2 Kings 5:26-27

5:26 Elisha ¹  replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you. ²  This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants. ³  5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict ⁴  you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi ⁵  went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow. ⁶ 

Numbers 32:23

32:23 “But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned ⁷  against the Lord. And know that your sin will find you out.

Proverbs 24:16

24:16 Although ⁸  a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again,

but the wicked will be brought down ⁹  by calamity.

[5:26]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:26]  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.

[5:26]  ³ tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.

[5:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “cling to.”

[5:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:27]  ⁶ 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.

[32:23]  ⁷ tn The nuance of the perfect tense here has to be the future perfect.

[24:16]  ⁸ tn The clause beginning with כִּי (ki) could be interpreted as causal or conditional; but in view of the significance of the next clause it seems better to take it as a concessive clause (“although”). Its verb then receives a modal nuance of possibility. The apodosis is then “and he rises up,” which could be a participle or a perfect tense; although he may fall, he gets up (or, will get up).

[24:16]  ⁹ tn The verb could be translated with an English present tense (“are brought down,” so NIV) to express what happens to the wicked in this life; but since the saying warns against being like the wicked, their destruction is more likely directed to the future.