2 Kings 5:12 (LSB)

Passage

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

Nearby Context

2 Kings 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.”

2 Kings 5:11 But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Behold, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’

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

2 Kings 5:13 Then his servants approached and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet spoken with you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

2 Kings 5:14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy 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 furious and went away..." into verse 13's "Then his servants approached and spoke to...", 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.