II Kings 5:18
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Yet may the LORD forgive your servant this one thing: When my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my arm, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD forgive your servant in this matter.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Two more of Elisha's miracles are recorded in this chapter. I. The cleansing of Naaman, a Syrian, a stranger, from his leprosy, and there, 1. The badness of his case (Kg2 5:1). 2. The providence that brought him to Elisha, the intelligence given him by a captive maid (Kg2 5:2-4). A letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel, to introduce him (Kg2 5:5-7). And the invitation Elisha sent him (Kg2 5:8). 3. The method prescribed for his cure, his submission, with much ado, to that method, and his cure thereby (Kg2 5:9-14). 4. The grateful acknowledgments he made to Elisha hereupon (Kg2 5:15-19). II. The smiting of Gehazi, his own servant, with that leprosy. 1. Gehazi's sins, which were belying his master to Naaman (Kg2 5:20-24), and lying to his master when he examined him (Kg2 5:25). 2. His punishment for these sins. Naaman's leprosy was entailed on his family (Kg2 5:26, Kg2 5:27). And, if Naaman's cure was typical of the calling of the Gentiles, as our Saviour seems to make it (Luk 4:27), Gehazi's stroke may be looked upon as typical of the blinding and rejecting of the Jews, who envied God's grace to the Gentiles, as Gehazi envied Elisha's favour to Naaman.
Open source ↗5:18 The name Rimmon appears in the name Tabrimmon (1 Kgs 15:18), the father of Ben-hadad I. In Aramean, the god’s name is properly Ramman (the thunderer), a storm-god noted in Assyrian inscriptions. The spelling Rimmon (which means pomegranate) may reflect a deliberate pun belittling the deity.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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But the officer on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God, “Look, even if the LORD were to make windows in heaven, could this really happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” replied Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it.”
Now the king had appointed the officer on whose arm he leaned to be in charge of the gate, but the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king had come to him.
In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
For the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites and commanded them, “Do not worship other gods or bow down to them; do not serve them or sacrifice to them.
Nevertheless, I have reserved seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,