Text -- 2 Kings 5:18-27 (NET)

5:18 May the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to worship, and he leans on my arm and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.” 5:19 Elisha said to him, “Go in peace.” When he had gone a short distance, 5:20 Gehazi, the prophet Elisha’s servant, thought, “Look, my master did not accept what this Syrian Naaman offered him. As certainly as the Lord lives, I will run after him and accept something from him.” 5:21 So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?” 5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine. My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country. Please give them a talent of silver and two suits of clothes.’” 5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi. 5:24 When he arrived at the hill, he took them from the servants and put them in the house. Then he sent the men on their way. 5:25 When he came and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant hasn’t been anywhere.” 5:26 Elisha replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. 5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:18

¹ tn Heb “When my master enters the house of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my hand and I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, when I bow down [in] the house of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this thing.”

sn Rimmon was the Syrian storm god. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 65.

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:19

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “and he went from him a distance of land.” The precise meaning of כִּבְרַה (kivrah) “distance,” is uncertain. See BDB 460 s.v. כִּבְרַה, and HALOT 459-60 s.v. II *כְּבָרַה, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 65.

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:20

¹ tn Heb “said” (i.e., to himself).

² tn Heb “Look, my master spared this Syrian Naaman by not taking from his hand what he brought.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:21

¹ tn Heb “Is there peace?”

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:22

¹ tn Heb “peace.”

² tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”

³ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver (cf. NCV, NLT, CEV).

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:23

¹ tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

² tn Heb “before him.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:24

¹ tn Heb “from their hand.”

² tn Heb “and he sent the men away and they went.”

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:26

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “Did not my heart go as a man turned from his chariot to meet you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes that he was indeed present in “heart” (or “spirit”) and was very much aware of what Gehazi had done. In the MT the interrogative particle has been accidentally omitted before the negative particle.

³ tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.

NET Notes: 2Ki 5:27

¹ tn Heb “cling to.”

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Traditionally, “he went from before him, leprous like snow.” But see the note at 5:1, as well as M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 66.