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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Jeremiah 8 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/jeremiah/8.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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Not even the dead should sleep in peace. With an awful re-iteration of the word, so as to give the emphasis as of the toll of a funeral bell, the prophet heaps clause upon clause, “the <span class= "ital">bones </span>of the kings,” “the <span class= "ital">bones </span>of the princes,” and so on. The motives of this desecration of the sepulchres might be either the wanton ferocity of barbarian conquerors, bent, after the manner of savage warfare, on the mutilation of the dead, or the greed of gain and the expectation of finding concealed treasures. So Hyrcanus, to the great scandal of the Jews, broke open the sepulchre of David (Joseph., <span class= "ital">Ant. </span>vii. 15).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-2.htm">Jeremiah 8:2</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Whom they have loved . . .</span>—Here, again, there is a peculiar characteristic emphasis in the piling up, one upon another, of verbs more or less synonymous. So far as there is a traceable order, it is from the first inward impulse prompting to idolatry to the full development of that feeling in ritual. The sun, moon, and stars shall look, not on crowds of adoring worshippers, but on the carcases of those whose love and worship, transferred from Jehovah to the host of heaven, have brought on them that terrible doom.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-3.htm">Jeremiah 8:3</a></div><div class="verse">And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The residue of them that remain.</span>—Once more the emphasis of re-iteration, “the remnant of a remnant.” The “evil family” is the whole house of Israel, but the words contemplate specially the exile of Judah and Benjamin, rather than that of the ten tribes.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-4.htm">Jeremiah 8:4</a></div><div class="verse">Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Shall he turn.</span>—Better, as both clauses arc indefinite, <span class= "ital">Shall men fall and not arise? Shall one turn away and not return? </span>The appeal is made to the common practice of men. Those who fall struggle to their feet again. One who finds that he has lost his way retraces his steps. In its spiritual aspect the words assert the possibility of repentance in all but every case, however desperate it may seem. St. Paul’s question, “Have they stumbled that they should fall?” (<a href="/romans/11-11.htm" title="I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.">Romans 11:11</a>), expresses something of the same belief in the ultimate triumph of the Divine purpose of good. As yet, that purpose, as the next verse shows, seemed to be thwarted.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-5.htm">Jeremiah 8:5</a></div><div class="verse">Why <i>then</i> is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Slidden back . . . backsliding.</span>—The English fails to give the full emphasis of the re-iteration of the same word as in the previous verse. <span class= "ital">Why doth this people of Jerusalem turn away with a perpetual turning? </span>Here, so far, there was no retracing the evil path which they had chosen.<span class= "bld"><p>I hearkened and heard.</span>—Jehovah himself is introduced here, as probably in the question of the previous verse, as speaking, listening for cries of penitence, and hearing only the words of the evildoers.<p><span class= "bld">Rusheth.</span>—The word is primarily used of the rushing of a torrent (<a href="/isaiah/8-8.htm" title="And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.">Isaiah 8:8</a>; <a href="/isaiah/10-22.htm" title="For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.">Isaiah 10:22</a>; <a href="/isaiah/28-17.htm" title="Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.">Isaiah 28:17</a>), and is applied to the frantic impetuosity with which Israel was rushing into evil, and therefore into the misery that followed it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-7.htm">Jeremiah 8:7</a></div><div class="verse">Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">The stork in the heaven.</span>—The eye of the prophet looked on nature at once with the quick observation of one who is alive to all her changes, and with the profound thought of a poet finding inner meanings in all phenomena. The birds of the air obey their instincts as the law of their nature. Israel, with its fatal gift of freedom, resists that which is its law of life. The stork arrives in Palestine in March, and leaves for the north of Europe in April or May. The Hebrew name, <span class= "ital">chasideh </span>(literally, <span class= "ital">the pious bird</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>indicating its care for its young, is suggestive, as also is the phrase “in the heavens,” as applied to its characteristic mode of flight. The turtle-dove appears at the approach of spring (Song <a href="/songs/2-12.htm" title="The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;">Song of Solomon 2:12</a>).<p><span class= "bld">The crane and the swallow.</span>—In the judgment of Tristram and other modern naturalists, the words should change places, and perhaps “swift” take the place of swallow. The word for “swallow” in <a href="/psalms/84-3.htm" title="Yes, the sparrow has found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.">Psalm 84:3</a> is different. The same combination meets us in <a href="/isaiah/38-14.htm" title="Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: my eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.">Isaiah 38:14</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Judgment.