Bible Strands
Jeremiah 46:11
Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers God’s judgment against Egypt during a military campaign near the Euphrates. The address targets the Egyptian leadership and its national identity at the moment of impending defeat.
The words — בְּתוּלַת (be.tu.Lat) means virgin, and לַ/שָּוְא (la./shaV) literally means for vanity or in vain. The text commands the Virgin Daughter of Egypt to seek balm in Gilead but declares her repeated remedies futile.
The thread — The Virgin Daughter motif appears in Isaiah 47:1 addressing Babylon, while the Gilead balm and incurable wound imagery recur in Jeremiah 8:22 and Micah 1:9. These references establish a prophetic pattern of nations facing judgment despite seeking human or geographical remedies.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge that political strategy and medical intervention cannot override divine judgment. It asks for the plain recognition that reliance on human solutions fails when confronting sovereign divine action.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
- Micah 1:9 For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself.
- Isaiah 47:1 “Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
- Jeremiah 14:17 You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.
- Nahum 3:19 There is no healing for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news of you applaud your downfall, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?
- Luke 8:43 including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
- Genesis 37:25 And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.
- Genesis 43:11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.
- Jeremiah 30:12 For this is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.
- Jeremiah 51:8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.