He was commander of the armies of Syria (or “Aram” in some versions) but had that loathsome disease, leprosy. Naaman’s wife’s maid suggested he visit Israel’s prophet Elisha, who told Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River.
Naaman was skeptical, but the cure indeed worked, and he sang the praises of Israel’s God (2 Kings 5). Naman asked for some soil from Israel to take home—to put in the temple of his god Rimmon.
See 976 (leprosy).