</span>—Better, perhaps, <span class= "ital">ordinance, </span>the appointed rule of life which brute creatures obey and man transgresses.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-8.htm">Jeremiah 8:8</a></div><div class="verse">How do ye say, We <i>are</i> wise, and the law of the LORD <i>is</i> with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he <i>it</i>; the pen of the scribes <i>is</i> in vain.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">How do ye say . . .?</span>—The question is put to priests and prophets, who were the recognised expounders of the Law, but not to them only. The order of scribes, which became so dominant during the exile, was already rising into notice. Shaphan, to whom Hilkiah gave the re-found Book of the Law, belonged to it (<a href="/2_chronicles/34-15.htm" title="And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.">2Chronicles 34:15</a>), and the discovery of that book would naturally give a fresh impetus to their work. They were boasting of their position as the recognised instructors of the people.<p><span class= "bld">Lo, certainly . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">Verily, lo! the lying pen of the scribes hath made it </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., the Law</span>)<span class= "ital"> as a lie. </span>The <span class= "ital">pen </span>was the iron <span class= "ital">stylus </span>made for engraving on stone or metal. The meaning of the clause is clear. The sophistry of men was turning the truth of God into a lie, and emptying it of its noblest meaning. Already, as in other things, so here, in his protest against the teaching of the scribes, with their traditional and misleading casuistry, Jeremiah appears as foreshadowing the prophet of Nazareth (<a href="/context/matthew/5-20.htm" title="For I say to you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.">Matthew 5:20-48</a>; <a href="/context/matthew/23-2.htm" title="Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:">Matthew 23:2-26</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-9.htm">Jeremiah 8:9</a></div><div class="verse">The wise <i>men</i> are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom <i>is</i> in them?</div>(9) <span class= "bld">They have rejected the word of the Lord.</span>—The “wise men” are apparently distinguished from the scribes, probably as students of the ethical or sapiential books of Israel, such as the Proverbs of Solomon, as distinct from the Law. The reign of Hezekiah, it will be remembered, had been memorable for such studies (<a href="/proverbs/25-1.htm" title="These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.">Proverbs 25:1</a>). They, too, kept within the range of traditional maxims and precepts, perhaps with stress on ceremonial rather than moral obligations; and when the word of Jehovah came to them straight from the lips of the prophets, they refused to listen to it, and with that refusal, what wisdom could they claim?<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-10.htm">Jeremiah 8:10</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore will I give their wives unto others, <i>and</i> their fields to them that shall inherit <i>them</i>: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.</div>(10-12) <span class= "bld">Every one from the least . . .</span>—The prophet reproduces, though not verbally, what he had already said in <a href="/context/jeremiah/6-12.htm" title="And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, said the LORD.">Jeremiah 6:12-15</a>. (Comp. Notes there.) It is as though that emphatic condemnation of the sins of the false teachers were burnt into his soul, and could not but find utterance whenever he addressed the people.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-13.htm">Jeremiah 8:13</a></div><div class="verse">I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: <i>there shall be</i> no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and <i>the things that</i> I have given them shall pass away from them.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">I will surely consume.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Gathering, I will sweep away</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>I will gather and sweep away, the two verbs being all but identical in sound and spelling, so that the construction has almost the force of the emphatic Hebrew reduplication.<p><span class= "bld">There shall be.</span>—These words are not in the Hebrew, and the verse describes, not the judgment of Jehovah on the state of Israel, but that state itself. <span class= "ital">There are no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig-tree, the leaf fadeth. </span>The words are figurative rather than literal, after the manner of <a href="/jeremiah/2-21.htm" title="Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?">Jeremiah 2:21</a>; <a href="/isaiah/5-2.htm" title="And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the middle of it, and also made a wine press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.">Isaiah 5:2</a>. Israel is a degenerate vine, a barren fig-tree. Here, again, we find an echo of the teaching of Jeremiah in that of Jesus (<a href="/matthew/21-19.htm" title="And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said to it, Let no fruit grow on you henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.">Matthew 21:19</a>; <a href="/context/luke/13-6.htm" title="He spoke also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.">Luke 13:6-9</a>). In <a href="/micah/7-1.htm" title="Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit.">Micah 7:1</a> we have another example of the same figurative language.<p><span class= "bld">The things that I have given them . . .