Глава 5

1–14. Healing of the Syrian military commander Naaman according to the word of the prophet Elisha. 15–19. Naaman's gratitude and his turning to the true God; the selflessness of the prophet. 20–27. Gehazi's greed and his punishment. 2 Kings 5:1. Naaman, the commander of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and respected, because through him the Lord gave victory to the Syrians; and this man was an excellent warrior, but a leper. 2 Kings 5:2. The Syrians one day went out in troops and took captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 2 Kings 5:3. And she said to her mistress: Oh, if my master would visit the prophet who is in Samaria, he would remove his leprosy from him! 2 Kings 5:4. And Naaman went and told it to his master, saying, Thus and thus saith the girl, which is from the land of Israel. To what time Naaman’s miraculous healing dates back to, whether to the time of Joram or already the reign of the Jehu dynasty, is not clear from the text; it is only clear that it falls during the period of peaceful relations between the Syrian and Israeli kingdoms. The rabbis identified Naaman with the Syrian warrior who once mortally wounded Ahab (1 Kings 22:34) and was called by I. Flavius (Ancient Jude 8:15, 5) Haman (παῖς δε τις βασιλικὸς τοῦ ᾿Αδωνος ᾿Αμανος ᾿όνομα ). In contrast to the strict exclusion of lepers among the Jews (Lev. 13:45–46. See Commentaries, Bible, vol. 1), Naaman, who glorified himself with the victory that he brought to his fatherland, apparently continued to serve even after the illness that befell him. But fate, or, more precisely, the providence of God, forced the man who once brought victory to the Syrians over the Israelites, now to turn for healing to the land of the Israelites, to the prophet of God. Naaman learns about the latter from a Jewish captive captured by Syrian troops during one of the raids on the Israeli border lands. On the advice of the captive, Naaman asks the king of Syria for permission to go to Samaria (according to (2 Kings 5:8, etc.), the prophet at this time actually lived not in Gilgal or Carmel, but in Samaria). 2 Kings 5:5. And the king of Syria said [to Naaman], “Go, go down, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He went and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing; 2 Kings 5:6. and he brought a letter to the king of Israel, in which it was said: Along with this letter, behold, I am sending Naaman my servant to you, so that you can remove his leprosy from him. 2 Kings 5:7. The King of Israel, having read the letter, tore his clothes and said: Am I God, to kill and to give life, that he sends to me so that I can remove his leprosy from a man? behold, now know and see that he is looking for an excuse to be hostile against me. From the fact that the Syrian king without hesitation sends Naaman to the Israeli king with a decisive demand in a letter (the contents of the letter are conveyed, v. 6, briefly), it can be concluded that the Syrian kings, after the defeat of Ahab, continued to consider the Israelis their vassals; in the king’s very demand to remove Naaman’s leprosy, one can see the view of a miracle as a work of magic. According to the custom of the East, the etiquette of which requires the presentation of rich gifts to important persons, Naaman takes with him (v. 5) a lot of silver and gold and, in addition, also according to Eastern custom (Gen. 41:14; 1 Sam. 28:8; 2 Sam. 12:20), 10 changes of clothes. Despite this, the king of Israel, having understood the letter of the Syrian king in the sense of being to himself and, apparently, not thinking at all about the great prophet Elisha, comes into despair (v. 7): he tears his clothes out of sadness (cf. 2 Kings 2:12), admits that only God has the ability to kill and give life (cf. Deut. 32:39) - leprosy was revered a disaster almost equal to death (Num. 12:12), and suspects that the demand of the Syrian king is looking for a reason for war. 2 Kings 5:8. When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to say to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes?” let him come to me and know that there is a prophet in Israel. 2 Kings 5:9. And Naaman arrived on his horses and on his chariot, and stopped at the entrance to the house of Elisha. 2 Kings 5:10. And Elisha sent a servant to him to say: Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your body will be renewed and you will be clean. Now the prophet himself reminds the king of himself, that God, who kills and gives life, despite the retreats of the people and the king, is ready to show them mercy through his prophet. However, when Naaman arrived at the house of the prophet Elisha, “he, keeping the law, as one living under the law, did not agree to see Naaman as a leper (according to the law of Lev. 13–14), but ordered him to wash himself 7 times in the Jordan River” (Blessed Theodoret, question 19), promising him “renewal of the body” and “purity” (v. 10, cf. Luke 17:11), as stated usually about healing from leprosy. 2 Kings 5:11. And Naaman was angry, and went and said: Behold, I thought that he would go out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and lay his hand on that place and take away the leprosy; 2 Kings 5:12. Are not Avanah and Farphar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? couldn't I wash myself in them and be cleansed? And he turned around and left in anger. 2 Kings 5:13. And his servants came and spoke to him, and said: My father, if the prophet had told you something important, would you not have done it? and even more so when he only told you: “Wash yourself and you will be clean.” 