1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible

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II Kings 5:1	Naaman, general of the army, of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man, and rich, but a leper.	King, Benadad, who had defeated Achab, and was slain by Hazael; (chap. 8.; Tirinus) or, according to Salien, Hazael was already king. (Menochius) --- Josephus passes over this history. It is not known for what reason, (Calmet) unless he was staggered at the petition of Naaman, ver. 18, 19. (Haydock) --- Syria. The Rabbins say, by killing Achab, 3 Kings 22:34. But their authority is very small; (Haydock) and he might signalize himself on many other occasions. --- Leper. This malady did not exclude him from court. The Hebrews allowed such to appear in public, till the priests had declared them unclean; and other nations viewed the leprosy with less horror.
II Kings 5:2	Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led away captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and she waited upon Naaman's wife.	Robbers; soldiers. (Tirinus) (2 Kings 4:2.) --- Such invaded the dominions of Joachin, 4 Kings 24:2. Irruptions of this nature were then very common, (see Judges 11:3., and Job 1:15.) and regarded as noble military exploits. When the Greeks first became acquainted with navigation, they exercised themselves in this manner; (Thucydides l.) and the Germans allowed their citizens to take from other people. Juventutis exercendae ac desidiae minuendae causa. (Caesar, Bel. Gal. vi.) Those who had been plundered, were allowed to redeem their goods. (Strabo xi.) --- The Arabs still maintain their right to live upon their neighbours. (Calmet) --- The Christian religion has introduced more gentle manners. --- Maid. It seems, however, she was well informed of the miraculous powers and goodness of Eliseus. (Haydock)
II Kings 5:3	And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had been with the prophet that is in Samaria: he would certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath.
II Kings 5:4	Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying: Thus and thus said tile girl from the land of Israel.
II Kings 5:5	And the king of Syria said to him: Go, and 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 raiment;	Raiment; the tunic and the cloak, (Calmet) of a finer sort. (Tirinus)
II Kings 5:6	And brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I have sent to thee Naaman, my servant, that thou mayst heal him of his leprosy.
II Kings 5:7	And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me to heal a man of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions against me.	Leprosy. The cure was deemed very difficult; as it generally kept gaining ground, and destroyed the constitution. See Numbers 12:12., and Isaias 53:4. (Calmet) --- Me. The letter was, in effect, written in a haughty style, (Menochius) and the king might naturally infer that war would be the consequence. (Haydock)
II Kings 5:8	And when Eliseus, the man of God, had heard this, to wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in Israel.	Israel; able to perform much greater wonders, by God's assistance. (Menochius)
II Kings 5:9	So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus:
II Kings 5:10	And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean.	Messenger. Eliseus supports the dignity of God's envoy, and shews the general that his cure was to be attributed, not to the presence of the prophet, but to the will and goodness of God.
II Kings 5:11	Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked the name of the Lord, his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me.
