Matthew Henry

Then the woman said to her husband, “Behold, now I know that the one who often comes our way is a holy man of God.

“That the stranger she would invite was a holy man of God, who therefore would do good to their family, and God would recompense the kindness done to him; perhaps she had heard how well paid the widow of Sarepta was for entertaining Elijah.”

So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

“The answer was general It is well. Gehazi was not the man that she came to complain to, and therefore she put him off with this; she said little, and little said is soon amended ( Ps. xxxix.”

So Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tie up your garment, take my staff in your hand, and go!

“Shall such a power as this be delegated, and to no better man that Gehazi? Bishop Hall suggests that it was done out of human conceit, and not by divine instinct, and therefore it failed of the effect;”

Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response.

“In the raising of dead souls to spiritual life ministers can do no more by their own power than Gehazi here could; they lay the word, like the prophet's staff, before their faces, but there is neither voice nor hearing, till Christ, by his Spirit…”

So he went in, closed the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.

“Even the dead child is spoken of as a person, one of the twain, for it was still in being and not lost.”

Then Elisha got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand.

“He first put his mouth to the child's mouth, as if, in God's name, he would breathe into him the breath of life; then his eyes to the child's eyes, to open them again to the light of life; then his hands to the child's…”

One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold.

“Nature has given man the sense of tasting, not only that wholesome food may be pleasant, but that that which is unwholesome may be discovered before it comes to the stomach; the mouth tries meat by tasting it, Job xii.”

Then Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He threw it into the pot and said, “Pour it out for the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

“It is probable that there was meal in it before, but that was put in by a common hand, only to thicken the pottage; this was the same thing, but cast in by Elisha's hand, and with intent to heal the pottage, by which it…”

Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain.

“It is said to be of the first-fruits, which was God's due out of their increase; and when the priests and Levites were all at Jerusalem, out of their reach, the religious people among them, with good reason, looked upon the prophets as God's receivers…”

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

“The promise was express: Thou shalt be clean. The method prescribed was plain: Go wash in Jordan. This was not intended as any means of the cure; for, though cold bathing is recommended by many as a very wholesome thing, yet some think that in…”

But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over…

“Note, It is common for those that are wise in their own conceit to look with contempt on the dictates and prescriptions of divine wisdom and to prefer their own fancies before them; those that are for establishing their own righteousness will not submit to…”

Naaman’s servants, however, approached him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?

“One would have expected that Elisha's servant should be a saint (even Ahab's servant, Obadiah, was), but even Christ himself had a Judas among his followers. The means of grace cannot give grace.”

Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God, stood before him, and declared, “Now I know for sure that there is no God in all…

“Had he seen other lepers cleansed, perhaps the sight would not have convinced him, but the mercy of the cure affected him more than the miracle of it. Those are best able to speak of the power of divine grace who have themselves experienced it.”

But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will not accept it.” And although Naaman urged him to accept it, he refused.

“Proselyted to the worship of the God of Israel. He will not only offer a sacrifice to the Lord, in thanks for his present cure, but he resolves he will never offer sacrifice to any other gods,”

“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much soil as a pair of mules can carry.

“It was a happy cure of his leprosy which cured him of his idolatry, a more dangerous disease. But here are two instances of his weakness and infirmity in his conversion:-- 1.”

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…

“Perhaps, all things considered, this might admit of some apology, though it was not justifiable. But, as to us, I am sure, (1.)”

Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, while not accepting what he brought.

“His heart (says bishop Hall) was packed up in Naaman's chests, and he must run after him to fetch it. Multitudes, by coveting worldly wealth, have erred from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

So Gehazi pursued Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and asked, “Is everything all right?”

“We hope that he understood afterwards that Elisha's hand was not in it, and that Gehazi was forced to restore what he had unjustly got, else it might have driven him to his idols again.”

When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the gifts from the servants and stored them in the house. Then he dismissed the men, and they departed.

“The punishment of this sin. Elisha immediately called him to an account for it; and observe, 1. He thought to impose upon the prophet, but was soon given to understand that the Spirit of prophecy could not be deceived, and that it was in vain…”

Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendants forever!” And as Gehazi left his presence, he was leprous—as white as snow.

“He was contriving to entail lands upon his posterity; but, instead of them, he entails a loathsome disease on the heirs of his body, from generation to generation.”

“Where did it fall?” asked the man of God. And when he showed him the place, the man of God cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron…

“We need not double the miracle by supposing that the stick sunk to fetch up the iron, it was enough that it was a signal of the divine summons to the iron to rise.”

But one of his servants replied, “No one, my lord the king. For Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your…

“Here a confession of the boundless knowledge, as before of the boundless power, of Israel's God, is extorted from Syrians. Nothing done, said, thought, by any person, in any place, at any time, is out of the reach of God's cognizance.”

As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.

“9 For this twofold judgment Christ came into this world, that those who see not might see, and that those who see might be made blind ( John ix. 39 ), a savour of life to some, of death to others.”

Some time later, Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army and marched up to besiege Samaria.

“There are base spirits that can never feel obliged. The country, we may suppose, was plundered and laid waste when this capital city was brought to the last extremity,”

He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”

“What had Elisha done? his head is the most innocent and valuable in all Israel, and yet that must be devoted, and made an anathema.”