英语词汇no balm in gilead的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

no balm in Gilead. “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” Jeremiah laments in the King James Version of the Bible. His words, from Jer. 8:22, give us the common ex- pression meaning there is no consolation, no remedy. Balm is simply a shortening of balsam, a resinous gum long noted for its healing and soothing properties. But the Hebrew word tsori, rendered as balm in the King James Version, really means resin, probably the resin yielded by the mastic tree, another ingredi- ent in many ancient remedies. So Jeremiah should literally be saying “Is there no resin in Gilead?” or “Is there no mastic in Gilead?” Not knowing exactly what substance Jeremiah re- ferred to caused early translators of the Bible a lot of trouble. John Wycliffe and others used the word gumme or resin in the phrase, and in the so-called Bishops’ Bible (1568) the transla- tors had Jeremiah say “Is there no treacle in Gilead?” The bish- ops who did this translation were using treacle in its early sense of a salve, but later generations knew the substance as molasses or any sickeningly sweet substance and humorously referred to the Bishops’ Bible as the Treacle Bible. See jeremiad.

词汇	no balm in gilead
词源	no balm in Gilead. “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” Jeremiah laments in the King James Version of the Bible. His words, from Jer. 8:22, give us the common ex- pression meaning there is no consolation, no remedy. Balm is simply a shortening of balsam, a resinous gum long noted for its healing and soothing properties. But the Hebrew word tsori, rendered as balm in the King James Version, really means resin, probably the resin yielded by the mastic tree, another ingredi- ent in many ancient remedies. So Jeremiah should literally be saying “Is there no resin in Gilead?” or “Is there no mastic in Gilead?” Not knowing exactly what substance Jeremiah re- ferred to caused early translators of the Bible a lot of trouble. John Wycliffe and others used the word gumme or resin in the phrase, and in the so-called Bishops’ Bible (1568) the transla- tors had Jeremiah say “Is there no treacle in Gilead?” The bish- ops who did this translation were using treacle in its early sense of a salve, but later generations knew the substance as molasses or any sickeningly sweet substance and humorously referred to the Bishops’ Bible as the Treacle Bible. See jeremiad.
随便看	easy as taking candy from a baby easy come easy go easy does it easy rider easy street eat crow eat dog for another eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die eat humble pie eating rat eatin’ a green -simmon eat me out of house and home eat one-s hat eat one-s words eat something with one toe in the fire eat the yank way eat’m and beat’m eavesdropper eavestrough ebb tide ecce homo eccentric ecdysiast echelon echo