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Selected Verse: 2 Kings 5:1 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
2Ki 5:1	Strong Concordance	Now Naaman [05283], captain [08269] of the host [06635] of the king [04428] of Syria [0758], was a great [01419] man [0376] with [06440] his master [0113], and honourable [05375], because by him the LORD [03068] had given [05414] deliverance [08668] unto Syria [0758]: he was also a mighty [01368] man [0376] in valour [02428], but he was a leper [06879].
	King James	Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
NAAMAN'S LEPROSY. (Kg2 5:1-7) Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master--highly esteemed for his military character and success. and honourable--rather, "very rich." but he was a leper--This leprosy, which, in Israel, would have excluded him from society, did not affect his free intercourse in the court of Syria.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

NAAMAN'S LEPROSY. (Kg2 5:1-7)

Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master--highly esteemed for his military character and success.

and honourable--rather, "very rich."

but he was a leper--This leprosy, which, in Israel, would have excluded him from society, did not affect his free intercourse in the court of Syria.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
By him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria - An Assyrian monarch had pushed his conquests as far as Syria exactly at this period, bringing into subjection all the kings of these parts. But Syria revolted after a few years and once more made herself independent. It was probably in this war of independence that Naaman had distinguished himself. But he was a leper - leprosy admitted of various kinds and degrees Lev. 13; 14 Some of the lighter forms would not incapacitate a man from discharging the duties of a courtier and warrior.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
Curing of Naaman from Leprosy. - Kg2 5:1. Naaman, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian king, who was a very great man before his lord, i.e., who held a high place in the service of his king and was greatly distinguished (פּנים נשׂא, cf. Isa 3:3; Isa 9:14), because God had given the Syrians salvation (victory) through him, was as a warrior afflicted with leprosy. The ו has not dropped out before מצרע, nor has the copula been omitted for the purpose of sharpening the antithesis (Thenius), for the appeal to Ewald, 354, a., proves nothing, since the passages quoted there are of a totally different kind; but חיל גּבּור is a second predicate: the man was as a brave warrior leprous. There is an allusion here to the difference between the Syrians and the Israelites in their views of leprosy. Whereas in Israel lepers were excluded from human society (see at Lev 13 and 14), in Syria a man afflicted with leprosy could hold a very high state-office in the closest association with the king. Kg2 5:2-3 And in Naaman's house before his wife, i.e., in her service, there was an Israelitish maiden, whom the Syrians had carried off in a marauding expedition (גדוּדים יצאוּ: they had gone out in (as) marauding bands). She said to her mistress: "O that my lord were before the prophet at Samaria! (where Elisha had a house, Kg2 6:32), he would free him from his leprosy." מצּרעת אסף, to receive (again) from leprosy, in the sense of "to heal," may be explained from Num 12:14-15, where אסף is applied to the reception of Miriam into the camp again, from which she had been excluded on account of her leprosy. Kg2 5:4-5 When Naaman related this to his lord (the king), he told him to go to Samaria furnished with a letter to the king of Israel; and he took with him rich presents as compensation for the cure he was to receive, viz., ten talents of silver, about 25,000 thalers (3750 - Tr.); 600 shekels (= two talents) of gold, about 50,000 thalers (7500); and ten changes of clothes, a present still highly valued in the East (see the Comm. on Gen 45:22). This very large present was quite in keeping with Naaman's position, and was not too great for the object in view, namely, his deliverance from a malady which would be certainly, even if slowly, fatal. Kg2 5:6-7 When the king of Israel (Joram) received the letter of the Syrian king on Naaman's arrival, and read therein that he was to cure Naaman of his leprosy (ועתּה, and now, - showing in the letter the transition to the main point, which is the only thing communicated here; cf. Ewald, 353, b.), he rent his clothes in alarm, and exclaimed, "Am I God, to be able to kill and make alive?" i.e., am I omnipotent like God? (cf. Deu 32:39; Sa1 2:6); "for he sends to me to cure a man of his leprosy." The words of the letter ואספתּו, "so cure him," were certainly not so insolent in their meaning as Joram supposed, but simply meant: have him cured, as thou hast a wonder-working prophet; the Syrian king imagining, according to his heathen notions of priests and gotes, that Joram could do what he liked with his prophets and their miraculous powers. There was no ground, therefore, for the suspicion which Joram expressed: "for only observe and see, that he seeks occasion against me." התאנּה to seek occasion, sc. for a quarrel (cf. Jdg 14:4). Kg2 5:8 When Elisha heard of this, he reproved the king for his unbelieving alarm, and told him to send the man to him, "that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel." Kg2 5:9-12 When Naaman stopped with his horses and chariot before the house of Elisha, the prophet sent a messenger out to him to say, "Go and wash thyself seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh will return to thee, i.e., become sound, and thou wilt be clean." ישׁב, return, inasmuch as the flesh had been changed through the leprosy into festering matter and putrefaction. The reason why Elisha did not go out to Naaman himself, is not to be sought for in the legal prohibition of intercourse with lepers, as Ephraem Syrus and many others suppose, nor in his fear of the leper, as Thenius thinks, nor even in the wish to magnify the miracle in the eyes of Naaman, as C. a Lapide imagines, but simply in Naaman's state of mind. This is evident from his exclamation concerning the way in which he was treated. Enraged at his treatment, he said to his servant (Kg2 5:11, Kg2 5:12): "I thought, he will come out to me and stand and call upon the name of Jehovah his God, and go with his hand over the place (i.e., move his hand to and fro over the diseased places), and take away the leprosy." המּצורע, the leprous = the disease of leprosy, the scabs and ulcers of leprosy. "Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? (for the combination of טּוב with נהרות, see Ewald, 174f.) Should I not bathe in them, and become clean?" With these words he turned back, going away in a rage. Naaman had been greatly strengthened in the pride, which is innate in every natural man, by the exalted position which he held in the state, and in which every one bowed before him, and served him in the most reverential manner, with the exception of his lord the king; and he was therefore to receive a salutary lesson of humiliation, and at the same time was also to learn that he owed his cure not to any magic touch from the prophet, but solely to the power of God working through him. - Of the two rivers of Damascus, Abana or Amana (the reading of the Keri with the interchange of the labials ב and מ, see Sol 4:8) is no doubt the present Barada