II Kings 5:12	Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was going away with indignation,	Pharphar. Benjamin (p. 53) informs us that the former river serves to water the city, and the second the surrounding gardens. Maundrell could discover no vestiges of these names in Syria, but he describes the Barrady, which supplies Damascus with abundance of water. Stephanus calls it Bardine; and others, the Chrysorroas. The Orontes, which is supposed to be one of these rivers, flows by Antioch into the Mediterranean sea. (Calmet)
II Kings 5:13	His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean?	Father; a title given to masters, kings, etc. The Romans senators were styled, "conscript fathers;" and Homer calls kings "the fathers and shepherds of the people." See Genesis 45:8. (Calmet) --- Masters may often derive benefit from the observations of their servants, as Naaman did repeatedly, ver. 2. This may serve to correct their pride. (Haydock) --- Clean. The patient ought not to prescribe rules to his physician. (Menochius) --- How justly might these words be addressed to delicate penitents! (Haydock)
II Kings 5:14	*Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God: and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean. Luke 4:27.	Clean. If bathing seven times in the Jordan had been an infallible remedy, there would soon have been no lepers in the land; and our Saviour plainly intimates that the cure was miraculous, Luke 4:27. The leprosy of Naaman, though inveterate, was cured in an instant. To bathe in a rapid stream, is allowed to be very salutary for removing the diseases of the skin. (Calmet) (Vales. 38.) --- The fathers discover in this miracle, a figure of the Gentiles called to the faith by the Synagogue, which is in servitude, Galatians 4:25. Baptism cleanses us from all the seven capital sins, (Tertullian, contra Marc. 4.) so that no vestiges remain. (St. Ambrose, etc.) (Calmet)
II Kings 5:15	And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God, in all the earth, but only in Israel: I beseech thee, therefore, take a blessing of thy servant.	A blessing. A present, (Challoner) accompanied with wishes of happiness, on both sides. We have seen that the prophets generally received such presents. But Eliseus acts with more reserve in regard of this stranger, as St. Paul did towards the new converts; though he received some sustenance from those, who would be less in danger of suspecting that he was actuated by selfish views in preaching the gospel, 2 Corinthians 10:7., and 12:14., and Matthew 10:8. (Calmet) --- They abstained from every appearance of evil, (Haydock) though they might lawfully have accepted such presents. Eliseus wished to convince Naaman that God's grace was not to be purchased, and to leave a lesson of moderation to future teachers. (Menochius)
II Kings 5:16	But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused.
II Kings 5:17	And Naaman said: As thou wilt: but I beseech thee, grant to me, thy servant, to take from hence two mules' burden of earth: for thy servant will not henceforth offer holocaust, or victim, to other gods, but to the Lord.	Mule; (burdonum,) the offspring of a horse and of an ass. (Menochius) --- Earth, to make brick for an altar, or to inclose within a box of brass, as was done in the altar of holocausts in the desert; or, in fine, to sprinkle on some clean place, where an altar might be erected, in honour of the true God. He does not inquire what ceremonies were used in the land of Israel, (Calmet) as he was not enrolled by circumcision, among the Hebrews, as an observer of their law; but intended to serve God, like Job, and many other righteous Gentiles, who kept themselves clear of idolatry, and observed the ancient patriarchal religion with a clean heart. (Haydock) --- As God had sanctified the land by the observance of his true religion, Naaman rightly judged that it was fitter for an altar than the earth of his own country. (Worthington) --- The Jews had a particular veneration for it, Psalm 101:15. They built a synagogue in Persia, with earth and stones taken from Jerusalem. (Benjamin) --- Christians sometimes carry away the same earth. (St. Augustine, de C.[City of God?] 22:8.) (Turon. 1:7.) --- The Donatists had a sovereign respect for it; (St. Augustine, ep. 52.) and it is said that St. Helena brought a great quantity to the church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, at Rome. (Mabillon, Itin. p. 187.) (Calmet) --- Lord. Out of Palestine, the Gentiles were not prohibited to offer sacrifice to the true God any where; nor were they under any obligation of following the law of Moses. (Abulensis) (Tirinus)
II Kings 5:18	But there is only this, for which thou shalt entreat the Lord for thy servant; when my master goeth into the temple of Remmon, to worship there: and he leaneth upon my hand, if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he boweth down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me, thy servant, for this thing.	Remmon, denotes "a pomegranate," or something "elevated," and is probably an epithet of the sun, the chief idol of the Syrians, which was also styled Adad, "one," as both are united, Zacharias 12:11. --- Rempham is probably the same divinity, Acts 7:43. Septuagint here read, Remman. Hesychius explains Ramas, "the highest god." Selden thinks the Elion of the Phoenicians is understood; Grotius, that Saturn, the highest of the planets, is meant. Serarius declares for Venus, to whom pomegranates were sacred; and P. Martyr for Juno, who held one of these apples in her hand. (Pausan. in Corinth) --- Remmon occurs no where else. --- Hand. This was an honour of the chief favourite, 4 Kings 7:2. (Calmet) --- Thing. He does not ask leave to commit sin, which would be absurd; though Protestants are not ashamed to accuse the Catholic Church, as if her "indulgences" were pardons for sins to come; though they be in reality no pardon for sin at all, but only a remission of temporal punishment, after the sin has been remitted by penance. Why do they not manfully attack what we really profess to believe? --- When he. Hebrew, "when I bow," etc. (Haydock)
