Bible Strands
2 Kings 5:20
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, by not accepting what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, speaks to himself immediately after Elisha dismisses the healed Aramean commander Naaman with a parting blessing.
The words — The text uses חָשַׂךְ (cha.Sakh), meaning “he has restrained” or “spared,” to describe Elisha’s refusal to take payment, and הִנֵּה (hi.Neh), meaning “look,” to introduce Gehazi’s calculated observation.
The thread — Gehazi’s role as the prophet’s attendant recurs in 2 Kings 4:12, 4:31, and 4:36, where he routinely executes Elisha’s commands without initiating his own agenda.
Why it lands — The verse demands a reader to observe how spiritual authority can be exploited by those who stand closest to it, noting the immediate shift from prophetic integrity to personal greed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 4:12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” And when he had called her, she stood before him,
- 2 Kings 4:31 Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”
- 2 Kings 4:36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her and she came. Then Elisha said, “Pick up your son.”
- 2 Kings 6:31 He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”
- Titus 1:7 As God’s steward, an overseer must be above reproach—not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not greedy for money.
- 2 Peter 2:14 Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
- Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- Acts 8:18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.
- 1 Timothy 6:9 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.
- 2 Timothy 4:10 because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.