2 Kings 5:12 (ASV)

Passage

Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

Nearby Context

2 Kings 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

2 Kings 5:11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

2 Kings 5:12 Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

2 Kings 5:13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

2 Kings 5:14 Then went he down, and dipped [himself] seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "abanah", "pharpar", "rivers", "damascus", "better", "than", "waters", and "israel". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "abanah" and "pharpar", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "But Naaman was wroth and went away..." into verse 13's "And his servants came near and spake...", so "abanah" and "pharpar" belong inside that flow. In 2 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "abanah" and "pharpar" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.