or Barady (Arab. brd, i.e., the cold river), the Chrysorrhoas (Strabo, xvi. p. 755; Plin. h. n. 18 or 16), which rises in the table-land to the south of Zebedany, and flows through this city itself, and then dividing into two arms, enters two small lakes about 4 3/4 hours to the east of the city. The Pharpar is probably the only other independent river of any importance in the district of Damascus, namely, the Avaj, which arises from the union of several brooks around Sa'sa', and flows through the plain to the south of Damascus into the lake Heijny (see Rob. Bibl. Researches, p. 444). The water of the Barada is beautiful, clear and transparent (Rob.), whereas the water of the Jordan is turbid, "of a clayey colour" (Rob. Pal. ii. p. 256); and therefore Naaman might very naturally think that his own native rivers were better than the Jordan. Kg2 5:13 His servants then addressed him in a friendly manner, and said, "My father, if the prophet had said to thee a great thing (i.e., a thing difficult to carry out), shouldst thou not have done it? how much more then, since he has said to thee, Wash, and thou wilt be clean?" אבי, my father, is a confidential expression arising from childlike piety, as in Kg2 6:21 and Sa1 24:12; and the etymological jugglery which traces אבי from לבי = לוי = לוּ (Ewald, Gr. 358, Anm.), or from אם (Thenius), is quite superfluous (see Delitzsch on Job, vol. ii. p. 265, transl.). - דּבּר...גּדול דּבר is a conditional clause without אם (see Ewald, 357, b.), and the object is placed first for the sake of emphasis (according to Ewald, 309, a.). כּי אף, how much more (see Ewald, 354, c.), sc. shouldst thou do what is required, since he has ordered thee so small and easy a thing. Kg2 5:14 Naaman then went down (from Samaria to the Jordan) and dipped in Jordan seven times, and his flesh became sound (ישׁב as in Kg2 5:10) like the flesh of a little boy. Seven times, to show that the healing was a work of God, for seven is the stamp of the works of God. Kg2 5:15-16 After the cure had been effected, he returned with all his train to the man of God with this acknowledgment: "Behold, I have found that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel," and with the request that he would accept a blessing (a present, בּרכה, as in Gen 33:11; Sa1 25:27, etc.) from him, which the prophet, however, stedfastly refused, notwithstanding all his urging, that he might avoid all appearance of selfishness, by which the false prophets were actuated. Kg2 5:17-18 Then Naaman said: ולא, "and not" = and if not, καὶ ει ̓ μή (lxx; not "and O," according to Ewald, 358, b., Anm.), "let there be given to thy servant (= to me) two mules' burden of earth (on the construction see Ewald, 287, h.), for thy servant will no more make (offer) burnt-offerings and slain-offerings to any other gods than Jehovah. May Jehovah forgive thy servant in this thing, when my lord (the king of Syria) goeth into the house of Rimmon, to fall down (worship) there, and he supports himself upon my hand, that I fall down (with him) in the house of Rimmon; if I (thus) fall down in the house of Rimmon, may," etc. It is very evident from Naaman's explanation, "for thy servant," etc., that he wanted to take a load of earth with him out of the land of Israel, that he might be able to offer sacrifice upon it to the God of Israel, because he was still a slave to the polytheistic superstition, that no god could be worshipped in a proper and acceptable manner except in his own land, or upon an altar built of the earth of his own land. And because Naaman's knowledge of God was still adulterated with superstition, he was not yet prepared to make an unreserved confession before men of his faith in Jehovah as the only true God, but hoped that Jehovah would forgive him if he still continued to join outwardly in the worship of idols, so far as his official duty required. Rimmon (i.e., the pomegranate) is here, and probably also in the local name Hadad-rimmon (Zac 12:11), the name of the supreme deity of the Damascene Syrians, and probably only a contracted form of Hadad-rimmon, since Hadad was the supreme deity or sun-god of the Syrians (see at Sa2 8:3), signifying the sun-god with the modification expressed by Rimmon, which has been differently interpreted according to the supposed derivation of the word. Some derive the name from רמם = רוּם, as the supreme god of heaven, like the Ἐλιοῦν of Sanchun. (Cler., Seld., Ges. thes. p. 1292); others from רמּון, a pomegranate, as a faecundantis, since the pomegranate with its abundance of seeds is used in the symbolism of both Oriental and Greek mythology along with the Phallus as a symbol of the generative power (vid., Bhr, Symbolik, ii. pp. 122,123), and is also found upon Assyrian monuments (vid., Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, p. 343); others again, with less probability, from רמה, jaculari, as the sun-god who vivifies and fertilizes the earth with his rays, like the ἑκηβόλος Ἀπόλλων; and others from רמם = Arab. rmm, computruit, as the dying winter sun (according to Movers and Hitzig; see Leyrer in Herzog's Cyclopaedia). - The words "and he supports himself upon my hand" are not to be understood literally, but are a general expressly denoting the service which Naaman had to render as the aide-de-camp to his king (cf. Kg2 7:2, Kg2 7:17). For the Chaldaic form השׁתּחויתי, see Ewald, 156, a. - In the repetition of the words "if I fall down in the temple of Rimmon," etc., he expresses the urgency of his wish. Kg2 5:19 Elisha answered, "Go in peace," wishing the departing Syrian the peace of God upon the road, without thereby either approving or disapproving the religious conviction which he had expressed. For as Naaman had not asked permission to go with his king into the temple of Rimmon, but had simply said, might Jehovah forgive him or be indulgent with him in this matter, Elisha could do nothing more, without a special command from God, than commend the heathen, who had been brought to belief in the God of Israel as the true God by the miraculous cure of his leprosy, to the further guidance of the Lord and of His grace. (Note: Most of the earlier theologians found in Elisha's words a direct approval of the religious conviction expressed by Naaman and his attitude towards idolatry; and since they could not admit that a prophet would have permitted a heathen alone to participate in idolatrous ceremonies, endeavoured to get rid of the consequence resulting from it, viz., licitam ergo esse Christianis συμφώνησιν πιστοῦ μετὰ ἀπιστοῦ, seu symbolizationem et communicationem cum ceremonia idololatrica, either by appealing to the use of השׁתּחות and to the distinction between incurvatio regis voluntaria et religiosa (real worship) and incurvatio servilis et coacta Naemani, quae erat politica et civilis (mere prostration from civil connivance), or by the ungrammatical explanation that Naaman merely spoke of what he had already done, not of what he would do in future (vid., Pfeiffer, Dub. vex. p. 445ff., and J. Meyer, ad Seder Olam, p. 904ff., Budd., and others). - Both are unsatisfactory. The dreaded consequence falls of itself if we only distinguish between the times of the old covenant and those of the new. Under the old covenant the time had not yet come in which the heathen, who came to the knowledge of the true deity of the God of Israel, could be required to break off from all their heathen ways, unless they would formally enter into fellowship with the covenant nation.)

