2 Kings 5:12

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

2 Kings 5:12 in Other Translations

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

12 Are not Abana 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 went away in a rage.

12 Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.

12 The Damascus rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel. Why not bathe in them? I'd at least get clean." He stomped off, mad as a hornet.

12 Aren't Abana 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 left in a rage.

2 Kings 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 5:12

Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all
the waters of Israel?
&c.] Abana is, in the marginal reading, called Amana, and so the Targum; perhaps from the Mount Amana, from whence it sprung, a mountain in Syria ^F7, mentioned with Lebanon, ( Song of Solomon 4:8 ) . This river is thought to be the Chrysorrhoas of Pliny ^F8, and other writers; there are no traces of its name, or of the following, to be met with now; the only river by Damascus is called Barrady, which supplies Damascus and its gardens, and makes them so fruitful and pleasant as they be; it pours down from the mountains, as Mr. Maundrell

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 describes it, and is divided into three streams, of which the middlemost and biggest runs directly to Damascus, through a large field, called the field of Damascus; and the other two are drawn round, the one to the right hand, and the other to the left, on the borders of the gardens. Pharpar is thought ^F11 to be the river Orontes, which runs close to the walls of Antioch, and courses through its large and spacious plain, being numbered among the rivers of Syria; it takes its rise from Lebanon, and, sliding through the said plain, falls into the Syrian sea. Benjamin of Tudela ^F12 speaks of these rivers under their Scripture names; Abana or Amana as he says, passes through the city and supplies the houses of great men with water through wooden pipes; and Pharpar is without the city and runs among the gardens and orchards, and waters them. Farfar is also the name of a river in Italy ^F13:

may I not wash in them, and be clean?
as well as in Jordan; or rather, since they are better waters, and so not have been at this trouble and expense to come hither; or have I not washed in them every day? I have, and am I clean? I am not; which is the sense the several Jewish writers give ^F14:

so he turned, and went away in a rage;
in a great passion, swearing and cursing perhaps, ordering his chariot driver to turn and be gone at once.

F7 Tacit. Annal. l. 2. c. 83.
F8 Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 18.
F9 Journey from Aleppo, p. 122, 123.
F11 Cartwright's Preacher's Travels, p. 7, 8. Hiller. Onomast. Sacr. p. 908.
F12 Itinerar. p. 55.
F13 Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 7. p. 1243.
F14 Ben Gersom in loc. & R. Joseph Kimchi, & R. Jonah in Ben Melech in. loc.

2 Kings 5:12 In-Context

10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.

12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 8:6
• 2. Proverbs 14:17,29; Proverbs 19:11; Proverbs 29:11