2 Kings 5

Chap. V. Ver. 1-16. Naaman cured of his leprosy.—1. From how small circumstances do great events sometimes arise? In some of the predatory excursions of the Syrians, either Naaman himself, or one of his captains, had taken captive a little girl, who was given to Naaman’s wife as a domestic slave, from whom nothing farther is expected than manual service: this child, however, proves to her master the greatest blessing of his life. 2. No rank in society can exempt us from the most distressing circumstances to which sin has subjected human nature. Naaman was a mighty man, and honourable, and a great man with his master; “but he was a leper,” afflicted with one of the most loathsome and disgusting disorders that our “flesh is heir to.”

3. God hath so constructed society, that the lowest may render the most important services to the highest and the greatest—a little captive maid is the first means of Naaman’s cure. She was taken into the kitchen, and, while employed in waiting on her mistress, she hears her, perhaps, lament the painful circumstances of the general-in-chief, and in her simplicity she says, “Would God my lord were with the prophet in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy!” One of the servants probably went and told my lord Naaman, Naaman told the king his master, and Ben-hadad writes to the king of Israel on his behalf. 4. It is by a divine interposition, however, that our conflicting circumstances are harmonized and made productive of the great designs of Providence. Every thing seems now in a train for Naaman’s cure; but the king of Israel is offended, and thinks the letter of the king of Syria was only designed to pick a quarrel. A prophet must therefore interfere, to harmonize these hostile feelings. “Let him come now to me (Elisha), and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman now comes with great pomp and splendour, expecting, as he confesses, that the prophet would come out to meet him, and perform some solemn ceremony; instead of which, he only sends out a message by his servant—“Go, and wash in Jordan seven times.” Naaman, in his turn, is wroth also at being treated with such disrespect: “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? So he turned and went away in a rage.” “But a soft answer turneth away wrath:” and “a word spoken in due season, how good is it?” His servants (wiser than their master) venture to whisper in his ear—“My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?” The tempest is instantly a calm: he washes in Jordan and is clean. The great man comes now back to the prophet in a very different temper: cured of his leprosy, and overwhelmed with astonishment and gratitude, he exclaims, “Behold! now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel;” and he is grateful not only to the author, but to the instrument, of his cure; and he adds, “Now, therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant;” and he urged him, but he refused. It may be said, that the prophets received presents in other instances, and his gift is here offered under the delicate terms of “a blessing;” but the prophet had substantial grounds for his refusal, as his servant must have had good reason to conclude.

Ver. 17—27. Naaman’s request.—Gehazi’s falsehood and punishment.—Finding the waters of Israel endowed with so miraculous a power, this great man seems to imagine that the earth might be equally sacred, and therefore requests two mules’ load of it; but for what purpose? It is generally supposed, that it was for the erection of an altar with holy earth; for it might not be unnatural for a heathen to suppose, that there was some peculiar sanctity both in the earth and water of Judea. He might also understand, by means of the little Hebrew maid, or otherwise, that the God of Israel preferred an altar of earth, or unwrought stone. ((Exodus 20:24-25).) He therefore wished to erect to the God of Israel, whom he had determined to serve in future, such an altar as might be most acceptable.

The answer to this requirement, however, is not so clear. The next request is still more difficult of interpretation. Our translators, following the ancient versions, represent Naaman as soliciting an indulgence in practising the outward rites of idolatry, so far as necessary to please his royal master and retain his place at court; and the answer of the prophet, “Go in peace,” if it be supposed to sanction such prevarication, seems of very dangerous tendency. Dr. Lightfoot, therefore, and other eminent Hebraists, render the words in the past tense. “In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master hath gone into the house (or temple) of Rimmon to worship, and he leaned on my hand, and I bowed myself in the house of Rimmon; when I bowed myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing! And he said unto him, Go in peace.” This appears perfectly consistent: he confesses that he was an idolater, and seems to hint that he had been such, not so much from principle as from policy. Now, however, he is convinced that there was “no God in all the earth but in Israel;” and therefore declares his determination, in future, to worship him alone. Well might the prophet then say, “Go in peace,” and thus dismiss him with a blessing.—But Gehazi’s conduct admits of no apology. He had seen his master’s disinterested conduct; but, instead of admiring, he murmurs at it; “My master hath spared this Syrian,” but I will get something from him. He therefore follows him with a lie in his mouth, and has another ready for his master in return.