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

Curing of Naaman from Leprosy. - Kg2 5:1. Naaman, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian king, who was a very great man before his lord, i.e., who held a high place in the service of his king and was greatly distinguished (פּנים נשׂא, cf. Isa 3:3; Isa 9:14), because God had given the Syrians salvation (victory) through him, was as a warrior afflicted with leprosy. The ו has not dropped out before מצרע, nor has the copula been omitted for the purpose of sharpening the antithesis (Thenius), for the appeal to Ewald, 354, a., proves nothing, since the passages quoted there are of a totally different kind; but חיל גּבּור is a second predicate: the man was as a brave warrior leprous. There is an allusion here to the difference between the Syrians and the Israelites in their views of leprosy. Whereas in Israel lepers were excluded from human society (see at Lev 13 and 14), in Syria a man afflicted with leprosy could hold a very high state-office in the closest association with the king.

Kg2 5:2-3

And in Naaman's house before his wife, i.e., in her service, there was an Israelitish maiden, whom the Syrians had carried off in a marauding expedition (גדוּדים יצאוּ: they had gone out in (as) marauding bands). She said to her mistress: "O that my lord were before the prophet at Samaria! (where Elisha had a house, Kg2 6:32), he would free him from his leprosy." מצּרעת אסף, to receive (again) from leprosy, in the sense of "to heal," may be explained from Num 12:14-15, where אסף is applied to the reception of Miriam into the camp again, from which she had been excluded on account of her leprosy.

Kg2 5:4-5

When Naaman related this to his lord (the king), he told him to go to Samaria furnished with a letter to the king of Israel; and he took with him rich presents as compensation for the cure he was to receive, viz., ten talents of silver, about 25,000 thalers (3750 - Tr.); 600 shekels (= two talents) of gold, about 50,000 thalers (7500); and ten changes of clothes, a present still highly valued in the East (see the Comm. on Gen 45:22). This very large present was quite in keeping with Naaman's position, and was not too great for the object in view, namely, his deliverance from a malady which would be certainly, even if slowly, fatal.

Kg2 5:6-7

When the king of Israel (Joram) received the letter of the Syrian king on Naaman's arrival, and read therein that he was to cure Naaman of his leprosy (ועתּה, and now, - showing in the letter the transition to the main point, which is the only thing communicated here; cf. Ewald, 353, b.), he rent his clothes in alarm, and exclaimed, "Am I God, to be able to kill and make alive?" i.e., am I omnipotent like God? (cf. Deu 32:39; Sa1 2:6); "for he sends to me to cure a man of his leprosy." The words of the letter ואספתּו, "so cure him," were certainly not so insolent in their meaning as Joram supposed, but simply meant: have him cured, as thou hast a wonder-working prophet; the Syrian king imagining, according to his heathen notions of priests and gotes, that Joram could do what he liked with his prophets and their miraculous powers. There was no ground, therefore, for the suspicion which Joram expressed: "for only observe and see, that he seeks occasion against me." התאנּה to seek occasion, sc. for a quarrel (cf. Jdg 14:4).

Kg2 5:8

When Elisha heard of this, he reproved the king for his unbelieving alarm, and told him to send the man to him, "that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel."

Kg2 5:9-12

When Naaman stopped with his horses and chariot before the house of Elisha, the prophet sent a messenger out to him to say, "Go and wash thyself seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh will return to thee, i.e., become sound, and thou wilt be clean." ישׁב, return, inasmuch as the flesh had been changed through the leprosy into festering matter and putrefaction. The reason why Elisha did not go out to Naaman himself, is not to be sought for in the legal prohibition of intercourse with lepers, as Ephraem Syrus and many others suppose, nor in his fear of the leper, as Thenius thinks, nor even in the wish to magnify the miracle in the eyes of Naaman, as C. a Lapide imagines, but simply in Naaman's state of mind. This is evident from his exclamation concerning the way in which he was treated. Enraged at his treatment, he said to his servant (Kg2 5:11, Kg2 5:12): "I thought, he will come out to me and stand and call upon the name of Jehovah his God, and go with his hand over the place (i.e., move his hand to and fro over the diseased places), and take away the leprosy." המּצורע, the leprous = the disease of leprosy, the scabs and ulcers of leprosy. "Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? (for the combination of טּוב with נהרות, see Ewald, 174f.) Should I not bathe in them, and become clean?" With these words he turned back, going away in a rage. Naaman had been greatly strengthened in the pride, which is innate in every natural man, by the exalted position which he held in the state, and in which every one bowed before him, and served him in the most reverential manner, with the exception of his lord the king; and he was therefore to receive a salutary lesson of humiliation, and at the same time was also to learn that he owed his cure not to any magic touch from the prophet, but solely to the power of God working through him. - Of the two rivers of Damascus, Abana or Amana (the reading of the Keri with the interchange of the labials ב and מ, see Sol 4:8) is no doubt the present Barada or Barady (Arab. brd, i.e., the cold river), the Chrysorrhoas (Strabo, xvi. p. 755; Plin. h. n. 18 or 16), which rises in the table-land to the south of Zebedany, and flows through this city itself, and then dividing into two arms, enters two small lakes about 4 3/4 hours to the east of the city. The Pharpar is probably the only other independent river of any importance in the district of Damascus, namely, the Avaj, which arises from the union of several brooks around Sa'sa', and flows through the plain to the south of Damascus into the lake Heijny (see Rob. Bibl. Researches, p. 444). The water of the Barada is beautiful, clear and transparent (Rob.), whereas the water of the Jordan is turbid, "of a clayey colour" (Rob. Pal. ii. p. 256); and therefore Naaman might very naturally think that his own native rivers were better than the Jordan.

Kg2 5:13

His servants then addressed him in a friendly manner, and said, "My father, if the prophet had said to thee a great thing (i.e., a thing difficult to carry out), shouldst thou not have done it? how much more then, since he has said to thee, Wash, and thou wilt be clean?" אבי, my father, is a confidential expression arising from childlike piety, as in Kg2 6:21 and Sa1 24:12; and the etymological jugglery which traces אבי from לבי = לוי = לוּ (Ewald, Gr. 358, Anm.), or from אם (Thenius), is quite superfluous (see Delitzsch on Job, vol. ii. p. 265, transl.). - דּבּר...גּדול דּבר is a conditional clause without אם (see Ewald, 357, b.), and the object is placed first for the sake of emphasis (according to Ewald, 309, a.). כּי אף, how much more (see Ewald, 354, c.), sc. shouldst thou do what is required, since he has ordered thee so small and easy a thing.

Kg2 5:14

Naaman then went down (from Samaria to the Jordan) and dipped in Jordan seven times, and his flesh became sound (ישׁב as in Kg2 5:10) like the flesh of a little boy. Seven times, to show that the healing was a work of God, for seven is the stamp of the works of God.

Kg2 5:15-16

After the cure had been effected, he returned with all his train to the man of God with this acknowledgment: "Behold, I have found that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel," and with the request that he would accept a blessing (a present, בּרכה, as in Gen 33:11; Sa1 25:27, etc.) from him, which the prophet, however, stedfastly refused, notwithstanding all his urging, that he might avoid all appearance of selfishness, by which the false prophets were actuated.

Kg2 5:17-18

Then Naaman said: ולא, "and not" = and if not, καὶ ει ̓ μή (lxx; not "and O," according to Ewald, 358, b., Anm.), "let there be given to thy servant (= to me) two mules' burden of earth (on the construction see Ewald, 287, h.), for thy servant will no more make (offer) burnt-offerings and slain-offerings to any other gods than Jehovah. May Jehovah forgive thy servant in this thing, when my lord (the king of Syria) goeth into the house of Rimmon, to fall down (worship) there, and he supports himself upon my hand, that I fall down (with him) in the house of Rimmon; if I (thus) fall down in the house of Rimmon, may," etc. It is very evident from Naaman's explanation, "for thy servant," etc., that he wanted to take a load of earth with him out of the land of Israel, that he might be able to offer sacrifice upon it to the God of Israel, because he was still a slave to the polytheistic superstition, that no god could be worshipped in a proper and acceptable manner except in his own land, or upon an altar built of the earth of his own land. And because Naaman's knowledge of God was still adulterated with superstition, he was not yet prepared to make an unreserved confession before men of his faith in Jehovah as the only true God, but hoped that Jehovah would forgive him if he still continued to join outwardly in the worship of idols, so far as his official duty required. Rimmon (i.e., the pomegranate) is here, and probably also in the local name Hadad-rimmon (Zac 12:11), the name of the supreme deity of the Damascene Syrians, and probably only a contracted form of Hadad-rimmon, since Hadad was the supreme deity or sun-god of the Syrians (see at Sa2 8:3), signifying the sun-god with the modification expressed by Rimmon, which has been differently interpreted according to the supposed derivation of the word. Some derive the name from רמם = רוּם, as the supreme god of heaven, like the Ἐλιοῦν of Sanchun. (Cler., Seld., Ges. thes. p. 1292); others from רמּון, a pomegranate, as a faecundantis, since the pomegranate with its abundance of seeds is used in the symbolism of both Oriental and Greek mythology along with the Phallus as a symbol of the generative power (vid., Bhr, Symbolik, ii. pp. 122,123), and is also found upon Assyrian monuments (vid., Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, p. 343); others again, with less probability, from רמה, jaculari, as the sun-god who vivifies and fertilizes the earth with his rays, like the ἑκηβόλος Ἀπόλλων; and others from רמם = Arab. rmm, computruit, as the dying winter sun (according to Movers and Hitzig; see Leyrer in Herzog's Cyclopaedia). - The words "and he supports himself upon my hand" are not to be understood literally, but are a general expressly denoting the service which Naaman had to render as the aide-de-camp to his king (cf. Kg2 7:2, Kg2 7:17). For the Chaldaic form השׁתּחויתי, see Ewald, 156, a. - In the repetition of the words "if I fall down in the temple of Rimmon," etc., he expresses the urgency of his wish.

Kg2 5:19

Elisha answered, "Go in peace," wishing the departing Syrian the peace of God upon the road, without thereby either approving or disapproving the religious conviction which he had expressed. For as Naaman had not asked permission to go with his king into the temple of Rimmon, but had simply said, might Jehovah forgive him or be indulgent with him in this matter, Elisha could do nothing more, without a special command from God, than commend the heathen, who had been brought to belief in the God of Israel as the true God by the miraculous cure of his leprosy, to the further guidance of the Lord and of His grace.

(Note: Most of the earlier theologians found in Elisha's words a direct approval of the religious conviction expressed by Naaman and his attitude towards idolatry; and since they could not admit that a prophet would have permitted a heathen alone to participate in idolatrous ceremonies, endeavoured to get rid of the consequence resulting from it, viz., licitam ergo esse Christianis συμφώνησιν πιστοῦ μετὰ ἀπιστοῦ, seu symbolizationem et communicationem cum ceremonia idololatrica, either by appealing to the use of השׁתּחות and to the distinction between incurvatio regis voluntaria et religiosa (real worship) and incurvatio servilis et coacta Naemani, quae erat politica et civilis (mere prostration from civil connivance), or by the ungrammatical explanation that Naaman merely spoke of what he had already done, not of what he would do in future (vid., Pfeiffer, Dub. vex. p. 445ff., and J. Meyer, ad Seder Olam, p. 904ff., Budd., and others). - Both are unsatisfactory. The dreaded consequence falls of itself if we only distinguish between the times of the old covenant and those of the new. Under the old covenant the time had not yet come in which the heathen, who came to the knowledge of the true deity of the God of Israel, could be required to break off from all their heathen ways, unless they would formally enter into fellowship with the covenant nation.)

