2 Kings 5:1-14

Naaman Is Healed

1 Now ¹Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected *, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper.

2 Now the Arameans had gone out ²in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman's wife.

3 She said to her mistress, "I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy."

4 Naaman went in and told his master, saying, "Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel."

5 Then the king of Aram said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." He departed and ³took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten ⁴changes of clothes.

6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, "And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy."

7 When the king of Israel read the letter, ⁵he tore his clothes and said, "⁶Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But ⁷consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me."

8 It happened when Elisha ⁸the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."

9 So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha.

10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "⁹Go 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 ¹⁰went away in a rage.

13 ¹¹Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, "¹²My 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 ¹³his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and ¹⁴he was clean.

2 Kings 5:1-14 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

• 1. Luke 4:27
• 2. 2 Kings 6:23; 2 Kings 13:20
• 3. 1 Samuel 9:7; 2 Kings 4:42
• 4. Judges 14:12; 2 Kings 5:22, 23
• 5. Genesis 37:29
• 6. Genesis 30:2; 1 Samuel 2:6
• 7. 1 Kings 20:7; Luke 11:54
• 8. 1 Kings 12:22
• 9. John 9:7
• 10. Proverbs 14:17; Proverbs 16:32; Proverbs 19:11
• 11. 1 Samuel 28:23
• 12. 2 Kings 2:12; 2 Kings 6:21; 2 Kings 8:9
• 13. 2 Kings 5:10; Job 33:25
• 14. Luke 4:27; Luke 5:13

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "before"
• [b]. Lit "was before"
• [c]. Lit "before"
• [d]. Lit "He"
• [e]. Lit "enter"
• [f]. Lit "an occasion"
• [g]. Lit "said"
• [h]. Another reading is "Amanah"