51:8. The balm which was grown at Jericho under the Roman Empire (Tac, Hist. v. 6; Plin., Nat. Hist. xii. 25), and was traditionally reported to have been brought by the Queen of Sheba, was probably the Amyris Opobalsamum, now cultivated at Mecca, which requires a more tropical climate than that of Gilead. Wyclif’s version, “Is there no triacle in Gilead?” may be noted as illustrating the history of a word now obsolete. “Triacle” was the English form of theriacum, the mediæval panacea for all wounds, and specially for the bites of serpents and venomous beasts.

Verse 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 the prophet to repent and turn to God: they refuse, and sin on. Destruction is come upon them. Might they not have avoided it? Yes. Was it the fault of God? No. Did he not send his prophets with the richest offers of mercy? Did he not give them time, the best instructions, and the most effectual means of returning to him? Has not mercy, the heavenly balm, been ever at hand? And has not GOD, the great Physician, been ever ready to apply it? Yes. Why then are they not converted and healed? Because they would not apply to the Divine Physician, nor receive the only remedy by which they could be spiritually healed. They, then, that sin against the only remedy must perish, because they might have had it, but would not. It is not because there is a deficiency of grace, nor of the means of grace, that men are not saved; but because they either make no use, or a bad use, of them. Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, has tasted death for every man; but few are saved, because they WILL NOT come unto him that they may have life. In my old MS. Bible the text is rendered thus: - Whether gumm is not in Galaad? Or a leche is not there? Why than the hid wounde of the daughter of my peple is not alle helid? How shall they escape who neglect so great a salvation? Reader, lay this to heart; and, while there is time, apply heartily to the great Physician for thy cure.

22. balm] For balsam (balm) as a product of Gilead, see Genesis 37:25 and cp. Genesis 43:11; Ezekiel 27:17. As, however, some doubt has been thrown on Gilead as a place producing balsam, it has been suggested (so Pe.) that the meaning is mastic tree resin, which was obtained there. Gilead] a mountainous part of Palestine, east of the Jordan, south of Bashan, and north of Moab. is there no physician there?] Is there no priest or prophet, who can heal the sin of Israel or apply a remedy? the health … recovered] rather, the fresh flesh of the daughter of my people come up (upon her), i.e. gradually forming by cicatrisation over a wound. See Dr., p. 352.

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?

22. Balm in Gilead — One of the precious productions of Palestine. See Genesis 43:11; Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 51:8, etc., etc. There — Where the medicine is, there should be the skill for its use.