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Naaman, captain of the host - Of Naaman we know nothing more than is related here. Jarchi and some others say that he was the man who drew the bow at a venture, as we term it, and slew Ahab: see Kg1 22:34 (note), and the notes there. He is not mentioned by Josephus, nor has he any reference to this history; which is very strange, as it exists in the Chaldee, Septuagint, and Syriac. King of Syria - The Hebrew is מלך ארם melech Aram, king of Aram; which is followed by the Chaldee and Arabic. The Syriac has Adom; but as the Syriac dolath is the same element as the Syriac rish, differing only in the position of the diacritic point, it may have been originally Aram. The Septuagint and Vulgate have Syria, and this is a common meaning of the term in Scripture. If the king of Syria be meant, it must be Ben-hadad; and the contemporary king of Israel was Jehoram. A great man - He was held in the highest esteem. And honorable - Had the peculiar favor and confidence of his master; and was promoted to the highest trusts. Had given deliverance unto Syria - That is, as the rabbins state, by his slaying Ahab, king of Israel; in consequence of which the Syrians got the victory. A mighty man in valor - He was a giant, and very strong, according to the Arabic. He had, in a word, all the qualifications of an able general. But he was a leper - Here was a heavy tax upon his grandeur; he was afflicted with a disorder the most loathsome and the most humiliating that could possibly disgrace a human being. God often, in the course of his providence, permits great defects to be associated with great eminence, that he may hide pride from man; and cause him to think soberly of himself and his acquirements.

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¹ Now Naaman [05283], captain [08269] of the host [06635] of the king [04428] of Syria [0758], was a great [01419] man [0376] with [06440] his master [0113], and honourable [05375], because by him the LORD [03068] had given [05414] deliverance [08668] unto Syria [0758]: he was also a mighty [01368] man [0376] in valour [02428], but he was a leper [06879].
² And the Syrians [0758] had gone out [03318] by companies [01416], and had brought away captive [07617] out of the land [0776] of Israel [03478] a little [06996] maid [05291]; and she waited on [06440] Naaman's [05283] wife [0802].
³ And she said [0559] unto her mistress [01404], Would [0305] God my lord [0113] were with [06440] the prophet [05030] that is in Samaria [08111]! for [0227] he would recover [0622] him of his leprosy [06883].
⁴ And one went in [0935], and told [05046] his lord [0113], saying [0559], Thus and thus said [01696] the maid [05291] that is of the land [0776] of Israel [03478].
⁵ And the king [04428] of Syria [0758] said [0559], Go to [03212], go [0935], and I will send [07971] a letter [05612] unto the king [04428] of Israel [03478]. And he departed [03212], and took [03947] with him [03027] ten [06235] talents [03603] of silver [03701], and six [08337] thousand [0505] pieces of gold [02091], and ten [06235] changes [02487] of raiment [0899].
⁶ And he brought [0935] the letter [05612] to the king [04428] of Israel [03478], saying [0559], Now when this letter [05612] is come [0935] unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent [07971] Naaman [05283] my servant [05650] to thee, that thou mayest recover [0622] him of his leprosy [06883].
⁷ And it came to pass, when the king [04428] of Israel [03478] had read [07121] the letter [05612], that he rent [07167] his clothes [0899], and said [0559], Am I God [0430], to kill [04191] and to make alive [02421], that this man [02088] doth send [07971] unto me to recover [0622] a man [0376] of his leprosy [06883]? wherefore [0389] consider [03045], I pray you, and see [07200] how he seeketh a quarrel [0579] against me.

¹⁹ And he said [0559] unto him, Go [03212] in peace [07965]. So he departed [03212] from him a little [03530] way [0776].

¹⁷ And the king [04428] appointed [06485] the lord [07991] on whose hand [03027] he leaned [08172] to have the charge of the gate [08179]: and the people [05971] trode [07429] upon him in the gate [08179], and he died [04191], as the man [0376] of God [0430] had said [01696], who spake [01696] when the king [04428] came down [03381] to him.

² Then a lord [07991] on whose hand [03027] the king [04428] leaned [08172] answered [06030] the man [0376] of God [0430], and said [0559], Behold, if the LORD [03068] would make [06213] windows [0699] in heaven [08064], might this thing [01697] be? And he said [0559], Behold, thou shalt see [07200] it with thine eyes [05869], but shalt not eat [0398] thereof.

³ David [01732] smote [05221] also Hadadezer [01909], the son [01121] of Rehob [07340], king [04428] of Zobah [06678], as he went [03212] to recover [07725] his border [03027] at the river [05104] Euphrates [06578].

¹¹ In that day [03117] shall there be a great [01431] mourning [04553] in Jerusalem [03389], as the mourning [04553] of Hadadrimmon [01910] in the valley [01237] of Megiddon [04023].

¹⁷ And Naaman [05283] said [0559], Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given [05414] to thy servant [05650] two [06776] mules [06505]' burden [04853] of earth [0127]? for thy servant [05650] will henceforth offer [06213] neither burnt offering [05930] nor sacrifice [02077] unto other [0312] gods [0430], but unto the LORD [03068].
¹⁸ In this thing [01697] the LORD [03068] pardon [05545] thy servant [05650], that when my master [0113] goeth [0935] into the house [01004] of Rimmon [07417] to worship [07812] there, and he leaneth [08172] on my hand [03027], and I bow [07812] myself in the house [01004] of Rimmon [07417]: when I bow down [07812] myself in the house [01004] of Rimmon [07417], the LORD [03068] pardon [05545] thy servant [05650] in this thing [01697].

²⁷ And now this blessing [01293] which thine handmaid [08198] hath brought [0935] unto my lord [0113], let it even be given [05414] unto the young men [05288] that follow [01980] [07272] my lord [0113].

¹¹ Take [03947], I pray thee, my blessing [01293] that is brought [0935] to thee; because God [0430] hath dealt graciously with me [02603], and because [03605] I have [03426] enough [03605]. And he urged [06484] him, and he took [03947] it.

¹⁵ And he returned [07725] to the man [0376] of God [0430], he and all his company [04264], and came [0935], and stood [05975] before [06440] him: and he said [0559], Behold, now I know [03045] that there is no God [0430] in all the earth [0776], but in Israel [03478]: now therefore, I pray thee, take [03947] a blessing [01293] of thy servant [05650].
¹⁶ But he said [0559], As the LORD [03068] liveth [02416], before [06440] whom I stand [05975], I will receive [03947] none. And he urged [06484] him to take [03947] it; but he refused [03985].

¹⁰ And Elisha [0477] sent [07971] a messenger [04397] unto him, saying [0559], Go [01980] and wash [07364] in Jordan [03383] seven [07651] times [06471], and thy flesh [01320] shall come again [07725] to thee, and thou shalt be clean [02891].

¹⁴ Then went he down [03381], and dipped [02881] himself seven [07651] times [06471] in Jordan [03383], according to the saying [01697] of the man [0376] of God [0430]: and his flesh [01320] came again [07725] like unto the flesh [01320] of a little [06996] child [05288], and he was clean [02891].

¹² The LORD [03068] judge [08199] between me and thee, and the LORD [03068] avenge [05358] me of thee: but mine hand [03027] shall not be upon thee.

²¹ And the king [04428] of Israel [03478] said [0559] unto Elisha [0477], when he saw [07200] them, My father [01], shall I smite [05221] them? shall I smite [05221] them?

¹³ And his servants [05650] came near [05066], and spake [01696] unto him, and said [0559], My father [01], if the prophet [05030] had bid [01696] thee do some great [01419] thing [01697], wouldest thou not have done [06213] it? how much rather then [0637], when he saith [0559] to thee, Wash [07364], and be clean [02891]?

⁸ Come [0935] with me from Lebanon [03844], my spouse [03618], with me from Lebanon [03844]: look [07789] from the top [07218] of Amana [0549], from the top [07218] of Shenir [08149] and Hermon [02768], from the lions [0738]' dens [04585], from the mountains [02042] of the leopards [05246].

¹² Are not Abana [071] [0549] and Pharpar [06554], rivers [05104] of Damascus [01834], better [02896] than all the waters [04325] of Israel [03478]? may I not wash [07364] in them, and be clean [02891]? So he turned [06437] and went away [03212] in a rage [02534].

¹¹ But Naaman [05283] was wroth [07107], and went away [03212], and said [0559], Behold, I thought [0559], He will surely [03318] come out [03318] to me, and stand [05975], and call [07121] on the name [08034] of the LORD [03068] his God [0430], and strike [05130] his hand [03027] over the place [04725], and recover [0622] the leper [06879].

⁹ So Naaman [05283] came [0935] with his horses [05483] and with his chariot [07393], and stood [05975] at the door [06607] of the house [01004] of Elisha [0477].
¹⁰ And Elisha [0477] sent [07971] a messenger [04397] unto him, saying [0559], Go [01980] and wash [07364] in Jordan [03383] seven [07651] times [06471], and thy flesh [01320] shall come again [07725] to thee, and thou shalt be clean [02891].
¹¹ But Naaman [05283] was wroth [07107], and went away [03212], and said [0559], Behold, I thought [0559], He will surely [03318] come out [03318] to me, and stand [05975], and call [07121] on the name [08034] of the LORD [03068] his God [0430], and strike [05130] his hand [03027] over the place [04725], and recover [0622] the leper [06879].
¹² Are not Abana [071] [0549] and Pharpar [06554], rivers [05104] of Damascus [01834], better [02896] than all the waters [04325] of Israel [03478]? may I not wash [07364] in them, and be clean [02891]? So he turned [06437] and went away [03212] in a rage [02534].

