2 Kings 5:5 - Exposition

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. Written engagements were certainly entered into between the Egyptian kings and the Hittites at a date earlier than the Exodus. 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; according to Thenius, 60,000 thalers. 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.,' Genesis 8:2 . § 8; ' Anab.,' 1.2. § 29; etc.). The practice of giving dresses of honor as presents continues in the East to this day.