It seems extraordinary, however, that he should attempt to impose upon the prophet: but it appears that he was taken by surprise, and knew not what to say. How true is it, that “the love of money is the root of all evil!”—“Covetousness, (says Bishop Hall,) never lodged in the heart alone: if it find not, it will breed wickedness. What a mint of fraud is there in a worldly breast! How readily can it coin subtle falsehood for an advantage!” This hypocritical servant, however, had his reward. “The leprosy of Naaman (says the prophet) shall cleave to thee, and unto thy seed for ever:” and “he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.” Thus ended his dream of wealth and riches.

Notes on the verses

Chap. V. Ver. 1. Naaman, captain of the host.—Of this Naaman we have no other account: but he is referred to by our Lord, (Luke 4:27)——King of Syria.—This must have been Ben-hadad; and the king of Israel, his contemporary, Jehoram.—Honourable.—Elevated in the sight of his master——Deliverance.—From this expression some of the Rabbins have inferred, that he was the man who drew the bow at a venture, by which Ahab was slain; (1 Kings 22:34).—He was a leper.—This was a common disease in Syria, and they had not the wholesome regulations of the Mosaic law. Naaman’s disorder appears to have now grown desperate. __ $ > iat ein) Ver. 3. Would God, &c.—The name of God is not in the original, which simply reads, “Would that,” or, I wish, &c.:: Ver. 4. And one went in.—The LXX. read, “And she went in;” i.e. Naaman’s wife. The Vulgate, “Naaman went in and told his lord,” i.e. the king; which best agrees with what follows. A Ver. 5. Ten talents.—The whole of the present is estimated at about Ver. 6. That thou mayest recover him.—It should seem as if either the king of Syria misunderstood the business, or supposed that the prophet was at the king’s command. Ver. 11. And strike his hand—i.e. rub the part affected with some choice oil, or ointment. Ver. 12. Abana and Pharpar.—This river is evidently Barrada, or Barda, as the Arabic renders, the Chrysorrhoas of the Greeks, which taking its rise in Antilibanus, runs eastward towards Damascus, where it is divided into three streams, one of which passes through the city, and the other two through the gardens; which reuniting at the east of the city, forms a lake about five or six leagues to the south-east, called Bekairat el Marj, or, Lake of the Meadow.

Pharpar was probably one of the branches.—Bagster. Ver. 17. Two mules’ burden of earth.—It seems improper to conceal, that very different views of these words have been taken by different commentators. Dr Clarke supposes, that by earth, the Syrian here meant the present which he had brought, of silver and gold, which are called clay, and mire, (Zechariah 9:3). This he requests may be given, not to himself, but to Gehazi, the prophet’s servant. But the late Taylor, in his Fragments to Calmet, though he takes the term earth literally, thinks that the earth was not meant for an altar, but for purposes of ablution; and he cites evidence to prove that the Arabians, when they could not get water, performed their ablutions with sand, or dry earth, and sometimes by rubbing their hands and arms upon a stone.

Both these ideas are ingenious, but do not, we conceive, agree with Ver. 18. The house (or temple) of Rimmon.—Rimmon signifies the high one, or the highest, which some refer to the sun, and others to the planet Saturn, as ultimately worshipped by the Syrians. Rimmon also signifies the pomegranate; and the learned Bryant mentions a figure of Zeus (or Jupiter) Casius, at Pelusium, in Egypt, holding this mysterious emblem of the pomegra- Ver. 19. A little way.—See Margin: but means rather, “a good way;” (Habakkuk 2:6) and dust some considerable distance—Parkhurst “about a French mile.”—Ges: