Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 30:13

"There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines." — Jeremiah 30:13 (ASV)

There is none to plead thy cause... — These words bring before us two images of extreme misery: the criminal who, standing before the dread judgment seat, has no advocate, and the plague-stricken sufferer who has no physician.

The word here is the one used for Josiah in Jeremiah 22:16. In that passage, and commonly elsewhere, it is translated “judge.”

The second part of the sentence is better rendered, with different punctuation, as: Thou hast no healing medicines for binding up. This rendering continues the symbolism of Jeremiah 30:12 and reproduces that of Isaiah 1:6.

In those verses, as well as in Isaiah 38:21, Hosea 5:13, and probably in Proverbs 3:8, we find indications of the prominence given to external applications—such as plasters, bandages, and the like—in the Eastern treatment of disease.