SCRIPTURE READING 2 Kings 5:1-15a
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great 5man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had
5
given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from
leprosy. 2Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl
captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3She said
to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in
Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4So Naaman went in and
told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5And the
king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of
Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand
shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 6He brought the letter to the
king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I
have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his
leprosy.” 7When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and
said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to
cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a
quarrel with me.” 8But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king
of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have
you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there
is a prophet in Israel.”
9So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the
entrance of Elisha’s house. 10Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying,
“Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and
you shall be clean.” 11But Naaman became angry and went away, saying,
“I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on
the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot,
and cure the leprosy! 12Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them,
and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13But his servants
approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you
to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more,
when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14So he went down
and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word
of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy,
and he was clean.
6
15Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came
and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all
the earth except in Israel.
Reader: Word of God. Word of life.
All: Thanks be to God.