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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

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NAAMAN

1. Grandson of Benjamin and son of Bela, who gave his name to the Naamite clan (Gn 46:21; Nm 26:38-40; 1 Chr 8:4, 7 OET CH1 8:4 · OET CH1 8:7).

2. Commanding general of the Aramean army during the reign of Ben-hadad, king of Syria (2 Kgs 5). He was held in honor by the king, evidently for his character as well as for military achievements, “but he had leprosy.” This did not exclude him from society, as it would have done in Israel (cf. Lv 13–14 OET LEV 13:1–59 · OET LEV 14:1–57), but the possibility of a cure suggested by a captive Israelite girl sent Naaman, with Ben-hadad’s approval and gifts, to the court of his highly suspicious neighboring monarch (unnamed, but probably Jehoram). Elisha the prophet intervened and prescribed an unlikely mode of healing. The reluctant Naaman followed through because of the good sense of his servants, who said, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?” Naaman confessed that the one true God is in Israel, and he returned home with two mule-loads of earth, perhaps on the assumption that this was a God who could be worshiped only on his own ground (cf. Ex 20:24). In Luke 4:27 Jesus reminds his synagogue listeners of how Naaman, a non-Israelite, was the only one of his time to be cleansed of leprosy.