Discovery Box2 Kings 5:13-27
Context5:13 His servants approached and said to him, “O master, 1 if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, 2 you would have been willing to do it. 3 It seems you should be happy that he simply said, “Wash and you will be healed.” 4 5:14 So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the prophet had instructed. 5 His skin became as smooth as a young child’s 6 and he was healed.
5:15 He and his entire entourage returned to the prophet. Naaman 7 came and stood before him. He said, “For sure 8 I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel! Now, please accept a gift from your servant.” 5:16 But Elisha 9 replied, “As certainly as the Lord lives (whom I serve), 10 I will take nothing from you.” Naaman 11 insisted that he take it, but he refused. 5:17 Naaman said, “If not, then please give your servant a load of dirt, enough for a pair of mules to carry, 12 for your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or sacrifice to a god other than the Lord. 13 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.” 14 5:19 Elisha 15 said to him, “Go in peace.”
When he had gone a short distance, 16 5:20 Gehazi, the prophet Elisha’s servant, thought, 17 “Look, my master did not accept what this Syrian Naaman offered him. 18 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?” 19 5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine. 20 My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country. 21 Please give them a talent 22 of silver and two suits of clothes.’” 5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver. 23 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. 24 5:24 When he arrived at the hill, he took them from the servants 25 and put them in the house. Then he sent the men on their way. 26
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 27 replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. 28 This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. 29 5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict 30 you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi 31 went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow. 32
[5:13] 1 tn Heb “my father,” reflecting the perspective of each individual servant. To address their master as “father” would emphasize his authority and express their respect. See BDB 3 s.v. אָב and the similar idiomatic use of “father” in 2 Kgs 2:12.
[5:13] 2 tn Heb “a great thing.”
[5:13] 3 tn Heb “would you not do [it]?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course you would.”
[5:13] 4 tn Heb “How much more [when] he said, “Wash and be healed.” The second imperative (“be healed”) states the expected result of obeying the first (‘wash”).
[5:14] 5 tn Heb “according to the word of the man of God.”
[5:14] 6 tn Heb “and his skin was restored, like the skin of a small child.”
[5:15] 7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:16] 9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:16] 10 tn Heb “before whom I stand.”
[5:16] 11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Naaman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:17] 12 tn Heb “and [if] not, may there be given to your servant a load [for] a pair of mules, earth.”
[5:17] 13 tn Heb “for your servant will not again make a burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods, only to the
[5:18] 14 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
[5:19] 15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:19] 16 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.
[5:20] 17 tn Heb “said” (i.e., to himself).
[5:20] 18 tn Heb “Look, my master spared this Syrian Naaman by not taking from his hand what he brought.”
[5:21] 19 tn Heb “Is there peace?”
[5:22] 21 tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”
[5:22] 22 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).
[5:23] 23 tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”
[5:23] 24 tn Heb “before him.”
[5:24] 25 tn Heb “from their hand.”
[5:24] 26 tn Heb “and he sent the men away and they went.”
[5:26] 27 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:26] 28 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.
[5:26] 29 tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.
[5:27] 31 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[5:27] 32 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.