</span>—The words have been differently rendered, (1) <span class= "ital">I gave them that which they transgress</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the divine law of righteousness; and (2) <span class= "ital">therefore I will appoint those that shall pass over them</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the invaders who shall overrun their country. The former seems on the whole best suited to the context.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-14.htm">Jeremiah 8:14</a></div><div class="verse">Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Why do we sit still? . . .</span>—The cry of the people in answer to the threatening of Jehovah is brought in by the prophet with a startling dramatic vividness. They are ready to flee into the defenced cities, as the prophet had told them in <a href="/jeremiah/4-5.htm" title="Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defended cities.">Jeremiah 4:5</a>, but it is without hope. They are going into the silence as of death, for to that silence Jehovah himself has brought them.<p><span class= "bld">Water of gall.</span>—The idea implied is that of poison as well as bitterness. It is uncertain what the “gall-plant” was; possibly, from its connection with “grapes” or “clusters,” as in <a href="/deuteronomy/32-32.htm" title="For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:">Deuteronomy 32:32</a>, belladonna or colocynth is meant. Others have suggested the poppy, and this is in part confirmed by the narcotic properties implied in <a href="/matthew/27-34.htm" title="They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.">Matthew 27:34</a>. In <a href="/deuteronomy/29-18.htm" title="Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;">Deuteronomy 29:18</a> it is joined with “wormwood.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-15.htm">Jeremiah 8:15</a></div><div class="verse">We looked for peace, but no good <i>came; and</i> for a time of health, and behold trouble!</div>(15) <span class= "bld">A</span> <span class= "bld">time of health . . .</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">healing, </span>or, following another etymology, <span class= "ital">a time of quietness, and behold alarm. </span>“Peace,” in the first clause, is used in its wider sense as including all forms of good.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-16.htm">Jeremiah 8:16</a></div><div class="verse">The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Heard from Dan.</span>—As in <a href="/jeremiah/4-13.htm" title="Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are spoiled.">Jeremiah 4:13</a>, the invasion by an army of which cavalry and war chariots formed the most terrible contingent was a special terror to Israelites. Even at Dan, the northern boundary of Palestine (see Note on <a href="/jeremiah/4-15.htm" title="For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes affliction from mount Ephraim.">Jeremiah 4:15</a>), there was a sound of terror in the very snortings of the horses. The patristic interpretation that the prophet indicates the coming of Antichrist from the tribe deserves a passing notice as one of the eccentricities of exegesis.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-17.htm">Jeremiah 8:17</a></div><div class="verse">For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which <i>will</i> not <i>be</i> charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Serpents, cockatrices.</span>—There is a sudden change of figure, one new image of terror starting from the history of the fiery serpents of <a href="/numbers/21-6.htm" title="And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.">Numbers 21:6</a>, or, possibly, from the connection of Dan with the “serpent” and “adder” in <a href="/genesis/49-17.htm" title="Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that bites the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.">Genesis 49:17</a>. It is not easy to identify the genus and species of the serpents of the Bible. Here the two words are in apposition. “Cockatrice,” however, cannot be right, that name belonging, as an English word, to legendary zoology. The Vulg. gives “basilisk.” In <a href="/proverbs/23-32.htm" title="At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.">Proverbs 23:32</a> it is translated by “adder.” In any case it implies a hissing venomous snake (probably the <span class= "ital">cerastes </span>or <span class= "ital">serpens regulus</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>and the symbolism which identified it with the Assyrian or Chaldæan power had already appeared in <a href="/isaiah/14-29.htm" title="Rejoice not you, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote you is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.">Isaiah 14:29</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Which will not be charmed.</span>—The figure is that of <a href="/context/psalms/58-4.htm" title="Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear;">Psalm 58:4-5</a>. The “deaf adder” that “refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer” represents an implacable enemy waging a pitiless war. Serpent-charming, as in the case of the Egyptian sorcerers (<a href="/exodus/7-11.htm" title="Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.">Exodus 7:11</a>), seems to have been from a very early time, as it is now, both in Egypt and India, one of the most prominent features of the natural magic of the East.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-18.htm">Jeremiah 8:18</a></div><div class="verse"><i>When</i> I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart <i>is</i> faint in me.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">When I would comfort myself . . .