2 Kings 5:3

_AND SHE SAID UNTO HER MISTRESS, WOULD GOD MY LORD WERE WITH THE PROPHET THAT IS IN SAMARIA! FOR HE WOULD RECOVER HIM OF HIS LEPROSY._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-8 Though the Syrians were idolaters, and oppressed God's people, yet the deliverance of which Naaman had been the means, is here ascribed to the Lord. Such is the correct language of Scripture, while those who write common history, plainly show that God is not in all their thoughts. No man's greatness, or honour, can place him our of the reach of the sorest calamities of human life: there is many a sickly, crazy body under rich and gay clothing. Every man has some but or other, something that blemishes and diminishes him, some allay to his grandeur, some damp to his joy. This little maid, though only a girl, could give an account of the famous prophet the Israelites had among them. Children should be early told of the wondrous works of God, that, wherever they go, they may talk of them. As became a good servant, she desired the health and welfare of her master, though she was a captiv...

Verse 2 Kings 5:3. _WOULD GOD MY LORD_] אחלי _achaley, I wish_; or, as the Chaldee, Syrian, and Arabic have, "_Happy would it be_ for my master if he were with the prophet," c. Here the mystery of the Divine providence begins to develop itself. By the captivity of this little maid, one Syrian family at least, and that one of the most considerable in the Syrian empire, is brought to the knowledge of the true God....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 5:1 THE CURE OF NAAMAN'S LEPROSY. HIS GRATITUDE; AND THE SIN OF GEHAZI, The historian continues his narrative of Elisha's miracles, commenced in 2 Kings 2:1; and gives in the present chapter a very graphic and complete account of two which were especially remarkable, and which stood in a peculiar relation the one towards the other. One was the removal of leprosy; the other, its infliction. One was wrought on a foreigner and a man of eminence; the other, on a Hebrew and a servant. The second was altogether consequential upon the first, without which the

AND SHE SAID UNTO HER MISTRESS,.... As she was waiting upon her at a certain time, and perhaps her mistress was lamenting the case of her husband as desperate and incurable: WOULD GOD MY LORD WERE WITH THE PROPHET THAT IS IN SAMARIA; meaning Elisha, who, though sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another, yet often at Samaria, and it seems was there when this girl was taken captive: FOR HE WOULD RECOVER HIM OF HIS LEPROSY; the maid had heard of the miracles wrought by Elisha, and doubted not that at the request of her lord he would be willing, as she believed he was able, to cure him of this disease....

4. NAAMAN AND HIS HEALING CHAPTER 5 _ 1. Naaman, the leper (2 Kings 5:1)_ 2. The testimony of the maid of Israel (2 Kings 5:2) 3. The message to the king of Israel (2 Kings 5:5) 4. Naaman and Elisha (2 Kings 5:9) 5. Gehazi; His sin and punishment (2 Kings 5:20) The story of this chapter is peculiarly rich in its spiritual and dispensational meaning. Naaman, captain of Ben-hadad, the King of Syria, was a Gentile. He was no common man. In all his greatness and might, with all the honors heaped upon him and wealth

NAAMAN HEALED OF HIS LEPROSY. This story, familiar to all, presupposes a time of peace between Israel and Syria. As in 1 Kings 20, the king of Syria addresses the king of Israel (unnamed here) as his vassal (2 Kings 5:6 ff.). Elisha was living in Samaria, apparently in his own house. Naaman, on being healed, returned to Elisha, who refused to take any present, using Elijah's formula (1 Kings 17:1 *). Naaman thereupon declared himself a worshipper of Yahweh (it is remarkable that 2 Kings 5:1 ascribes his victories to Yahweh), asking pardon if in his official capacity he bows himself before Rimmon (Ramman, the thunder-god of the Assyrians). Readers of _Tom Brown's Schooldays_ will remember the not unnatural discussion amongst th

WOULD GOD, &C. Figure of speech _Ejaculatio._ App-6. IN SAMARIA. This is the girl's expression. Samaria was where she had heard of him....

_Would God_ This interjection is found only here and in Psalms 119:5. There it is rendered - _O that_my ways were directed". _the prophet that_is _in Samaria_ Elisha had a house in the city of Samaria, as we see from verse 9, and also from 2 Kings 6:32. The fame of the prophet, and the mighty cures which God wrought through him, must have been matter of much note ere they reached this little servant. _he would recover him_ The verb, which commonly means -to assemble" or -gather together", is very expressive in the mouth of the Israelitish maiden, for the leper in Israel must keep himself apart, and never _be gathered_with the rest of the people. The passive is used (Numbers 11:14-15

III. A MIRACLE ON BEHALF OF AN ARAMEAN GENERAL 5:1-19 The account of the healing of the leprous Naaman moves through three stages which may be labeled (1) Naaman's condition (2 Kings 5:1-7), (2) Naaman's cleansing (2 Kings 5:8-14), and (3) Naaman's conversion (2 Kings 5:15-19). A. NAAMAN'S CONDITION 5:1-7 TRANSLATION (1) Now Naaman the captain of the host of the king of Aram had become a great man before his master, and was held in honor, because by him the LORD had given deliverance to Aram; and the man was a mighty man of valor, a leper. (2) And the Arameans had gone out in marauding bands, and had taken captive from the land of Israel a young maiden; and she attended the wife of Na