2 Kings 5:1-14

Naaman Healed of Leprosy

1 ¹Naaman, ²commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.^[a]

2 Now the Syrians on ³one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife.

3 She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy."

4 So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel."

5 And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel."So he went, ⁴taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels^[b] of gold, and ten ⁵changes of clothing.

6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."

7 And when the king of Israel read the letter, ⁶he tore his clothes and said, ⁷"Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only ⁸consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."

8 But when Elisha the ⁹man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."

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

10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, ¹⁰"Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean."

11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.

12 Are not Abana^[c] and Pharpar, the rivers of ¹¹Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.

13 But his servants came near and said to him, ¹²"My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said 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, ¹³and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, ¹⁴and he was clean.

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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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. Luke 4:27
2. [2 Kings 4:13]
3. 2 Kings 6:23
4. [2 Kings 4:42; 2 Kings 8:8, 9; 1 Samuel 9:7]
5. ver. 22, 23; [Judges 14:12]
6. See Genesis 44:13
7. [Genesis 30:2; Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6]
8. [1 Kings 20:7]
9. See Deuteronomy 33:1
10. [John 9:7]
11. [1 Kings 11:24]
12. [2 Kings 6:21; 2 Kings 8:9; Judges 17:10]
13. ver. 10; [Job 33:25]
14. Luke 4:27

Footnotes 3

[a]. Leprosy was a term for several skin diseases; see Leviticus 13
[b]. A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms; a shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
[c]. Or Amana

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.