2 Kings 5:1-16 ▼

1 NOW Naaman, general of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance to Aram; and Naaman was a valiant man, but he was a leper.

2 And the Arameans had gone out raiding, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife.

3 And she said to her mistress, Blessed would be my lord if he would go to the prophet who is in Samaria! for he would immediately cure him of his leprosy.

4 And they went in and told her lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid who is from the land of Israel.

5 And the king of Aram said to him, Come, go, I will send a letter to 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 garments.

6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, and this was written in it: In the hour when this letter reaches you, behold, I have sent to you Naaman my servant that you may heal him of his leprosy.

7 And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends me a man to heal him of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, and see how he is seeking to pick a quarrel with me.

8 land when Elisha the prophet of God had heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

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

10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you and you shall be clean.

11 But Naaman was angry, 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 wave his hand over the place, and I will recover from the leprosy.

12 Are not Amnan and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? I will go and wash in them and be clean. So he turned and went away in a rage.

13 And his servants came near and spoke to him and said, Our lord, if the prophet had told you to do some great tiling, you would have done it; but behold, he has told you to do a small thing. Go and wash, and be clean. And he listened to them and did so.

14 And he went down and washed seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the prophet of God; and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15 And he returned to the prophet of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him, and said to him, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; now therefore, take this blessing from your servant.

16 But Elisha said, As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And be urged him to take it; but he refused.