II Kings 5:19	And he said to him: Go in peace. So he departed from him, in the spring time of the earth.	Go in peace. What the prophet here allowed, was not an outward conformity to an idolatrous worship, but only a service which by his office he owed to his master; who, on all public occasions, leaned on him: so that his bowing down when his master bowed himself down, was not in effect adoring the idols; nor was it so understood by the standers by, (since he publicly professed himself a worshipper of the only true and living God) but it was no more than doing a civil office to the king, his master, whose leaning upon him obliged him to bow at the same time that he bowed. (Challoner) --- Some assert that the prophet does not even authorize this civil assistance in the temple of idols, but simply tells Naaman to go in peace, and to think no more of his former religion; that he will beseech the Lord not to suffer him to be exposed to the danger. (Junius and Piscator) (Calmet) --- Some formerly pleaded this example, to excuse their occasional conformity in going to the Protestant churches, as the law required. But the case was very different. Greater perfection is required in the new law. They had not to act in the capacity of Naaman; and their attendance was considered as a profession of a false religion. Their directors loudly condemned the practice. They ought rather to have imitated Eleazar, etc., who refused to eat swine's flesh, 2 Machabees vi., and vii. (Worthington) --- Though the king intended to adore the idol, Naaman referred his worship to God alone. (Bristow, Mot. 23.; Theodoret, q. 19.; and a Greek interpreter.) --- The Hebrew term signifies, either to adore mentally, or to bend down; which latter is the sense applicable to Naaman. (Cajetan) (Amama) --- His "request must certainly refer to the time past, and not to that to come; as if he begged an indulgence in idolatry, or of countenancing his master's idol-worship, by his presence." (Button, Dict.) --- The Jews foolishly pretend (Calmet) that "the proselyte of dwelling," like Naaman, might return to the service of idols, in his own country, without its being imputed to him. (Selden, Jur. 2:11.) (Maimonides) --- The conduct of the Syrian convert, whether past or future, undoubtedly filled him with alarm. If he considered the danger of a merely civil attendance upon the king, in an idolatrous temple, we cannot condemn him of idle scrupulosity; (Haycock) since many have found a difficulty in admitting the lawfulness of such a practice, and have even blamed both Naaman and the prophet. (Greg. de Valentia, etc., ep. Cornelius a Lapide) (Calmet) --- But if the practice was irreprehensible, as most interpreters assert, the answer of Eliseus might give this assurance to Naaman, and inform him that he need be under no farther apprehension on that account. Go in peace. These words do not expressly solve the difficulty; but the mode in which they were uttered might intimate, either that the general would be no longer under that embarrassment, (as we do not read that he ever attended the king of Syria into the temple afterwards) or that God had forgiven his former offences, and particularly the scandalous idolatry which now gave him so much pain. The original, ver. 18, which is generally translated in the present or future, (Haydock) may be better rendered in the past tense, as the Chaldean has it. "In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant. My master going into the temple of Remmon to worship there, and leaning upon my hand, and I worshipped in the temple of Remmon, when I did worship in the temple of Remmon, that the Lord pardon," etc. St. Jerome and the Septuagint seem to have read more correctly, when he, etc. We may also render it in the present tense, "and I worship," or, "am wont to adore;" not that he meant to prevaricate any longer. The Syriac and Arabic read with an interrogation. "When I shall adore....(Calmet; or bow down, Haydock) will the Lord pardon me?" But this rather increases the difficulty. (Calmet) --- We may therefore conclude either that Naaman had no decision, or that he had leave to serve his master, (Haydock) in a civil capacity even in the temple; (Menochius; Tirinus; Alex. 2. dis. 7.; Santius, etc.) or, that he obtained pardon for his past transgressions. (Bochart; Calmet, etc.) --- Earth, as the expression is rendered [in] Genesis 35:16., thoug here it is literally, "at the chosen season;" electo, not verno. The sense is the same. Cibrath, untranslated by the Septuagint, may denote a certain space, or village; (Haydock) "a furrow," of 240 feet long, and half that breadth; (Calmet) "a mile;" (Chaldean; Pagnin) or a portion of time allowed by the law, about a quarter of an hour, during which a mile, or sabbath-day's journey, might be performed. (Tirinus) --- Protestants, "a little way."
