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The Books of Kings · Naaman

Wash,and be clean.

The most decorated soldier in Syria had an incurable disease and a kidnapped Israelite child in his household — and she is the only reason he ever heard there was anything to be done. Every scene below is a real frame from our animated film.

Real film frames 2 Kings 5 Scroll to begin
Scroll to begin
Gilded greaves and sandals on a stone floor A commander's armour, seen from below, firelit Alone in a back room, he starts unwinding a bandage He works at it by the light of one small lamp He looks at what is underneath Close on his eyes — nobody else is allowed to see this He winds it back up again And puts the armour back on
Scene IThe Man Behind the Door

Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable… he was also a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper. That last clause gets a whole scene: the most powerful soldier in Aram, alone at night, unwrapping his arm where nobody can see him. 2 Kings 5 : 1

A great man — but a leper.

A girl folding linen in a rich, lamplit house She stops, holding a folded cloth Her face — she is deciding whether to say it She looks over at her mistress The lady of the house, listening from her seat The girl says it And goes back to the linen A small figure in a very large room
Scene IIThe Smallest Voice

Aram had raided Israel and taken captives, and one of them — a little maiden, unnamed, a prisoner of war working in the house of the man whose army took her — said this to her mistress: “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy.” That sentence is the hinge of the entire chapter. Nobody ever asks her name. 2 Kings 5 : 2–3

The mistress takes it seriously The girl, asked to repeat it The mistress's face changing A door opens far down the hall — Naaman He stands in the doorway in full armour She turns to tell him The girl watches from the side of the room A vast throne hall, one small figure crossing it
Scene IIIHope, Absurd and Enormous

He told the king of Aram, and the king said go — and wrote a letter to the king of Israel, and sent ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of clothes with him. A superpower's chief of staff packed a fortune and set out for another country on the word of a kidnapped child. 2 Kings 5 : 4–5

A crowded throne hall, light falling from high windows The king reads a letter and goes pale Officials talking over each other The letter passed from hand to hand The king, close, shouting He tears his robes in front of everyone A messenger arrives at the door The court parts for a man in a plain cloak
Scene IVAm I God?

The king of Israel read it and completely lost his nerve: “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? Just see how he seeks a quarrel against me.” He assumed it was a pretext for war. Then word reached Elisha, who sent one line back: “Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 2 Kings 5 : 6–8

Chariot horses at full stretch in the dust The convoy comes over a rise Banners, chariots, an escort of spearmen Naaman rides under a canopy like a visiting emperor He is announced at a very ordinary doorway The escort forms up outside a small mud-brick house He waits, magnificent, for the door to open
Scene VClatter and Glory

He arrived the way a man of his rank arrives: horses, chariots, an armed escort and a fortune in the baggage, and stopped at the door of the house of Elisha. The scale of the entourage sits there for a long beat against the size of the front door. 2 Kings 5 : 9

A plain wooden door, closed It opens a little — and it is not the prophet A servant, delivering a message He says it and looks apologetic Naaman's face, absolutely still The escort behind him, waiting to see what happens Close — the beginning of an enormous temper
Scene VIThe Door Opens Halfway

Elisha did not come out. He sent a servant to the door with an instruction: “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.” No ceremony, no audience, no acknowledgement of rank — a message passed through a doorway to the second most powerful man in Syria. 2 Kings 5 : 10

He didn't even come out.

Close on a face going from shock to fury He flings an arm at the shut door Both fists up, shouting at a house Arms wide — this is not how it was supposed to go He shouts something about rivers He turns on his heel The servant watches him storm off
Scene VIIThe Eruption

“Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.” He had scripted it in advance and been handed something smaller and stranger. And then the line that gives the game away: “Aren't Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” 2 Kings 5 : 11–12

A purple cloak striding away across open country A servant jogging to keep up with him Two figures very small under a huge grey sky The servant risks saying something He puts a hand out, carefully Naaman stops Rain starting, and a man thinking He looks back the way they came
Scene VIIIThe Gentle Suggestion

His own servants talked him round, and they did it beautifully — no rebuke, just a question: “My father, if the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” The greatness was the whole problem. He would have paid anything except the cost of doing something small. 2 Kings 5 : 13

If he had asked you something great…

Interlude · Your turn

This is the river. What should the great man do?

His servants have said their piece. Choose for Naaman.

A brown, unimpressive river winding through scrub He goes under and comes up furious Fist clenched, water streaming off gold armour Down again, face first Up again, spitting muddy water His servant on the bank, saying nothing The servant waits Naaman's face — still angry, still going
Scene IXOne, and Two

So he went down and dipped himself. Every one of the seven plays out, and the first two are pure humiliation: a decorated general kneeling in a shallow muddy river in front of his own staff, doing exactly what he was told by a servant at a door. 2 Kings 5 : 14

The sky has cleared to blue without anyone noticing A heron lands on the bank a few feet away It looks at him Close on the bird, entirely unimpressed Man and heron, neither moving He goes under again Bubbles coming up through clear water
Scene XThe Heron

Somewhere between the second dip and the fourth, the weather changes. Nobody mentions it — the storm just stops, the water goes clear, and a heron lands nearby and watches the most important man in Damascus getting on with it. 2 Kings 5 : 14

