What Does 2 Kings 5:1 Mean in the King James?
Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse holds together the man through whom a nation receives deliverance and the man still marked by affliction.
THE MEANING
You can carry real strength and responsibility while an affliction remains part of your life. Your capacity to help others does not erase your need for healing, and your condition does not erase your capacity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that carrying an affliction cancels a person’s strength or usefulness.
THE ROOT
תְּשׁוּעָה
teshuah
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, bring out into safety and spaciousness.
The deliverance belongs to Syria and comes through Naaman’s hand, while the verse also names the affliction he bears. The same root gives words for being brought out and for a deliverer: he can be a channel of rescue while still carrying a need of his own.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver, bring out.
יָשַׁע
This verb is the seed of the word for deliverance in the verse; rescue is movement out from under a constricting condition.
moshia: Deliverer, one who brings out.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who carries out deliverance, illuminating Naaman’s role as the means through whom Syria receives it.
נַעֲמָן
Naʿaman
GROWS FROM
נעם
n-ʿ-m
To be pleasant, delightful, agreeable.
Naaman’s name carries the sense of pleasantness, while the verse also names his honor, strength, and disease. His affliction is real, but it is not the only truth the verse gives about him.
ALSO GROWS
noʿam: Pleasantness, delight.
נֹעַם
This noun carries the quality held in Naaman’s name, placing a fuller human description beside the condition named at the end of the verse.
naʿim: Pleasant, agreeable.
נָעִים
This related form shows the root’s quality as a description of someone or something, widening the name beyond a label.
THE PATTERN
A person’s capacity to carry deliverance does not make them untouched by weakness.
(And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime.Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.This verse names Naaman by his affliction; Luke reveals that he is cleansed. The condition marks him here, but it is not the whole arc of his story.
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