2 Kings 5:12 (WEB)

Passage

Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them, and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

Nearby Context

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

2 Kings 5:11 But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘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 heal the leper.’

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

2 Kings 5:13 His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, ‘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 was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "But Naaman was angry and went away..." into verse 13's "His servants came near and spoke to...", so "aren" and "abanah" 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 "aren" and "abanah" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.