Category:Elisha and Naaman

2 Kings 5:1-5:19

5:1. Naaman, general of the army, of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man, and rich, but a leper.

5:2. Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman's wife.

5:3. She said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria: he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he has.

5:4. Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus said the girl from the land of Israel.

'''5:5. The king of Syria said to him: Go; and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment;'''

5:6. and brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When you shall receive this letter, know that I have sent to you Naaman, my servant, that you may heal him of his leprosy.

'''5:7. When the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man has sent to me to heal a man of his leprosy? Mark, and see how he seeks occasions against me.'''

'''5:8. When Elisha, the man of God, had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why have you rent your garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.'''



5:9. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha:

5:10. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh shall recover health, and you shall be clean.

5:11. Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me.

'''5:12. Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation,'''

5:13. His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, surely you should have done it: how much rather what he now has said to you: Wash, and you shall be clean?

5:14. Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child: and he was made clean.

5:15. Returning to the man of God, with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God, in all the earth, but only in Israel: I beseech you, therefore, take a blessing of your servant.

A blessing. . .a present.

'''5:16. But he answered: As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused.'''

5:17. Naaman said: As you will: but I beseech you, grant to me, your servant, to take from hence two mules' burden of earth: for your servant will not henceforth offer holocaust, or victim, to other gods, but to the Lord.

5:18. But there is only this, for which you shall entreat the Lord for your servant; when my master goes into the temple of Remmon, to worship there, and he leans on my hand: if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he bows down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me, your servant, for this thing.

'''5:19. He said to him: Go in peace. So he departed from him, in the spring time of the earth.'''