Naaman the Syrian

I am going to using the sequential reading for my preaching this week. It is taken from 2 Kings 5:1-14 (thanks to Duane for pointing out the typo). Having begun the exegesis for writing the sermon, I thought I would share some of my thoughts here. The passage in 2 Kings 5 is the story of Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army who comes to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy.

This passage contains some rather interesting features. First, it focuses on a foreigner and his act of faith in Yahweh. It is set in the middle of a number of stories focusing on Elisha, but Elisha is a secondary character in this story. Other than two short conversations with Naaman, he is a background character, though essential to the story.

Second, the story turns questions of power on their heads. The mighty leader of the army is striken with leprosy. The king of Israel is portrayed as fearing the king of Syria, who he thinks will attack if Naaman’s leprosy is not cured. He appears to forget that he has a prophet in his kingdom who can perform such wonders. The weak, on the other hand, are shown to be wise. The captive Israelite girl — a slave in a foreign land — is the one who has knowledge that can help Naaman. And when Naaman balks at washing in the Jordan, one of his servants has to point out his error.

There are several elements that I think provide rich possibilities for preaching:

• The faith of the foreigner contrasted with the lack of faith of those on the inside.
• The faith of the powerless contrasted with the lack of faith of the powerful.
• The simplicity of the act Naaman must do to be cured.
• The hospitality of Elisha, who cures the foreigner. In doing so, he provides comfort to the enemy.

Although it is not a part of the reading for this Sunday, the continuation of the story also has some interesting details. After being cured, Naaman says he will worship only Yahweh. In order to do so, he asks to be allowed to take two donkey-loads of Israelite soil back to Syria. Yahweh is the God of the land of Israel, so if you are going to worship Yahweh, you have to take some of that land with you.

I found it interesting that pered in v.17 is translated as ‘mule’ in every translation I could check. While it is clear that there were mules in the ancient world, it is not entirely certain that pered indicates a mule. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and female horse, but interbreeding of animals was forbidden in Israel (Leviticus 19:19), although this does not mean it was not practiced. I wish I had my Koehler-Baumgartner lexicon out of storage right now to see what they have to say about pered.

On the other hand, it is clear why translators would want to avoid talking about Naaman taking an ass-load of dirt back to Syria. A mule-load definitely sounds better.