2 Kings 5:11,12 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

Bible Comments

Reader! observe in the conduct of Naaman, what a deadly foe the pride of man is to the reception and enjoyment of our chiefest felicities. And observe further, though this Syrian had cause enough, in such a filthy, loathsome disease, to have made him meek of heart, yet it had not subdued his pride. Alas! how many are there under the most humbling situations, that are never truly humbled in soul. Is not the conduct of Naaman, in preferring the great rivers of Damascus to the sacred streams of Jordan, not dissimilar to those who are unconscious of the difference between the outward means of grace, and the inward power. And wherein! doth Naaman differ from modern unbelievers, who, ignorant of God's righteousness, go about to establish their own righteousness, and take up with their own washings in the Abenas and Pharpars of unrenewed nature rather than the precious blood of Jesus?

2 Kings 5:11-12

11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought,c He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12 Are not Abanad and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.