2 Kings 5:5

Go to, go Naaman was so valued by the king that not a moment must be lost, but he must start to seek for his cure at once.

I will send a letter There must have existed at this time such relations between Israel and Syria as made correspondence between the two kings possible. The two nations were at peace, as we see from verse 7, where Jehoram expresses his dread of a quarrel. The tone of the king of Israel seems to be that of one who feared Syria, and for that reason wanted to avoid a rupture.

unto the king of Israel The king is not named, but it seems likely that the activity of Elisha was mainly in the reign of Jehoram, Ahab's son.

and took with him ten talents of silver At this early date there was no coined money. The silver and the gold were in bars and were paid away by weight. A talent of silver is said to have been worth about £375, and gold was about ten times the value of silver.

six thousandpieces of gold In phrases like this when the Hebrew expression is given fully, the inserted word is usually -shekels", which the R.V. puts on the margin. See 1 Chronicles 21:25; 2 Chronicles 3:9. But the shekel was in these days only a weight, as indeed the word signifies; thus we have not only shekels of gold, but shekels of silver (1 Samuel 9:8); shekels of brass (1 Samuel 17:5); and shekels of iron (1 Samuel 17:7). When the shekel came to be a coin, the shekel of gold was worth about £2.

ten changes of raiment Especially valued in the East, and often included in summaries of wealth, and among costly presents. Cf. Genesis 45:22; 2 Chronicles 9:24.