2 Kings 5:7

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE KING OF ISRAEL HAD READ THE LETTER, THAT HE RENT HIS CLOTHES, AND SAID, AM I GOD, TO KILL AND TO MAKE ALIVE, THAT THIS MAN DOTH SEND UNTO ME TO RECOVER A MAN OF HIS LEPROSY? WHEREFORE CONSIDER, I PRAY YOU, AND SEE HOW HE SEEKETH A QUARREL AGAINST ME._ When the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes. According to an ancient practice among the Eastern people, the main object only was stated in the letter that was carried by the party concerned, while other circumstances were left to be explained at the interview. This accounts for Jehoram's burst of emotions-not horror at supposed blasphemy, but alarm and suspicion that this was merely made an occasion for a quarrel. AM I GOD, TO KILL AND TO MAKE ALIVE? All this show of offended piety was only a pretence, for Jehoram himself was an idolater, and he assumed a zeal for the divine glory m...

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 5:7. _AM I GOD, TO KILL AND TO MAKE ALIVE_] He spoke thus under the conviction that God alone could cure the leprosy; which, indeed, was universally acknowledged: and must have been as much a maxim among the Syrians as among the Israelites, for the disorder was equally prevalent in both countries; and in both equally incurable. See the notes on Leviticus 13 and Leviticus 14. And it was this that led the king of Israel to infer that the Syrian king sought a quarrel with him, in desiring him to do a work which God only could do; and then declaring war upon him because he did not do it....

HE RENT HIS CLOTHES - The action indicated alarm and terror quite as much as sorrow 2 Samuel 13:19; Ezra 9:3; 2 Chronicles 34:27; Jeremiah 36:22. CONSIDER, I PRAY YOU - Jehoram speaks to his chief officers, and bids them mark the animus of the Syrian monarch. Compare the conduct of Ahab 1 Kings 20:7....

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 IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE KING OF ISRAEL HAD READ THE LETTER, THAT HE RENT HIS CLOTHES,.... As one in great distress, being thrown into perplexity of mind by it, not knowing what to do; or, as some think, at the blasphemy he supposed to be in it, requiring that of him which only God could do: AND SAID, AM I GOD, TO KILL AND TO MAKE ALIVE; or have the power of life and death, which only belongs to the Supreme Being: THAT THIS MAN DOTH SEND UNTO ME TO RECOVER A MAN OF HIS LEPROSY; for a leper was reckoned as one dead, his disease incurable, his flesh upon him being mortified by it, see Numbers 12:12 and therefore not supposed to be in the power of man, only of God, to cure; and therefore, in Israel, none had anything to do with the leper but the priest, in the name of God: wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quar

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

AM. GOD... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ (the Creator). App-4....

_that he rent his clothes_ Sometimes the act was a sign of grief as in 2 Kings 2:12 above and Genesis 37:29; sometimes as here, of horror and alarm. Cf. also 2 Kings 18:36; Ezra 9:3; Jeremiah 36:24. _to kill and to make alive_ The disease of leprosy was incurable, and so the request that it should be cured was such as the author of life alone could grant. Cf. for the language Deuteronomy 32:39, -I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me, I kill and I m