So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus and Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean. Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he would have come out to me, and standing would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. Are not the Abana and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made clean? : So as he turned, and was going away with indignation, his servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean? Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean. And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel. I beseech thee therefore take a blessing* of thy servant. But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he still refused. And Naaman said: As thou wilt: but I beseech thee, grant to me thy servant, to take from hence two mules' burden of earth for thy servant will not henceforth offer holocaust, or victim, to other gods, but to the Lord. But there is only this, for which thou shalt entreat the Lord for thy servant; when my master goeth into the temple of Remmon to worship, and he leaneth upon my hand, if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he boweth down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me thy servant for this thing. And he said to him: Go in peace. So he departed from him in the spring time of the earth. But Giezi the servant of the man of God said: My master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving of him that *i.e. a present. To make an altar. Go in peace. What the prophet here allowed was not an outward conformity to an idolatrous worship, but only a service which by his office he owed to his master; who on all public occasions leaned on him; so that his bowing down when his master bowed himself down was not in effect adoring the idols; nor was it so understood by the standers by, since he publicly professed himself a worshipper of the only true and living God, but it was no more than doing a civil office to the king his master, whose leaning upon him obliged him to bow at the same time that he bowed. DoUAY BIBLE. 4 Kings VI. 1-33. 298 which he brought as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take something of him. And Giezi followed after Naaman: and when he saw him running after him, he leapt down from his chariot to meet him, and said: Is all well? And he said: Well; my master hath sent me to thee, saying: Just now there are come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets give them a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. And Naaman said: It is better that thou take two talents. And he forced him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, and two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they carried them before him. he was come, and now it was the evening, he took them from And when their hands, and laid them up in the house, and sent the men away, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Eliseus said: Whence comest thou, Giezi? He answered: Thy servant went no whither. But he said: Was not my heart present, when the man turned back from his chariot to meet thee? So now thou hast received money, and received garments, to buy oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maid-servants. But the leprosy of Naaman shall also stick to thee, and to thy seed for ever. from him a leper as white as snow. And he went out * SECT. LXXXVI. MIRACLES OF ELISEUS DURING THE WAR BETWEEN SYRIA Miracles of Eliseus.-And the sons of the prophets said to took it. And it happened, And when they were head of the axe fell And the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took * In punishment for his covetousness and lying. counsel with his servants, saying: In such and such a place let us lay ambushes. And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying: Beware that thou pass not to such a place: for the Syrians are there in ambush. And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God had told him, and warned him of, and looked well to himself there not once nor twice. And the heart of the king of Syria was troubled for this thing. And calling together his servants, he said: Why do you not tell me who it is that betrays me to the king of Israel? And one of his servants said: No one, my lord O king: but Eliseus the prophet, that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel all the words that thou speakest in thy privy chamber. Eliseus at Dothan.-And he said to them: Go, and see where he is: that I may send, and take him. And they told . him, saying: Behold he is in Dothan. Therefore he sent thither horses and chariots, and the strength of an army and they came by night, and beset the city. And the servant of the man of God rising early, went out, and saw an army round about the city, and horses and chariots: and he told him, saying: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, what shall we do? But he answered: Fear not for there are more with us than with them. And Eliseus prayed, and said: Lord, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses, and chariots of fire round about Eliseus.* And the enemies came down to him, but Eliseus prayed to the Lord, saying: Strike, I beseech thee, this people with blindness. And the Lord struck them with blindness, according to the word of Eliseus. And Eliseus said to them: This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will show you the man whom you seek. So he led them into Samaria. And when they were come into Samaria, Eliseus said: Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw themselves to be in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said to Eliseus, when he saw them: My father, shall I kill them? And he said: Thou shalt not kill them for thou didst not take them with thy sword, or thy bow, that thou mayst kill them: but set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And a great provision of meats was set before them, and they ate and drank; and he let them go, and they went away to their master, and the robbers of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. * Protecting angels were so represented. KENRICK. The Siege of Samaria.-And it came to pass after these things, that Benadad king of Syria gathered together all his army, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and so long did the siege continue, till the head of an ass was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cabe of pigeons' dung for five pieces of silver. And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a certain woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, my lord O king. And he said: If the Lord doth not save thee, how can I save thee? out of the barn-floor, or out of the wine-press? And the king said to her: What aileth thee? And she answered: This woman said to me: Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day: Give thy son, that we may eat him. And she hath hid her son. When the king heard this, he rent his garments, and passed by upon the wall. And all the people saw the hair-cloth which he wore within next to his flesh. And the king said: May God do so and so to me, and may He add more, if the head of Eliseus the son of Saphat shall stand on him this day. But Eliseus sat in his house, and the ancients sat with him. So he sent a man before: and before that messenger came, he said to the ancients: Do you know that this son of a murderer hath sent to cut off my head? Look then, when the messenger shall come, shut the door, and suffer him not to come in: for behold the sound of his master's feet is behind him. While he was yet speaking to them, the messenger appeared who was coming to him. And he said: Behold, so great an evil is from the Lord what shall I look for more from the Lord? : 4 Kings Deliverance of Samaria.—And Eliseus said: Hear ye the VII. 1-20. word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord: To-morrow about this time a bushel of fine flour shall be sold for a stater,* and two bushels of barley for a stater, in the gate of Samaria. Then one of the lords, upon whose hand the king leaned, answering the man of God, said: If the Lord should make flood-gates in heaven, can that possibly be which thou sayest? And he said : Thou shalt see it with thy eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. Now there were four lepers, at the entering in of the gate :† and they said one to another: What mean we to stay here till we die? If we enter into the city, we shall die with the famine: and if we remain here, we must also die: come, therefore, and let us run over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare us, *It is the same as a sicle or shekel. They were separated from others, as being lepers. we shall live: but if they kill us, we shall but die. So they arose in the evening, to go to the Syrian camp. And when they were come to the first part of the camp of the Syrians, they found no man there. For the Lord had made them hear, in the camp of Syria, the noise of chariots, and of horses, and of a very great army: and they said one to another: Behold the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hethites and of the Egyptians, and they are come upon us. Wherefore they arose, and fled away in the dark, and left their tents, and their horses and asses in the camp, and fled, desiring to save their lives. So when these lepers were come to the beginning of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank and they took from thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it: and they came again, and went into another tent, and carried from thence in like manner, and hid it. : Then they said one to another: We do not well: for this is a day of good tidings. If we hold our peace, and do not tell it till the morning, we shall be charged with a crime: come, let us go, and tell it in the king's court. So they came to the gate of the city, and told them, saying: We went to the camp of the Syrians, and we found no man there, but horses and asses tied, and the tents standing. Then the guards of the gate went, and told it within in the king's palace. And he arose in the night, and said to his servants: I tell you what the Syrians have done to us: They know that we suffer great famine, and therefore they are gone out of the camp, and lie hid in the fields, saying: When they come out of the city we shall take them alive, and then we may get into the city. And one of his servants answered: Let us take the five horses that are remaining in the city (because there are no more in the whole multitude of Israel, for the rest are consumed), and let us send and see. They brought therefore two horses, and the king sent into the camp of the Syrians, saying: Go, and see. And they went after them as far as the Jordan: and behold all the way was full of garments, and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their fright; and the messengers returned and told the king. And the people going out pillaged the camp of the Syrians and a bushel of fine flour was sold for a stater, and two bushels of barley for a stater, according to the word of the Lord. : And the king appointed that lord on whose hand he leaned to stand at the gate: and the people trod upon him in the entrance of the gate: and he died, as the man of God had said, when the king came down to him. And it came to pass |