2 Kings 5:14. And he went and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his body was renewed like the body of a little child, and he was cleansed. Angered by the prophet’s apparent lack of attention to himself, Naaman expresses the popular view, widespread in the ancient and modern East, that in order to be cured of an illness it is necessary, in addition to calling on God, to lay the healer’s hand on the sore spot (v. 11). The Syrian rivers Avana (according to another reading in Keri - Amana) and Farfar (Heb. Parpar), according to the general opinion, flowed from Anti-Lebanon and irrigated Damascus. The first is identified with the present Nahr-Barada, the ancient Chrysorrhoas (Onomasticon, 7); the second - from Nahr el-Awaj south of Damascus (Onomasticon, 923). See Badecker. Palastina u. Sirien. A. 7; s. 334. Obedience to the prophet on the part of Naaman (v. 14) was rewarded with the exact fulfillment of the word of the prophet (v. 10), healing and, as it were, a complete renewal of Naaman. 2 Kings 5:15. And he and all those who accompanied him returned to the man of God, and came and stood before him, and said: Behold, I have learned that in all the earth there is no God except among Israel; therefore accept the gift from your servant. 2 Kings 5:16. And he said: As the Lord lives, before whom I stand! I won't accept it. And he forced him to take it, but he did not agree. The miraculous healing of Naaman also achieved his spiritual healing - an appeal to the True God, whom he confesses as One on all earth, at the same time he offers the prophet gifts (Heb. berakha, blessing, as in (Gen. 33:11; 1 Sam. 25:27)). But the prophet, wanting to show the newly converted foreigner that Jehovah grants healing without any reward for His servants, resolutely refuses to accept any gift from him. “The Prophet preferred much-desired poverty to all wealth and fulfilled the gospel law even before the law was laid down. For it is said: “Tuna you will eat, you will give to you” (Matthew 10:8)” (Blessed Theodoret, question 19). 2 Kings 5:17. And Naaman said: If this is no longer so, then let your servant be given as much land as two mules can carry, because from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings or sacrifices to other gods except the Lord; In Naaman's request to the prophet to give him a certain amount of land from the land of Israel to build an altar to Jehovah in Syria, many saw a sharp contradiction of Naaman's own confession of the unity of Jehovah (2 Kings 5:15); here Jehovah is, as it were, recognized by them only as the God of Canaan. But Naaman’s act simply expresses deep reverence for Jehovah - he considers the very land of the country of His worship sacred and takes part of the land sanctified by the blessing of Jehovah’s prophet. His intention to perform private (not public, cf. 2 Kings 5:18) service to Jehovah is entirely consistent with this feeling. (Even Christians, with unconditional faith in the Unity of God, have always had a desire, for example, to take land from Palestine). 2 Kings 5:18. only this is what the Lord will forgive your servant: when my master goes to the house of Rimmon to worship there and leans on my hand, and I worship in the house of Rimmon, then, for my worship in the house of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant in this case. Naaman, sensitive to his conscience, foresees an inevitable test for his faith: the duty, as a military leader, to accompany the king during worship in honor of Rimmon; Rimmon (Hebrew rimmoneur - pomegranate apple) is probably identical with the Assyrian thunder god Ramman; the Hebrew name (confirmed by the Telkoamar cuneiforms) may denote the idea of ​​the sun, fertility (the pomegranate apple is a symbol of both); further meaning of the god Rimmon (apparently, very revered among the Syrians, as shown by the use of names with this name among them: Gadadrimmon, (Zech. 12:11); Taurimmon, (1 Kings 15:18)). Naaman asks that, through the prayers of the prophet, Jehovah forgive him for his upcoming forced veneration before the idol, he says something like this: “I need to enter with the king when he wants to worship the false god. But, entering with him, I will worship the True God, begging His forgiveness for the fact that, at the royal request, I am forced to enter the church of a false god” (Blessed Theodoret, issue 19). 2 Kings 5:19. And he said to him: Go in peace. And he drove away from him to a small expanse of land. The Prophet, with his farewell greetings “go in peace,” seems to be condescending to the worries of Naaman’s conscience. For the distance between Kibrat and Haaretz, see the interpretation of (Gen. 35:16). 2 Kings 5:20. And Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God said, Behold, my lord refused to take from the hand of that Syrian Naaman what he brought. The Lord lives! I'll run after him and take something from him. 2 Kings 5:21. And Gehazi chased after Naaman. And Naaman saw him running after him, and he came down from his chariot to meet him, and said, “Are you in peace?” 2 Kings 5:22. He answered: in peace; My master sent me to say: “Behold, now two young men from the sons of the prophets have come to me from Mount Ephraim; give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.” 2 Kings 5:23. And Naaman said, Take perhaps two talents. And he begged him. And he tied two talents of silver in two bags and two changes of clothing, and gave them to his two servants, and they carried them before him. 2 Kings 5:24. When he came to the hill, he took them from their hands and hid them at home. And he released the people, and they left. 2 Kings 5:25. When he came and appeared to his master, Elisha said to him, “Where from, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant has not gone anywhere.” 2 Kings 5:26. And he said to him: Did not my heart go with you when that man turned to meet you from his chariot? Is it time to take silver and take clothing, or olive trees and vineyards, and flocks and herds, and male and female servants? 2 Kings 5:27. Let the leprosy of Naaman stick to you and your descendants forever. And he came out from him, white from leprosy, like snow. “In the prophet, both the power of grace and the truthfulness of the sentence are worthy of surprise, because, having learned about what Gehazi had secretly taken, he gave Naaman’s leprosy as an inheritance” (Blessed Theodoret, question 19). You might be interested in: