Idiom
a balm in Gilead
Meaning
A source of comfort, healing, or consolation for suffering.
Examples
“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.”
Examples
simple
“Her kind words were a balm in Gilead after a hard day.”
contextual
“In the worst weeks of his recovery, the letters from old friends were a balm in Gilead.”
complex
“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.”
Origin
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.
Stories
Kings & Prophets · See all Biblical origin
The rise and fall of kings and the warnings of the prophets.
David and Goliath — A contest in which a much weaker underdog faces a far stronger opponent.
the writing on the wall — A clear sign that something, especially failure or disaster, is on its way.
feet of clay — In someone apparently strong and without failings, a hidden weakness which could lead to downfall.
a drop in the bucket — A quantity so small it is negligible next to what is actually needed.
a leopard cannot change its spots — People rarely change their fundamental nature, however much they may seem to.
how the mighty have fallen — A remark on the dramatic downfall of someone once powerful or admired.
- Level
- C1 · Advanced
- Updated