2 Kings 5:21-27

5:21 So Gehazi ran after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he got down from his chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?”¹ 5:22 He answered, “Everything is fine.² My master sent me with this message, ‘Look, two servants of the prophets just arrived from the Ephraimite hill country.³ Please give them a talent⁴ of silver and two suits of clothes.’” 5:23 Naaman said, “Please accept two talents of silver.⁵ He insisted, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, along with two suits of clothes. He gave them to two of his servants and they carried them for Gehazi.⁶ 5:24 When he arrived at the hill, he took them from the servants⁷ and put them in the house. Then he sent the men on their way.⁸

5:25 When he came and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He answered, “Your servant hasn’t been anywhere.” 5:26 Elisha⁹ replied, “I was there in spirit when a man turned and got down from his chariot to meet you.¹⁰ This is not the proper time to accept silver or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, cattle, and male and female servants.¹¹ 5:27 Therefore Naaman’s skin disease will afflict¹² you and your descendants forever!” When Gehazi¹³ went out from his presence, his skin was as white as snow.¹⁴

¹tn Heb “Is there peace?”

²tn Heb “peace.”

³tn Heb “Look now, here, two servants came to me from the Ephraimite hill country, from the sons of the prophets.”

⁴tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 75 pounds of silver (cf. NCV, NLT, CEV).

⁵tn Heb “Be resolved and accept two talents.”

⁶tn Heb “before him.”

⁷tn Heb “from their hand.”

⁸tn Heb “and he sent the men away and they went.”

⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elisha) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰tn Heb “Did not my heart go as a man turned from his chariot to meet you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes that he was indeed present in “heart” (or “spirit”) and was very much aware of what Gehazi had done. In the MT the interrogative particle has been accidentally omitted before the negative particle.

¹¹tn In the MT the statement is phrased as a rhetorical question, “Is this the time…?” It expects an emphatic negative response.

¹²tn Heb “cling to.”

¹³tn Heb “he”; the referent (Gehazi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴tn Traditionally, “he went from before him, leprous like snow.” But see the note at 5:1, as well as M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 66.