2 Kings 5:6

_AND HE BROUGHT THE LETTER TO THE KING OF ISRAEL, SAYING, NOW WHEN THIS LETTER IS COME UNTO THEE, BEHOLD, I HAVE THEREWITH SENT NAAMAN MY SERVANT TO THEE, THAT THOU MAYEST RECOVER HIM OF HIS LEPROSY._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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...

THAT THOU MAYEST RECOVER HIM - literally, “And thou shalt recover him.” The Syrian king presumes that, if there is a cure for leprosy to be had in Israel, the mode of obtaining it will be well known to his royal brother....

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 HE BROUGHT THE LETTER TO THE KING OF ISRAEL, SAYING,.... The contents of which were, so far as it concerned Naaman and his case, which are only observed, these: NOW WHEN THIS LETTER IS COME UNTO THEE; was received by him: BEHOLD, I HAVE THEREWITH SENT NAAMAN MY SERVANT UNTO THEE; the bearer of it: THAT THOU MAYEST RECOVER HIM OF HIS LEPROSY; meaning not he himself, but that he would recommend him to the care of a proper person, his prophet, and enjoin him to do the best he could for him; but the king of Israel mistook his meaning, as appears by what follows....

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

RECOVER.. _Homonym,_ with another meaning, to snatch away or destroy, as in Psalms 26:9 and Jeremiah 16:5. See notes there....

_he brought the letter to the king of Israel_ The Syrian king would conclude that the prophet was at the king's command, and so he had only to write to the king, and all would be done that could be done. _Now_[R.V. AND NOW] _when this letter_ This is not the commencement of the letter. The writer only extracts from it the sentence which contains the request. The insertion of the copula -And" by R.V. shews this, and so represents the Hebrew more exactly. _that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy_ The Syrian king speaks as though the cure were to be Jehoram's work. But of course he only required of the king that he should use his power with the mighty prophet. This however can hardly have been made plain in the body of the letter, or Jehoram's thoughts would have turned to Elisha....

THAT THOU MAYEST RECOVER HIM OF HIS LEPROSY— Or, _"That by thy command the prophet who is with thee may cleanse him."_ See 2 Kings 5:3. Kings are often said to _do_ those things which they _command_ to be done; in which view, there is no ambiguity in the letter of the king of Syria. But the king of Israel thought himself mocked by it. The king's expression in the next verse, _Am I a God,_ &c.? refers to what we have had occasion to remark in the notes upon Leviticus, that the leprosy was always esteemed a disease immediately inflicted by God, and only to be cured by him. REFLECTIONS.—Elisha's greatness continues still the subject of the history. It is a pleasing episode, and a relief from the uniform tenor of evil which was in Israel and her kings. 1. Naaman, by means of a captive girl, hears of the prophet's miracles. He was a great general, successf