Jeremiah 8:21

"For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?"

From these verses, and especially from the very next verse as it appears in the KJV (Jeremiah 9:1), "A tragic misrepresentation of Jeremiah is based."[23] Green defended this observation as follows:

"Jeremiah has been termed "the weeping prophet." This is one of ironies of Biblical interpretation; and one should avoid this gross error. We may call him the reluctant prophet, or the praying prophet, or the suffering prophet, or the preaching prophet, but not the weeping prophet. He never wasted time weeping when there was work to be done. He loved greatly and suffered deeply; and he was one of the greatest minds and spirits of all time."

Jeremiah 8:22 in our American Standard Version does not reveal the meaning as does the KJV, which indicates that the Hebrew text merely has, "No balm in Gilead; no physician there!" And, the interpretation of Matthew Henry fits such a rendition. "There is no balm in Gilead that can cure the disease of sin; and there is no physician there who can heal a nation in rebellion against the Lord."[24] However, Matthew Henry pointed out that it is also possible to understand the verse as rendered in our version (American Standard Version), with the meaning: certainly, there is balm in Gilead, and yes, there is a true physician there; but all of the blame for Israel's sorrows must rest upon themselves for not applying the wonderful remedy which God has provided.

It is of great interest that the "balm in Gilead" has come to stand as a metaphor of the salvation in Jesus Christ, as memorialized in many hymns and anthems. "There is a balm in Gilead, that heals the sin-sick soul. There is a balm in Gilead that makes the sinner whole"!