2 Kings 5:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Two mules burden of earth— He desired the earth of the land, because he thought it more holy and acceptable to God, and proper for his service; or that because by this token he would declare his conjunction with the people of Israel in the true worship, and constantly put himself in mind of his great obligation to that God from whose land this earth was given. He might, indeed, have had enough of this earth without asking any one for it; but he desired the prophet to give it him, as believing, perhaps, that he who put such virtue into the waters of Israel, could put as much into the earth thereof, and make it as useful and beneficial to him in another way. These thoughts indeed were groundless and extravagant, but excusable in a heathen and a novice, not yet sufficiently instructed in the true religion.