a balm in Gilead
A source of comfort, healing, or consolation for suffering.
“Her kind words were a balm in Gilead after a hard day.”
“In the worst weeks of his recovery, the letters from old friends were a balm in Gilead.”
“The little support group, meeting in a borrowed church hall on Thursday nights, became a balm in Gilead for people who had spent months being told to be strong and had found nowhere else they were allowed simply to grieve.”
The phrase comes from Jeremiah 8:22, where the prophet, grieving over his stricken people, asks: is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Gilead was a region east of the Jordan famous for a fragrant medicinal resin, so a real remedy stands behind the question.
Jeremiah asks it as an anguished, near-rhetorical lament — the cure exists, so why is his people not healed? — but later readers, especially in the African American spiritual tradition, turned the question into an affirmation: there is a balm in Gilead.
In English a balm in Gilead now names any genuine source of comfort or healing for pain or sorrow, the phrase having travelled from Jeremiah's despairing question to a settled expression of hope.
The rise and fall of kings and the warnings of the prophets.
- 01
David and Goliath (idiom)
A contest in which a much weaker underdog faces a far stronger opponent.
- 02
the writing on the wall (idiom)
A clear sign that something, especially failure or disaster, is on its way.
- 03
feet of clay (idiom)
In someone apparently strong and without failings, a hidden weakness which could lead to downfall.
- 04
a drop in the bucket (idiom)
A quantity so small it is negligible next to what is actually needed.
- 05
a leopard cannot change its spots (idiom)
People rarely change their fundamental nature, however much they may seem to.
- 06
how the mighty have fallen (idiom)
A remark on the dramatic downfall of someone once powerful or admired.
Last updated July 29, 2026