</span>—The word translated <span class= "ital">comfort </span>is not found elsewhere, and has been very differently understood. Taking the words as spoken after a pause, they come as a cry of sorrow following the proclamation of the judgment of Jehovah, <span class= "ital">Ah, my comfort against sorrow! </span>(mourning for it as dead and gone); <span class= "ital">my heart is sick within me. </span>The latter phrase is the same as in <a href="/isaiah/1-5.htm" title="Why should you be stricken any more? you will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.">Isaiah 1:5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-19.htm">Jeremiah 8:19</a></div><div class="verse">Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: <i>Is</i> not the LORD in Zion? <i>is</i> not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, <i>and</i> with strange vanities?</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Because of them that dwell . . .</span>—The verse should read thus: <span class= "ital">Behold, the voice of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from the land of those that are far off. </span>The prophet, dramatising the future, as before, in <a href="/jeremiah/8-14.htm" title="Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defended cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.">Jeremiah 8:14</a>, hears the cry of the exiles in a far-off land, and that which they ask is this—“Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her?” That question is asked half in despair, and half in murmuring complaint. But Jehovah himself returns the answer, and it comes in the form of another question, “Why have they provoked me to anger . . .?” They had forsaken Him before. He forsook them now and left them, for a time, to their own ways.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-20.htm">Jeremiah 8:20</a></div><div class="verse">The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">The harvest is past . . .</span>—The question of Jehovah, admitting of no answer but a confession of guilt, is met by another cry of despair from the sufferers of the future. They are as men in a year of famine—“The harvest is past,” and there has been no crop for men to reap.<p><span class= "bld">Summer.</span>—In <a href="/isaiah/16-9.htm" title="Therefore I will mourn with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for your summer fruits and for your harvest is fallen.">Isaiah 16:9</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/40-10.htm" title="As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to serve the Chaldeans, which will come to us: but you, gather you wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.">Jeremiah 40:10</a>, and elsewhere, the word is rendered by “summer fruits.” “The summer” (better, <span class= "ital">the fruit-gathering</span>) is ended, and yet they are not saved from misery and death. All has failed alike. The whole formula had probably become proverbial for extremest misery. It is well to remember that the barley-harvest coincided with the Passover, the wheat-harvest with Pentecost, the fruit-gathering with the autumn Feast of Tabernacles.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-21.htm">Jeremiah 8:21</a></div><div class="verse">For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">For the hurt . . .</span>—Now the prophet again speaks in his own person. He is <span class= "ital">crushed </span>in that <span class= "ital">crushing </span>of his people. His face is <span class= "ital">darkened, </span>as one that mourns. (Comp. <a href="/psalms/38-6.htm" title="I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.">Psalm 38:6</a>; <a href="/joshua/5-11.htm" title="And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.">Joshua 5:11</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/8-22.htm">Jeremiah 8:22</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Is there</i> no balm in Gilead; <i>is there</i> no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Is there no balm in Gilead . . .?</span>—The resinous gums of Gilead, identified by some naturalists with those of the terebinth, by others with mastich, the gum of the <span class= "ital">Pistaccia lentiscus, </span>were prominent in the pharmacopœia of Israel, and were exported to Egypt for the embalmment of the dead (<a href="/genesis/37-25.htm" title="And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.">Genesis 37:25</a>; <a href="/genesis/43-11.htm" title="And their father Israel said to them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds:">Genesis 43:11</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/46-11.htm" title="Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shall you use many medicines; for you shall not be cured.">Jeremiah 46:11</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/51-8.htm" title="Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.">Jeremiah 51:8</a>). 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. <span class= "ital">Why has no balsam-plaister been laid on the daughter of my people? </span>Why so little result from the means which Jehovah has provided?” The imagery re-appears in <a href="/jeremiah/46-11.htm" title="Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shall you use many medicines; for you shall not be cured.">Jeremiah 46:11</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/51-8.htm" title="Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.">Jeremiah 51:8</a>. The balm which was grown at Jericho under the Roman Empire (Tac, <span class= "ital">Hist. v.</span> 6; Plin., <span class= "ital">Nat. Hist. xii.</span> 25), and was traditionally reported to have been brought by the Queen of Sheba, was probably <span class= "ital">the Amyris Opobalsamum, </span>now cultivated at Mecca, which requires a more tropical climate than that of Gilead. Wyclif’s version, “Is there no <span class= "ital">triacle </span>in Gilead?” may be noted as illustrating the history of a word now obsolete. “Triacle” was the English form of <span class= "ital">theriacum, </span>the mediæval panacea for all wounds, and specially for the bites of serpents and venomous beasts.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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