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Gehazi

Ran after the man his master had refused payment from, and came back with two talents of silver and a disease.

Gehazi is Elisha’s servant and he is useful. It is he who works out what the Shunammite woman lacks, a son and an old husband, and says so. He is also the one who pushes her away at Carmel and who runs ahead with the staff that does not work. After Naaman goes home cured and unbilled, Gehazi says to himself that his master has spared this Syrian, and runs after the chariots with an account about two young men from the sons of the prophets who have just arrived and need a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.

Where he appears2 Kings 4 to 5 · 2 Kings 8

2 Kings
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Gehazi

The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of Gehazi

  1. 01

    2 Kings 4:11-17

    What then is to be done for her

    Asked what the woman needs, he answers accurately: she has no child and her husband is old. The promise made to her comes out of his observation.

    Gehazi supplies the observation that the conversation has been missing. Elisha offers influence with a king or an army commander; the woman replies that she lives among her own people. She has not provided hospitality as an application for royal assistance. When Elisha asks again what can be done, Gehazi names a different absence: no child, and an old husband. Court connections are not the answer to that.

    This is useful, attentive service. Nothing in the passage authorizes turning Gehazi's contribution into a concealed scheme simply because his later conduct is known. He sees something relevant and says it. The woman, meanwhile, stands in the doorway to hear a promise that reaches beyond anything she requested. Her answer is not the polished gratitude expected at a presentation ceremony. Do not lie unto thine handmaid. The promise touches something serious enough that a pleasant falsehood would be cruel. The closing verse answers her protest with a birth, at the stated season.

    Verse by verse

    1. 4:13

      I dwell among mine own people answers an offer of powerful patrons. The woman does not ask Elisha to use his court connections for her.

    2. 4:14

      Gehazi states that she has no child and that her husband is old. The verse does not give her age or a medical explanation for the childlessness.

    3. 4:17

      The promise is fulfilled at the season Elisha named. The matching time language binds the announcement and the birth together.

    2 Kings 4:11-17

    King James Version · 7 verses

    4:11And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.

    4:12And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.

    4:13And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.

    4:14And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.

    4:15And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

    4:16And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.

    4:17And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.

    2 Kings 4:11-17: What then is to be done for her
  2. 02

    2 Kings 4:27-31

    The staff that did nothing

    He pushes her away when she grabs the prophet’s feet, and is sent ahead with the staff to lay on the child’s face. He comes back and reports that the child is not awakened.

    Gehazi tries to remove the woman from Elisha's feet. Elisha tells him to leave her there. Before the staff is entrusted to him, the servant has already needed correction about the person standing in front of him. Her distress matters more than keeping the encounter orderly. Elisha also admits that he does not yet know its cause. The prophet makes room for what his attendant has tried to push away.

    The staff then travels with clear authorization and exact instructions, yet produces neither voice, nor hearing. The text is unusually unwilling to disguise the failure. It also declines to explain it. No sentence says that Gehazi disobeyed the instructions, lacked sufficient faith, or had secretly committed the offense of the next chapter. He returns and reports that the child has not awakened. The difference between an authorized mission and a guaranteed result is left visible. A prophet's staff has reached the room. The child still needs life.

    Verse by verse

    1. 4:27

      Elisha corrects Gehazi's attempt to push the woman away. He acknowledges her distress while explicitly admitting that its cause has been hidden from him.

    2. 4:29

      The staff belongs to Elisha, and Gehazi carries it at his command. This is not an unauthorized experiment by the servant.

    3. 4:31

      The report says that the child has not awakened; verses 20 and 32 explicitly call the child dead. The language of waking does not mean the child had merely been asleep.

    2 Kings 4:27-31

    King James Version · 5 verses

    4:27And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

    4:28Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?

    4:29Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way: if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

    4:30And the mother of the child said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.

    4:31And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Wherefore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is not awaked.

