The big picture
Naaman commands the army of Syria, a neighbouring kingdom. He has status and victories but also leprosy, a serious skin disease. A young captive from Israel, the neighbouring nation, tells his wife about Elisha, God's prophet. Her words send the commander in search of healing. Rank and gifts do not obtain the response he expects. After he is healed, a servant's secret pursuit of payment brings another turn. The chapter places people of high rank beside voices they can choose to ignore.
In this chapter
- A Captive Girl Points to Help 2 Kings 5:1-7
Naaman is highly valued by Syria's king because God has given Syria victories through him.
- Naaman Washes in the Jordan 2 Kings 5:8-14
Elisha hears the king's alarm and asks that Naaman be sent to him.
- A Gift Refused and a New Loyalty 2 Kings 5:15-19
Naaman comes back to Elisha.
- Gehazi Invents a Request 2 Kings 5:20-24
Gehazi thinks Elisha has let the wealthy Syrian leave too freely.
- The Hidden Gain Is Exposed 2 Kings 5:25-27
Back with Elisha, Gehazi denies going anywhere.
Central truth
Naaman receives healing through humble obedience, while Gehazi's attempt to profit from it brings the disease upon himself.
Scripture beside the summary
2 Kings · King James Version · 272 Kings 5:1-7
A Captive Girl Points to Help
Naaman is highly valued by Syria's king because God has given Syria victories through him. Yet he suffers from leprosy. A young Israelite girl, captured in a raid and serving his wife, says a prophet in Samaria can heal him. Naaman takes gifts and a royal letter to Israel's king. The letter asks for healing. Israel's king tears his clothes in alarm, saying he cannot give life or cure disease. He suspects Syria is seeking an excuse for conflict. Help began with a powerless captive's words.
In everyday life
A cleaner tells a celebrated athlete's partner about a specialist who treated her relative. Her low rank in the household does not make her knowledge worthless. The message starts a search the athlete's status has not solved. Naaman hears through an enslaved captive, and his healing will come through God's prophet.
Notice
2 Kings 5:1 God is credited with Syria's victories before Naaman seeks him. God is already at work beyond Israel's borders. Even a foreign army owes its gains to him.
2 Kings 5:1-7
King James Version1Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
2And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.
3And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.
4And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
5And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.
6And 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.
7And 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.
2 Kings 5:8-14
Naaman Washes in the Jordan
Elisha hears the king's alarm and asks that Naaman be sent to him. The commander arrives with horses and a chariot, but Elisha sends a messenger. He must wash seven times in the Jordan. Naaman becomes angry. He expected a personal appearance and a dramatic act, and thinks his own country's rivers better. His servants gently ask why he would accept a hard task but refuse this small one. He washes as told, and his skin becomes clean and fresh like a child's.
In everyday life
A celebrated singer leaves a clinic angry because the therapist has prescribed routine exercises instead of an impressive procedure. Her assistant asks why a modest instruction feels harder to accept than a costly treatment. She returns and begins. Naaman's washing brings miraculous healing through God's word, not the usual effect of river water.
Notice
2 Kings 5:13 Naaman's servants challenge his pride without attacking him. Their question helps him see that the smallness of the task is the reason he resists it.
2 Kings 5:8-14
King James Version8And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
9So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
11But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.
12Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
13And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
14Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:15-19
A Gift Refused and a New Loyalty
Naaman comes back to Elisha. He says he now knows that Israel's God alone is God. He offers a gift. Elisha will not take it. Naaman asks for earth to take home, intending to offer worship only to God. He also asks pardon for a future duty: supporting his king when the king bows in Rimmon's temple. Elisha sends him away in peace. The brief reply does not explain every part of that difficult request. Healing has led to a changed allegiance.
In everyday life
A diplomat returns a borrowed prayer book and tells its owner that her convictions have changed. She worries about ceremonies she must attend with her employer and asks how to face the conflict. Gratitude has opened a question about daily duty. Naaman's request follows miraculous healing, and Elisha gives only a brief reply.
Notice
2 Kings 5:16 Elisha refuses the gift even when Naaman presses him. The refusal keeps the healing from becoming something the commander can regard as purchased service.
2 Kings 5:15-19
King James Version15And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
16But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
17And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.
18In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
19And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.
2 Kings 5:20-24
Gehazi Invents a Request
Gehazi thinks Elisha has let the wealthy Syrian leave too freely. He runs after Naaman and falsely says his master needs silver and clothes for two visiting prophets. Naaman gladly gives more silver than requested and sends servants to carry it. Gehazi takes the goods near his home and dismisses the men. He has turned a gift Elisha refused into private gain by using his master's name. The guest does not yet know that the request is false.
In everyday life
A charity driver's assistant catches a donor at the car park and claims that two extra families need funds. He takes the money home instead of adding it to the collection. The donor's willingness becomes his opportunity. Gehazi's lie also reverses Elisha's deliberate refusal to accept payment after God's healing.
Notice
2 Kings 5:22 Gehazi claims that Elisha sent him, making the lie sound like an authorised change. He borrows his master's trusted name to obtain what his master refused.
2 Kings 5:20-24
King James Version20But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
21So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
22And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
23And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.
24And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed.
2 Kings 5:25-27
The Hidden Gain Is Exposed
Back with Elisha, Gehazi denies going anywhere. Elisha tells him that he knows about the meeting beside Naaman's chariot. He challenges the pursuit of money, clothes, land, livestock, and servants at such a moment. The healing was not an opening to build personal wealth. He announces that Naaman's leprosy will cling to Gehazi and his descendants. Gehazi leaves visibly diseased. The man who tried to take the gifts carries away something he never sought, while the foreigner has gone home healed.
In everyday life
A donation treasurer asks an assistant where he has been, then places the signed receipt before him when he denies leaving. The concealed payment is no longer private. His use of trust for gain has been exposed. Gehazi receives a bodily judgment announced by God's prophet, not merely an employment penalty.
Notice
2 Kings 5:27 The disease that left Naaman now falls on Gehazi. The exchange sharply separates the freely given healing from the servant's attempt to profit by deceit.
2 Kings 5:25-27
King James Version25But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
26And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?
27The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
2 Kings 5:1 begins with “Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto…”
Where the chapter turns
2 Kings 5:14 forms a natural hinge: “Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a…”
The final note
2 Kings 5:27 leaves the reader with “The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words Naaman, Israel, LORD, servant, king, Elisha help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- raiment
- Clothing, here carried as part of the gifts Naaman brings.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
