2 Kings 5

2 brought away captive, etc. This is a suggestive illustration of the social miseries which idolatry had brought upon the Israelites. The subsequent narrative shows how God can honour a humble sufferer by making her, through her very calamity, an instrument for displaying His supremacy and goodness. On the leprosy, see Lev. xiii., xiv.

5 ten talents of silver, etc. Conceiving, no doubt, that his royal recommendation and his valuable presents would ensure the prophet’s attention. It was therefore necessary that he should be taught that he must receive the boon he desired as God’s gift, in God’s way.

changes of raiment. i.e., costly clothing for state or festal occasions.

7 he rent his clothes. The letter was not so unreasonable as Jehoram imagined, as the king of Syria seems to have intended only that his brother monarch should employ the power of the prophet, who would naturally be regarded by heathens as subject to his authority. Jehoram, not thinking of Elisha, sees in the letter of the Syrian king only a pretext for hostilities.

10. Go and wash. The simplicity of the means prescribed shows that it was merely a sign of the cure, and a trial of his obedience.

11. I thought, etc. Naaman expected Elisha to come out to one so high in rank and perform the cure, like the heathen conjurors, by solemn invocation and manipulations. He was therefore to be taught the superiority of the prophet of Jahveh, and to learn that he owed his cure, not to a magical touch, but only to the power of Jahveh.

12. Abana and Pharpar. The modern Barada and Awaj, the waters of which are purer and clearer than those of the Jordan.

13 some great thing. As a long pilgrimage, or the application of a heroic remedy. Naaman is a type of those to whom God’s way of salvation is an offence because so simple. So the “greater things” have often been attempted, but in vain.

14 went he down. That is, from Samaria to the Jordan.

15. Behold, now I know, etc. The cure convinced him of the superiority of the Eternal, both in power and in beneficence. God thus uses the discipline of life to lead men’s hearts to Himself.

16 he refused. Naaman ought, according to Eastern etiquette, to have offered his presents before he made his request; but the peculiarity of the circumstances had prevented this (see ver. 10): and now Elisha might, without any breach of courtesy, decline receiving them. It was more for the honour of God that he should show that, unlike the false prophets, he was actuated by no mercenary or selfish motives.

17 two mules’ burden of earth. It is not easy to say with what particular views Naaman made this request; but in the East, sacred ground is most highly appreciated, and as such Naaman doubtless regarded the land of Israel, and thought that the worship of Israel’s God would be most acceptable on a portion of its soil.

18. In this thing, etc. Naaman seems to have desired to obtain the prophet’s sanction to this act, which he should in future perform only as one of civil service to his king, not of religious worship. There is the suggestion also of an excuse for the bowing down, the outward act being represented as inevitable when the king leaned on his hand. Such plea for outward conformity, without real consent of the heart, has not infrequently been made. The prophet neither approves nor condemns. He leaves it to Naaman’s own conscience (“Go in peace” is simply “Good-bye”).

24 the tower. Heb., “the hill” (R.V.); probably a well-known hill near the prophet’s house.

26. Went not mine heart [with thee]? i.e., “Was I not there in spirit?” thus intimating that the whole affair was known to him.

Is it a time to receive, etc.? The time of his country’s disgrace and defeat.

oliveyards, etc. Gehazi hoped to purchase land with the property which he fraudulently obtained.

27. The leprosy, etc. This punishment was not too severe for the offence, which besides involving covetousness, fraud, and lying, tended to obscure the glory of God’s grace, and to compromise the prophet’s character for disinterestedness. It is affecting to see one who had been so intimately associated with such a man as Elisha manifesting a spirit so opposite: but the case of Judas is strikingly similar.