⁸ And it was so, when Elisha [0477] the man [0376] of God [0430] had heard [08085] that the king [04428] of Israel [03478] had rent [07167] his clothes [0899], that he sent [07971] to the king [04428], saying [0559], Wherefore hast thou rent [07167] thy clothes [0899]? let him come [0935] now to me, and he shall know [03045] that there is [03426] a prophet [05030] in Israel [03478].

⁴ But his father [01] and his mother [0517] knew [03045] not that it was of the LORD [03068], that he sought [01245] an occasion [08385] against the Philistines [06430]: for at that time [06256] the Philistines [06430] had dominion [04910] over Israel [03478].

⁶ The LORD [03068] killeth [04191], and maketh alive [02421]: he bringeth down [03381] to the grave [07585], and bringeth up [05927].

³⁹ See [07200] now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god [0430] with me: I kill [04191], and I make alive [02421]; I wound [04272], and I heal [07495]: neither is there any that can deliver [05337] out of my hand [03027].

⁶ And he brought [0935] the letter [05612] to the king [04428] of Israel [03478], saying [0559], Now when this letter [05612] is come [0935] unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent [07971] Naaman [05283] my servant [05650] to thee, that thou mayest recover [0622] him of his leprosy [06883].
⁷ And it came to pass, when the king [04428] of Israel [03478] had read [07121] the letter [05612], that he rent [07167] his clothes [0899], and said [0559], Am I God [0430], to kill [04191] and to make alive [02421], that this man [02088] doth send [07971] unto me to recover [0622] a man [0376] of his leprosy [06883]? wherefore [0389] consider [03045], I pray you, and see [07200] how he seeketh a quarrel [0579] against me.

²² To all of them he gave [05414] each man [0376] changes [02487] of raiment [08071]; but to Benjamin [01144] he gave [05414] three [07969] hundred [03967] pieces of silver [03701], and five [02568] changes [02487] of raiment [08071].

⁴ And one went in [0935], and told [05046] his lord [0113], saying [0559], Thus and thus said [01696] the maid [05291] that is of the land [0776] of Israel [03478].
⁵ And the king [04428] of Syria [0758] said [0559], Go to [03212], go [0935], and I will send [07971] a letter [05612] unto the king [04428] of Israel [03478]. And he departed [03212], and took [03947] with him [03027] ten [06235] talents [03603] of silver [03701], and six [08337] thousand [0505] pieces of gold [02091], and ten [06235] changes [02487] of raiment [0899].

¹⁴ And the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto Moses [04872], If her father [01] had but [03417] spit [03417] in her face [06440], should she not be ashamed [03637] seven [07651] days [03117]? let her be shut [05462] out [02351] from the camp [04264] seven [07651] days [03117], and after [0310] that let her be received [0622] in again.
¹⁵ And Miriam [04813] was shut [05462] out [02351] from the camp [04264] seven [07651] days [03117]: and the people [05971] journeyed [05265] not till Miriam [04813] was brought [0622] in again.

³² But Elisha [0477] sat [03427] in his house [01004], and the elders [02205] sat [03427] with him; and the king sent [07971] a man [0376] from before [06440] him: but ere the messenger [04397] came [0935] to him, he said [0559] to the elders [02205], See [07200] ye how this son [01121] of a murderer [07523] hath sent [07971] to take away [05493] mine head [07218]? look [07200], when the messenger [04397] cometh [0935], shut [05462] the door [01817], and hold him fast [03905] at the door [01817]: is not the sound [06963] of his master's [0113] feet [07272] behind [0310] him?

² And the Syrians [0758] had gone out [03318] by companies [01416], and had brought away captive [07617] out of the land [0776] of Israel [03478] a little [06996] maid [05291]; and she waited on [06440] Naaman's [05283] wife [0802].
³ And she said [0559] unto her mistress [01404], Would [0305] God my lord [0113] were with [06440] the prophet [05030] that is in Samaria [08111]! for [0227] he would recover [0622] him of his leprosy [06883].

¹⁴ Therefore the LORD [03068] will cut off [03772] from Israel [03478] head [07218] and tail [02180], branch [03712] and rush [0100], in one [0259] day [03117].

³ The captain [08269] of fifty [02572], and the honourable [05375] man [06440], and the counsellor [03289], and the cunning [02450] artificer [02791], and the eloquent [0995] orator [03908].

³⁴ And a certain man [0376] drew [04900] a bow [07198] at a venture [08537], and smote [05221] the king [04428] of Israel [03478] between the joints [01694] of the harness [08302]: wherefore he said [0559] unto the driver of his chariot [07395], Turn [02015] thine hand [03027], and carry me out [03318] of the host [04264]; for I am wounded [02470].