Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 5:26

"And he said unto him, Went not my heart [with thee], when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and maid-servants?" — 2 Kings 5:26 (ASV)

Went not mine heart ... meet thee? — Rather, Nor did my heart (that is, consciousness) go away, when a man turned (and alighted) from his chariot to meet you. The prophet, in severe irony, adopts Gehazi’s own phrase: Maurer, “Non abierat animus meus;” “I was there in spirit, and witnessed everything.” The sentence has given the commentators much trouble. (See the elaborate Note in Thenius. We might have expected wĕlô, and w may have been omitted, owing to the preceding w; but it is not absolutely necessary.) The Authorized Version follows the Septuagint (Vaticanus), which supplies the expression “with thee” (μετὰ σοῦ ̑), which is missing in the Hebrew text. The Targum paraphrases: “By the spirit of prophecy I was informed when the man turned,” etc. The Syriac follows with, “My heart informed me when the man turned,” etc.

Is it a time to receive. — Compare Ecclesiastes 3:2 and following. The Septuagint, pointing the Hebrew differently, reads: καὶ νῦν ἔλαβες τὸ ἀργύριον (“And now you received the money,” etc.). So also the Vulgate and Arabic, but not the Targum and Syriac. Böttcher, retaining the interrogative particle of the Hebrew, adopts this: “Did you then take the money?” etc. But the Masoretic pointing appears to be much more suitable.

The prophet’s question comes to this: “Was that above all others a proper occasion for yielding to your desire of gain, when you were dealing with a heathen? Ought you not to have been studiously disinterested in your behavior to such a one, so that he might learn not to confound the prophets of Jehovah with the mercenary diviners and soothsayers of the false gods?” The prophet’s disciple is bound, like his master, to seek, not worldly power, but spiritual; for the time is one of ardent struggle against the encroachments of paganism.

And oliveyards ... maidservants? — The prophet develops Gehazi’s object in asking for the money: he wished to purchase lands, and livestock, and slaves—whatever constituted the material wealth of the time. The Targum inserts the explanatory: “And you thought in your heart to purchase oliveyards,” etc. So Vulgate: “ut emas oliveta.”