5Now Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man before his master and highly regarded,^a for by him Yahweh had given victory to Aram. Now the man was a mighty warrior, but he was afflicted with a skin disease. ²When the Arameans went on a raid, they brought back a young girl from the land of Israel, and she came into the service of^b the wife of Naaman. ³She said to her mistress, “If only my lord would come before the prophet who is in Samaria; then he would cure his skin disease.”^c ⁴He came and told his master, saying, “Thus and so the girl who is from the land of Israel said.” ⁵So the king of Aram said, “Go, I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He went and took with him^d ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing.

⁶So he brought the letter to the king to Israel, saying, “Now, when this letter comes to you, I have just sent Naaman my servant to you that you may cure him from his skin disease.” ⁷It happened that when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God to cause death or to give life? This man is sending a man to me to cure his disease. Indeed! But know and see that he seeks an opportunity against me.”

⁸It happened that as soon as Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why did you tear your clothes? Please may he come to me, that he might know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹Then Naaman came with his horses and his chariots, and he stopped at the doorway of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, you must wash seven times in the Jordan, then your flesh shall return to you, and you shall be clean.” ¹¹But Naaman became angry and he went and said, “Look, I said to myself, ‘Surely he will come out, stand, call upon the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hands over the spot; then he would take away the skin disease.’ ¹²Are not the Abana and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all of the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them that I may be clean?” Then he turned and left in anger. ¹³But his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had spoken a difficult thing to you to do, would you not have done it? Why not even when he says to you, ‘Wash and you shall be clean’?” ¹⁴So he went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh returned as the flesh of a small boy, and he was clean.

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Footnotes

aLiterally “faces were being lifted up ”
bLiterally “she became before”
cLiterally “he would withdraw him from his skin disease”
dLiterally “in his hand”