    2 Kings 4:27-31: The staff that did nothing
  3. 03

    2 Kings 5:20-24

    As the LORD lives, I will run after him

    He invents two guests and a need. Naaman presses two talents on him instead of one and sends two servants to carry it, and Gehazi takes it off them at the tower and hides it in the house.

    Gehazi swears by the LORD that he will reverse what Elisha has just sworn by the LORD to do. The same sacred opening introduces opposite decisions: the master will receive nothing; the servant will run after Naaman and take something. The words sound familiar. The purpose has changed completely.

    His invented request is carefully attached to respectable things: his master's authority, two visiting members of the prophetic community, clothes, and help for their needs. Naaman not only agrees but supplies more silver than requested and servants to carry it. Gehazi has chosen a generous man to deceive. The final movements strip the errand of its charitable appearance. He takes the goods from the carriers, puts them in the house, and dismisses the men. The supposed visitors never appear. A request made in the name of service ends in private storage.

    Verse by verse

    1. 5:20

      As the LORD liveth repeats the oath opening of Elisha's refusal in 5:16. Gehazi explicitly intends the opposite action.

    2. 5:22

      The claim that Elisha sent him and that two prophetic visitors need assistance belongs to Gehazi's deception. It is not an independent report that those visitors arrived.

    3. 5:23

      Gehazi asks for one talent and receives two, along with the requested garments. Naaman also provides two men to carry the goods.

    2 Kings 5:20-24

    King James Version · 5 verses

    5:20But 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.

    5:21So 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?

    5:22And 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.

    5:23And 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.

    5:24And 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 5:20-24: As the LORD lives, I will run after him
  4. 04

    2 Kings 5:25-27

    Went not my heart with you

    Asked where he has been, he says nowhere. The answer names the money, the clothes, the olive groves, the vineyards and the livestock, and the leprosy of Naaman is transferred.

    The goods have been put away; the journey is harder to put away. Gehazi's answer, Thy servant went no whither, attempts to erase a trip the chapter has just followed step by step. Elisha answers with the very moment Naaman stepped down from his chariot. Hiding the silver has not hidden the meeting.

    The list that follows grows beyond what Gehazi actually carried home: oliveyards, vineyards, livestock, male and female servants. These are not recorded purchases. They are the larger world of acquisition named in Elisha's rebuke, set against the time and meaning of Naaman's healing. Then the sentence gives Gehazi an inheritance of a different kind. Naaman's disease will cleave to him and his descendants. The outsider has departed cleansed; the attendant of the man of God goes out diseased. The reversal is stated without a softening explanation. He received more than the silver.

    Verse by verse

    1. 5:25

      Gehazi denies having gone anywhere. Elisha identifies a specific event on the journey rather than merely expressing suspicion.

    2. 5:26

      The additional lands, animals, and servants are named in the rebuke, not reported as items Gehazi has already bought.

    3. 5:27

      Cleave translates the Hebrew dabaq, to cling or adhere. The sentence explicitly extends the judgment to Gehazi's seed, meaning descendants.

    4. 5:27

      Second Kings 8:4-5 also places Gehazi before the king, identifying the Shunammite woman and her son. Its timing relative to this judgment is disputed, and no passage records Gehazi being healed.

    2 Kings 5:25-27

    King James Version · 3 verses

    5:25But 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.

    5:26And 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?

    5:27The 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.

    2 Kings 5:25-27: Went not my heart with you

Why it matters

Gehazi is placed immediately after the chapter that refuses payment, and the contrast is the whole argument. Elisha would not take a gift for a healing because the healing was not his to sell; Gehazi sells it behind his back for clothes he hides before he goes in. The question he is asked is not about money but about timing, whether this is a time to receive garments and oliveyards. He leaves the presence a leper as white as snow.

4 songs

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

  1. 2 Kings 4:1-37

    Borrow Thee Vessels, Not a Few

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  2. 2 Kings 4:38-5:27

    Wash and Be Clean

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  3. 2 Kings 5

    Wash in Jordan

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  4. 2 Kings 8:1-9:13

    The Man Who Shall Smite the House of Ahab

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