2Ki 5:1-27; Luke 4:27.
Naaman (Heb. Naamân, “pleasant”; Ugar. Nmn; Egyptian from the time of Thutmose III, Nmn3; Gr. Naiman). 1. Descendant of Benjamin (Gen 46:21; 1Ch 8:4), and ancestral head of the Naamites.* 2. Commander-in-chief of the Syrian army under Ben-hadad II, king of Damascus. As a military man he was successful, and made the Syrian kingdom of Damascus a strong nation (2Ki 5:1). However, he contracted leprosy, and faced the ruin of his career. In his house there was an Israelite slave girl who had been taken captive in one of the raids into Israel. He had sympathy for his master’s problem and expressed his wish that he might be healed by the prophet in Samaria. Faced with this prospect of healing, Naaman asked the king for advice, who sent him to that city with a letter of recommendation to the king of Israel. When Naaman presented her in court, there was consternation, because the incident was seen as an excuse to start a war. But when Elisha heard of the incident, he sent word to the king to send Naaman to his house. When he and his retinue arrived, the prophet did not come out to meet him; he simply sent him the message that he should dip 7 times in the Jordan River. This was evidently for the purpose of testing his faith and humiliating his pride. Naaman was upset and determined to return to Damascus immediately, stating that the Abana* and Farfar* rivers were much better than the muddy Jordan. But they finally persuaded him to try Elisha’s recipe, and as a result, he was healed. He offered him a rich reward, but the prophet refused to accept anything from him. His servant, Gehazi, by deceit obtained for herself some of the offered gifts. This cost him a harsh punishment, because for his sin he received Naaman’s leprosy (2Ki 5: 1-16, 20-27). As a result of his miraculous healing (Luk 4:27), he became a believer in Yahweh, the God of Israel, and promised to worship him alone from then on (2Ki 5:17). He asked for 2 mules loaded with earth, on which to offer sacrifices to God in Damascus. He explained to the prophet that, however, his charge required him to accompany the king to the temple of the god Rimmon, where he would have to bow before the idol while the king leaned on his arm. The prophet told him, “Go in peace” (vs 17-19). Apparently it was not the time to ask him to make a reform in that matter. 3. Another descendant of Benjamin, son of Ehud (1Ch 8:6, 7).
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
pleasant. Male name. 1. One of the sons of Benjamin and Bela, Gn 46, 21; Nm 26, 40; Chr 8, 3-4. He gave his name to the Naamites, a clan of the tribe of Benjamin. 2. Aramaic general, brave, famous and prestigious of the army of King Aram. He was married and sick with leprosy, 2 R 5. N. found out, through a servant, that the prophet Elisha of Samaria could cure him of his illness. So armed with a letter from King Aram and money, he set out for Samaria and went to the king of Israel. King Aram’s letter said that he was sending his servant N. his to cure him of leprosy. The monarch was upset thinking that it was a provocation. But Elisha begged the king to bring N. into his presence. Arriving in the presence of the prophet, Eliseo ordered him, through the mouth of a servant, to wash himself seven times in the Jordan. N. flew into a rage and, faced with such an attitude, left saying that he believed that Elisha would invoke the name of Yahweh, his God, and by rubbing his sick part with his hand he would heal; but he complained saying that the Abana and the Farfar, rivers of Damascus, were not better than all the waters of Israel and he could bathe in them to be clean, 2 R 5, 11-12. But his servants managed to convince him and after immersing himself seven times in the Jordan, his flesh became like that of a little child and he was clean, 2 R 5, 14.
After his healing N. promised not to offer sacrifices to other gods, but to Yahweh. Eliseo did not receive any of N’s gifts. But a servant of Eliseo’s named Gehazi took advantage of the situation and asked N for a talent of silver and two party dresses. Eliseo, upon finding out, cursed him saying that N’s leprosy N. would stick to him and your offspring, 2 R 5, 27.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
(Heb., na†™aman, pleasant).
1. Son of Benjamin (Gen 46:21) and head of the Namanite clan (Num 26:40).
2. The commander of the army of the king of Syria (2Ki 5:1). He was a brave and successful general, but he had leprosy. This was a terrible disease, which in those days condemned the person to ostracism and a death whose time was impossible to estimate. Naaman’s wife had as a servant a girl who had been taken captive from the land of Israel. The girl told her wife about the prophet in Samaria that she was able to heal him (2Ki 5:3). Naaman went to see the prophet Elisha and was told to wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. His servants insisted that he heed the prophet’s instructions and as a consequence of listening to them he was healed (2Ki 5: 5-19). Jesus referred to this incident when he spoke in the Nazareth synagogue (Luk 4:27).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(nice).
General of the Syrian army, whom Elisha cured of his leprosy, 2Ki 5:1-27, Luke 4:27.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
(Nice). Name of people from the OT.
