2 Kings 5:10-20

10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "1Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean."
11 But Naaman was furious and went away and said, "Behold, I thought, 'He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.'
12 "Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and 2went away in a rage.
13 3Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "4My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much * more * then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean '?"
14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and 5his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and 6he was clean.

Gehazi's Greed

15 When he returned to the man of God with all his company, and came and stood before him, he said, "Behold now, 7I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; so please 8take a present from your servant now."
16 But he said, "9As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, 10I will take nothing." And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
17 Naaman said, "If not, please let your servant at least be given two mules' load of 11earth; for your servant will no longer offer burnt offering nor will he sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD.
18 "In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and 12he leans on my hand and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter."
19 He said to him, "13Go in peace." So he departed from him some distance *.
20 But 14Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, thought, "Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Aramean, by not receiving from his hands what he brought. 15As the LORD lives, I will run after him and take something from him."

2 Kings 5:10-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 5

This chapter gives an account of the leprosy of Naaman the Syrian, and of the cure of it by Elisha; how he came to hear of him, and the recommendation he had from the king of Syria to the king of Israel, 2Ki 5:1-8, who, coming to Elisha's house, was ordered to dip himself seven times in Jordan, which made him depart in wrath; but one of his servants persuaded him to do it, and he did, and was cured, 2Ki 5:9-14, upon which he returned to Elisha, and offered him a present, which he refused, 2Ki 5:15-19 but Gehazi, his servant, ran after him with a lie in his mouth, and obtained it, and returned to his master with another, for which he was smitten with the leprosy of Naaman, 2Ki 5:20-27.

Cross References 15

  • 1. John 9:7
  • 2. Proverbs 14:17; Proverbs 16:32; Proverbs 19:11
  • 3. 1 Samuel 28:23
  • 4. 2 Kings 2:12; 2 Kings 6:21; 2 Kings 8:9
  • 5. 2 Kings 5:10; Job 33:25
  • 6. Luke 4:27; Luke 5:13
  • 7. Joshua 2:11; 1 Samuel 17:46, 47; 2 Kings 5:8
  • 8. 1 Samuel 25:27
  • 9. 2 Kings 3:14
  • 10. Genesis 14:22, 23; 2 Kings 5:20, 26
  • 11. Exodus 20:24
  • 12. 2 Kings 7:2, 17
  • 13. Exodus 4:18; 1 Samuel 1:17; Mark 5:34
  • 14. 2 Kin 4:12, 31, 36
  • 15. Exodus 20:7; 2 Kings 6:31

Footnotes 6

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