The servant holds up a hand, counting Three fingers Two An enormous splash in the shallows He surfaces, streaming, saying nothing now The two of them, far apart, at the water's edge He pulls a weed out of his hair and stares at it A sprig of river weed in a ringed hand
Scene XIFour Fingers

His servant counts them off on his fingers from the bank. Somewhere in the middle of it Naaman stops arguing. There is no dialogue in this whole stretch — a man in ruined ceremonial armour, a shallow river, and someone quietly keeping count. 2 Kings 5 : 14

He closes his eyes He lowers himself in Only the top of his head above the surface Under — sunlight coming down through the water The surface closes over and goes still Reeds, reflections, nothing happening Still nothing The empty river, holding
Scene XIIThe Seventh

Then he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And here comes the bravest choice of all: on the seventh, everything stops. Empty water. Reeds. Four full seconds of a river with nobody in it. 2 Kings 5 : 14

Seven times, according to the saying.

He comes up out of the water Standing in the shallows, water running off him He looks down at his own arm He pulls the bandage away Skin — ordinary, whole, unmarked His face, close He cannot speak He stands alone in a river in the morning
Scene XIIILike the Flesh of a Little Child

And his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. The Bible uses a child's skin as the comparison — and the man who is healed is the one who was told about it by a child. 2 Kings 5 : 14

His escort on the bank, staring A servant on the shore, laughing, both hands up Soldiers breaking ranks and running for the water Armoured men wading straight in, cheering Naaman in the middle of them, overwhelmed Arms out, head back The whole company standing in the Jordan Sun through the cloud over all of it
Scene XIVNo God in All the Earth

He went back to the house with his whole company and stood in front of Elisha and said it: “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” Then he tried to pay, and Elisha refused everything — so Naaman asked instead for two mule-loads of Israelite earth to take home, so that he could stand on it to pray. He wanted to bring a piece of the ground back with him. 2 Kings 5 : 15–19

Now I know there is no God in all the earth…

After the story

Everyone in this story has a title except the one who is right.

A king of Aram. A king of Israel. A captain of the host. A prophet. And a little maiden — no name, no rank, taken in a raid by the army of the man she ends up helping. She speaks one sentence in the whole Bible and it saves his life. Jesus brought this chapter up in his first sermon at Nazareth, and the crowd tried to throw him off a cliff for it: there were plenty of lepers in Israel, and the one who got healed was the foreign soldier.

The servant girl in the lamplit house, deciding whether to speak A small figure standing in a very large room
The only person in the chapter who knows what to do, and the only one with no name.

Voices of the river · hover or tap to turn

Naaman Naaman

"See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel."

— 2 Kings 5:15
The servant girl The Servant Girl

"I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy."

— 2 Kings 5:3
Naaman's servant Naaman's Servant

"My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it?"

— 2 Kings 5:13

Naaman

How closely were you watching?

1. Who told Naaman there was help in Israel?

2. Why did the king of Israel tear his clothes?

3. What made Naaman furious?

4. What did Naaman ask to take home afterwards?

What this story teaches

The person with the least power knows the most.

A captured child, working for the household of the army that took her, is the only one in the chapter who knows where help is. She had every reason to say nothing, and she said something.

"I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria!" 2 Kings 5:3

Pride will pay any price except a small one.

Naaman brought a fortune and expected a ceremony. What he was offered was a wash in a river he had already insulted. "If the prophet had asked you some great thing, would you not have done it?"

"Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" 2 Kings 5:12

Obedience is usually undramatic.

Six dips changed nothing at all. There is no way to know from inside the river which one is the last one. He had to keep going while nothing was happening.

"Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan…" 2 Kings 5:14
Read the scripture itself. 2 Kings 5 · World English Bible

2 Kings 5

1Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

2The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.

3She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy.”

4Someone went in, and told his lord, saying, “The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this.”

5The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

6He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.”

7When 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 to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”

8It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that 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.”

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

10Elisha 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.”

11But 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 Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper.’

12Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them, and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

13His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”

14Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”

16But he said, “As Yahweh lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” He urged him to take it; but he refused.

17Naaman said, “If not, then, please let two mules’ burden of earth be given to your servant; for your servant will from now on offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh.

18In this thing may Yahweh pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon. When I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, may Yahweh pardon your servant in this thing.”

19He said to him, “Go in peace.” So he departed from him a little way.

20But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought. As Yahweh lives, I will run after him, and take something from him.”

21So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he came down from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?”

22He said, “All is well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Behold, even now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.’”

23Naaman said, “Be pleased to take two talents.” He urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they carried them before him.

24When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed.

25But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, “Where did you come from, Gehazi?” He said, “Your servant went nowhere.”

26He said to him, “Didn’t my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants?

27Therefore the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever.” He went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.

World English Bible (WEB) — a public-domain modern English translation. Read it freely, share it freely.

NEXT IN KINGS

He spread it before the LORD.

The northern kingdom walks into fog and out of the Bible — and then the same army arrives at Jerusalem, and a king puts the letter on the temple floor.

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