1. Character in the lineage of Benjamin, head of the family (Gen 46:21; Num 26:40).
. “General of the army of the king of Syria”, who held him in high esteem. He was “an extremely valiant man, but a leper.” Through an Israelite girl whom he had as a slave he learned of the existence of Elisha, † œa prophet who is in Samaria †, who could heal him. He came with letters from the king of Syria to the king of Israel, who tore his clothes, thinking that what was sought was a casus belli, a motive for war (“Consider now, and see how he seeks occasion against me †). Elisha found out and sent for N. When he arrived at his gate, he sent him a messenger with the order that he wash seven times in the Jordan. N. was already furious, thinking that Elisha had slighted him, but his servants convinced him to follow the prophet’s mandate. He did so † œand his flesh became like the flesh of a child, and he was cleansed †. N. wanted to give Eliseo gifts, but he refused them. The Syrian general was converted and asked for “the load of a pair of mules” with land of Israel to worship Jehovah on them. He also asked to be excused if he bowed in Rimmon’s temple when he accompanied his king, which was granted. Gehazi, Elisha’s servant, tricked N. by asking for gifts in Elisha’s name, for which he was punished with the same disease of leprosy (2 Kings 5: 1-27). N.’s request for land was related to the popular belief that each place or region had its particular god, and he intended to worship only Jehovah. Some Jewish traditions identify N. with the archer who “shot his bow at random” and killed King Ahab (1Ki 22:34). The Lord Jesus mentioned the case of N. as an example of God’s sovereignty, for “many lepers were in Israel…but not one of them was cleansed, except N. the Syrian” (Luke 4:27).
. Character in the offspring of Benjamin (1Ch 8:7).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, BIOG FUNC HOMB HOAT
vet, = “pleasant”. (a) Grandson of Benjamin and son of Bela; founder of a family (Gen. 46:21; Num. 26:40). (b) General of the army of Ben-hadad, king of Damascus. This general, who was used to liberate the Syrians, was a leper. Despite his disgusting character, leprosy was not a cause of exclusion of the patient in Syrian society, unlike what happened in Israel. An Israelite girl, who had been given as a slave to Naaman’s wife, suggested that the general visit the prophet Elisha in Samaria, so that he might be healed of his leprosy. It was. To break Naaman’s pride and convince him that he only owed his healing to God, Elisha did not go to meet the general or his retinue. He sent his servant to tell him to bathe seven times in the Jordan. Offended and angry, Naaman turned back, saying: “Abana and Farfar, rivers of Damascus, are they not better than all the waters of Israel? If I wash in them, will I not also be clean? His servants calmed him down, and begged him to go down to the Jordan. He bathed seven times in the Jordan, and was healed. Filled with gratitude, the general wanted to reward Eliseo, which he refused, in order to make him understand the gratuitousness of divine blessings. But Gehazi, servant of the prophet, burning with greed, acted deceitfully to get gifts. Naaman, transformed into a worshiper of Jehovah, asked permission to take two loads of mules from the land of Israel, undoubtedly to raise an altar to the true God. Living in the bosom of paganism, he could not completely escape its customs. The king of Syria worshiped Rimmon. Naaman had the duty to support his lord when he entered the sanctuary of this idol and prostrated himself before him. This obligation worried the general. Elisha authorized him to perform his secular duties even if it involved his presence in a pagan temple (2 Kings 5). The prophet knew that the Lord would finish the work begun in Naaman’s heart, and that it would lead him in due time to break all ties with idolatry. In the NT, the case of Naaman is presented as an example of the sovereign action of God in grace outside of Israel, and in the face of an apostate and rebellious Israel (Lk. 4:27), already intimating the work of grace that was going to go to the end. world for the hardening of Israel (cf. Rom. 11:12).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
(from a root meaning: †œbe nice† ).
1. Benjamin’s grandson by his firstborn son Bela. (1Ch 8:1-4, 7) Because the Naamites formed a family within the tribe of Benjamin (Nu 26:40), Naaman is referred to elsewhere as one of the “sons” of Benjamin. (Ge 46:21.)
2. Chief of the Syrian army from the 10th century BC. CE during the reigns of Jehoram of Israel and Ben-hadad II of Syria. Through him, “a great, valiant, mighty, esteemed man,” “Jehovah had given salvation to Syria.” (2Ki 5:1) The Bible gives no details about how or why Naaman was used to save Syria. One possibility is that he led the Syrian forces that successfully resisted Assyrian king Shalmaneser III’s attempt to conquer Syria. As a free nation, Syria provided a natural separation between Israel and Assyria, which should have retarded Assyria’s westward expansion until the due time that Jehovah allowed the northern kingdom to go into exile.
cured of leprosy. Naaman had leprosy, and though the Syrians did not require lepers to be kept in isolation, as Jehovah’s law required in Israel, it would certainly be a…