II Kings 5:25
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When Gehazi went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Gehazi, where have you been?” “Your servant did not go anywhere,” he replied.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
But when he entered his master's presence again, he asked him, "Whence (comest thou), Gehazi?" and on his returning the lying answer that he had not been anywhere, charged him with all that he had done. הלך לבּי לא, "had not my heart gone, when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee?" This is the simplest and the only correct interpretation of these difficult words, which have been explained in very different ways. Theodoret (οὐχὶ ἡ καρδία μου ἦ μετὰ σοῦ) and the Vulgate (nonne cor meum in praesenti erat, quando, etc.) have already given the same explanation, and so far as the sense is concerned it agrees with that adopted by Thenius: was I not (in spirit) away (from here) and present (there)? הלך stands in a distinct relation to the הלך לא of Gehazi. - וגו האת: "is it time to take silver, and clothes, and olive-trees, and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and servants and maidens?" i.e., is this the time, when so many hypocrites pretend to be prophets from selfishness and avarice, and bring the prophetic office into contempt with unbelievers, for a servant of the true God to take money and goods from a non-Israelite for that which God has done through him, that he may acquire property and luxury for himself?
Open source ↗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 ↗5:25-27 Gehazi could not conceal his deed from Elisha. Gehazi’s deception and misuse of his privileged position earned his master’s disapproval and the loss of his status as Elisha’s servant. But it also brought on him the penalty of Naaman’s leprosy, a sign that Gehazi had traded places with Naaman spiritually as well.
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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“Everything is all right,” Gehazi replied. “My master has sent me to say, ‘I have just now discovered that two young men from the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’”
And the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I do not know!” he answered. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
“Hagar, servant of Sarai,” he said, “where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I am running away from my mistress Sarai,” she replied.
So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.
Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” “They came from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”
And while they were eating, He said to them, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray Me.”
The evening meal was underway, and the devil had already put into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.