Bible Strands
2 Kings 5:27
Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendants forever!” And as Gehazi left his presence, he was leprous—as white as snow.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elisha pronounces judgment on Gehazi immediately after confronting him for deceitfully accepting gifts from Naaman. Gehazi departs the prophet’s presence and immediately manifests the disease.
The words — תִּדְבַּק (tidbak) means “it will cling,” describing how Naaman’s skin disease will attach to Gehazi and his offspring. מְצֹרָע (metzoraʿ) denotes the resulting skin disease that whiteness covers Gehazi upon leaving.
The thread — The sudden whiteness of the disease echoes Miriam’s affliction in Numbers 12:10 and parallels Moses’ sign in Exodus 4:6, while the permanent curse on a lineage anticipates the royal leprosy of 2 Kings 15:5.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that spiritual greed triggers immediate, inescapable consequences that extend beyond the individual. It requires the reader to see divine judgment as direct, unmediated, and historically grounded rather than abstract.
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
The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
Cross-references
- Exodus 4:6 Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.
- Numbers 12:10 As the cloud lifted from above the Tent, suddenly Miriam became leprous, white as snow. Aaron turned toward her, saw that she was leprous,
- 2 Kings 15:5 And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
- Joshua 7:25 “Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today the LORD will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death. Then they stoned the others and burned their bodies.
- 1 Samuel 2:30 Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.
- 2 Samuel 3:29 May it whirl over the head of Joab and over the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”
- 2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man in his master’s sight and highly regarded, for through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. And he was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
- Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
- Hosea 10:13 You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,
- Malachi 2:3 Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.