2nd Kings Chapter 5 verse 5 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - And the King of Syria said, Go to, go; rather, Go, depart; i.e. lose no time; go at once, if there is any such possibility as the maiden has indicated. "We see," Bahr says, "from the king's readiness, how anxious he was for the restoration of Naaman." And I will send a letter unto the King of Israel. Letters had been interchanged between Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyro (2 Chronicles 2:3-11), a century earlier; and the communications of king with king in the East, though sometimes carried on orally by ambassadors, probably took place to a large extent by means of letters from a very early date. Written communications seem to have led to the outbreak of the war by which the foreign dynasty of the Hyksos was driven out of Egypt, and the native supremacy reestablished ('History of Ancient Egypt,' vol. it. pp. 199, 200). Written engagements were certainly entered into between the Egyptian kings and the Hittites at a date earlier than the Exodus (ibid., pp. 291, 310). Benhadad evidently regards the sending of a letter to a neighboring monarch as a natural and ordinary occurrence. And he - i.e. Naaman - departed, and took with him ten talents of silver - reckoned by Keil as equal to 25,000 thalers, or £3750; by Thenius as equal to 20,000 thalers, or £3000 - and six thousand pieces of gold. "Pieces of gold" did not yet exist, since coin had not been invented. Six thousand shekels' weight of gold is probably intended. This would equal, according to Keil, 50,000 thalers (£7500); according to Thenius, 60,000 thalers (£9000). Such sums are quite within the probable means of a rich Syrian nobleman of the time, a favorite at court, and the generalissimo of the Syrian army. Naaman evidently supposed that he would have, directly or indirectly, to purchase his cure. And ten changes of raiment (comp. Genesis 45:22; Hom., 'Od.,' 13:67; Xen., 'Cyrop.,' 8:2. § 8; ' Anab.,' 1:2. § 29; etc.). The practice of giving dresses of honor as presents continues in the East to this day.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Go to, go.--Depart thou (thither), enter (the land of Israel).A letter.--Written, probably, in that old Aramean script of which we have examples on Assyrian seals of the eighth century B.C. , and which closely resembled the old Ph?nician and Hebrew characters, as well as that of the Moabite stone (2Kings 1:1, Note).With him.--In his hand. (Comp. the expression "to fill the hand for Jehovah"--i.e., with presents; 1Chronicles 29:5.)Changes of raiment.--Or, holiday suits. Reuss, habits de fete. (See the same word, haliphoth, in Genesis 45:22.) Curiously enough, similar expressions (nahlaptum, hitlupatum) were used in the like sense by the Assyrians (Schrader).Ten talents of silver.--About 3,750 in our money. The money talent was equivalent to sixty minas, the mina to fifty shekels. The shekel came to about 2 Samuel 6 d. of our money.Six thousand pieces of gold.--Heb., six thousand (in) gold: i.e., six thousand gold shekels=two talents of gold, about 13,500. The gold shekel was worth about 45s. of our currency. The total sum appears much too large, and the numbers are probably corrupt, as is so often the case. . . .