Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.
Parallel translations
- WEB Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt. In vain do you use many medicines. There is no healing for you.
- BSB Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
- NKJV “Goup to Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; In vain you will use many medicines; You shall not be cured.
- NASB Go up to Gilead and obtain balm, Virgin daughter of Egypt! You have used many remedies in vain; There is no healing for you.
- NLT “Go up to Gilead to get medicine, O virgin daughter of Egypt! But your many treatments will bring you no healing.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Egypt is told to seek balm in Gilead, but in vain, for there is no healing for her. Her wound from defeat is incurable.
Overview
The oracle mockingly directs the 'virgin daughter of Egypt' to seek the famed healing balm of Gilead, yet declares no remedy will work. Egypt's judgment is beyond human cure. This image of an incurable wound underscores that no earthly medicine can heal what God has judged, pointing to the deeper truth that only the Great Physician, Christ, can heal the wound of sin.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Mic 1:9For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
- Nah 3:19There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
- Luke 8:43–44And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
- Isa 47:1Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
- Jer 14:17Therefore thou shalt say this word unto them; Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
- Jer 51:8Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
- Matt 5:26Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
- Jer 30:12–15For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.
- Ezek 30:21–25Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.
- Ezek 27:17Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants: they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
- Gen 37:25And 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 spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
- Gen 43:11And their father Israel said unto 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:
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 46:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.