Naaman

In context

Naaman commands the army of Syria, and he has leprosy, a word the Bible uses for several skin diseases. A little girl carried off from Israel tells her mistress about “the prophet who is in Samaria” (2 Kings 5:1–3). Naaman brings ten talents of silver, about 660 pounds (5:5). Told to wash seven times in the Jordan, he is angry: “Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” (5:12). His servants talk him round, and his flesh is restored “like the flesh of a little child” (5:14). Jesus later recalled that of the many lepers in Israel in Elisha’s time, only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed (Luke 4:27).

Naaman asks for two mules’ load of earth, because from now on he will offer sacrifices only to the Lord (5:17); Rimmon was a god of Syria. Gehazi lies to get silver and clothes, and Naaman’s leprosy comes on him (5:20–27).

At Dothan, where Joseph found his brothers (Genesis 37:17), a Syrian army surrounds Elisha. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them,” he tells his servant, and the young man sees the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:13–17). Elisha has the blinded soldiers fed and sent home, and the raids stop (6:18–23).