II Kings 5:20	But Giezi, the servant of the man of God, said: My master hath spared Naaman, this Syrian, in not receiving of him that which he brought: as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take something of him.	Liveth. How unnecessary was this oath! But the Simoniac has no regard for any thing but money. (Haydock)
II Kings 5:21	And Giezi followed after Naaman: and when he saw him running after him, he leapt down from his chariot to meet him, and said: Is all well?
II Kings 5:22	And he said: All is well: my master hath sent me to thee, saying: Just now there are come to me from Mount Ephraim, two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
II Kings 5:23	And Naaman said: It is better that thou take two talents. And he forced him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, and two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they carried them before him.	Him. The weight must have been considerable, (6000 sicles, ver. 26., and Exodus 38:25.; Haydock) otherwise Giezi would have preferred carrying them himself, that his master might not know. (Calmet) --- He had pretended a reluctance to take more than one talent, not to swerve from his master's injunctions. (Menochius)
II Kings 5:24	And when he was come, and now it was the evening, he took them from their hands, and laid them up in the house, and sent the men away, and they departed.	Evening. Septuagint, Syriac, etc., seems to have read aupol, instead of the present Hebrew hopel, eminence," (Calmet) Protestants, "tower," (Haydock) at or near Samaria; when Giezi thought proper to take the burden himself to prevent detection. Eliseus would hardly dismiss the Syrians, when the night was so near at hand. (Calmet) --- It might however be found more eligible to travel in the evening, (Haydock) as it was now the spring or summer season, (Tirinus) or at least warm, ver. 10. (Haydock)
II Kings 5:25	But he went in, and stood before his master. And Eliseus said: Whence comest thou, Giezi? He answered: Thy servant went no whither.
II Kings 5:26	But he said: Was not my heart present, when the man turned back, from his chariot, to meet thee? So now thou hast received money, and received garments, to buy olive-yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men-servants, and maid-servants.	Present is not expressed in Hebrew but must be understood. Protestants, "Went not mine heart with thee." (Haydock) --- God has revealed the whole transaction to me. (Menochius) --- Heart in Scripture, often denotes the spirit or soul. (Haydock)
II Kings 5:27	But the leprosy of Naaman, shall also stick to thee, and to thy seed for ever. And he went out from him a leper, as white as snow.	For ever. Not perhaps to those who might be already born, unless they were accomplices in the crime. The leprosy is hereditary. Giezi was punished for simony, in selling the miracle, as well as for lying and disobedience. (Calmet) --- He might also have given occasion to Naaman to judge ill of his master; as the false prophets were noted for such avarice, Micheas 3:11. But Eliseus would probably take care to give him better information. (Tirinus) --- He did not require his servant to give up what he had unjustly received, as the general had made over the property to him; and he thought proper to leave it in the hands of Giezi, to indemnify him for past services, and that he might have wherewith to support himself, as he now dismissed him from his company. (Salien, the year before Christ 903.) --- Snow, and therefore more incurable. (Tirinus) --- See Leviticus xiii. (Calmet) --- "All the covetous and misers, together with their riches, possess the leprosy of Giezi:" thesaurum criminum congregarunt. (St. Ambrose) Giezi prefigured Judas, the false apostle of Christ, and all those who buy or sell spiritual things. By their avarice, they procure infamy in this world, and damnation in the next. (St. Augustine, ep. 208, de Temp.) (Worthington)