“Go up to Gilead to get medicine, O virgin daughter of Egypt! But your many treatments will bring you no healing.
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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
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 isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Mic 1:9For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
- Nah 3:19There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?
- Luke 8:43–44A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,
- Isa 47:1“Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
- Jer 14:17“You shall say this word to them, “‘Let my 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 wound.
- Jer 51:8Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed! Wail for her! Take balm for her pain. Perhaps she may be healed.
- Matt 5:26Most certainly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last penny.
- Jer 30:12–15For Yahweh says, “Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous.
- Ezek 30:21–25Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword.
- Ezek 27:17Judah, and the land of Israel, they were your traffickers: they traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, and confections, and honey, and oil, and balm.
- Gen 37:25They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
- Gen 43:11Their father, Israel, said to them, “If it must be so, then do this. Take from the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, 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.