John Gill Commentary 2 Kings 5

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria
The general of Benhadad's army; for he was now king of Syria, though some think Hazael his successor was:

was a great man with his master ;
high in his favour and esteem:

and honourable ;
not only acceptable to the king, and loaded with honours by him, but greatly respected by all ranks and degrees among the people:

because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria ;
out of the hands of their enemies, and victory over them, and particularly in the last battle with Israel, in which Ahab was slain, and, as the Jews suppose, by the hands of Naaman, (See Gill on 1 Kings 22:34) however, when any salvation was wrought, or victory obtained, even by Heathens, and by them over Israel, the people of God, it was of the Lord:

he was also a mighty man in valour ;
a very courageous valiant man:

but he was a leper ;
was stricken with the leprosy, which had deformed and disgraced his person, and weakened his strength, and dispirited him; all his grandeur and honour could not protect him from this loathsome disease.

And the Syrians had gone out by companies
Not regular troops, but a sort of banditti of robbers, which made excursions into the land of Israel, to plunder and carry off what booty they could:

and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid ;
for boys and girls were a part of the booty of such robbers, whom they could sell for money, see (Joel 3:1) . Jarchi and Kimchi say she was a girl of Naaron, a city so called:

and she waited on Naaman's wife ;
being either made a present of to the general by those plunderers, or was bought by him of them for his wife's service.

And she said to her mistress
As she was waiting upon her at a certain time, and perhaps her mistress was lamenting the case of her husband as desperate and incurable:

would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria ;
meaning Elisha, who, though sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another, yet often at Samaria, and it seems was there when this girl was taken captive:

for he would recover him of his leprosy ;
the maid had heard of the miracles wrought by Elisha, and doubted not that at the request of her lord he would be willing, as she believed he was able, to cure him of this disease.

And one went in and told his lord
What the girl had said to her mistress; one of the servants of the house that overheard it; or rather, Naaman went and told his lord the king of Syria; for as this was said to his wife, no doubt she told it to her husband, and not a servant; and the following words require this sense, and is the sense of most Jewish commentators:

saying, thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel ;
who for her wit and beauty might be well known at court by the name of the Israelitish girl.

And the king of Syria said, go to, go
On what Naaman related to him from what the maid had said, he urged him by all means to go directly to Samaria:

and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel ;
recommending him to use his interest in his behalf; this was Jehoram the son of Ahab:

and he departed ;
set out on his journey immediately, as soon as he could conveniently:

and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of
gold ;
partly for the expenses of his journey, and partly to make presents to the king of Israel's servants, and especially to the prophet; a talent of silver, according to Brerewood ^F4 , was three hundred and seventy five pounds of our money; but, according to Bishop Cumberland's ^F5 exact calculation, it was three hundred and fifty and three pounds eleven shillings and ten and an half pence the pieces of gold are, by the Targum, called golden pence, and a golden penny, according to the first of the above writers ^F6 , was of the value of our money fifteen shillings; so that these amounted to 4500 pounds sterling:

and ten changes of raiment ;
both for his own use, and presents.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: De Ponder. & Pret. Vet. Num. c. 4.
• F5: Scripture Weights and Measures, c. 4. p. 120.
• F6: Ut supra, (De Ponder. & Pret. Vet. Num.) c. 3.