NAAMAN
816
NAARxVTH
or Iladad. We may compare this request with the custom which once prevailed among Christians of car- rying away water from the holy ' river Jordan ; and, perhaps more aptly, wirh a custom still practiced by many Jews of burj-ing a portion of earth from Jerusa- lem with every one of their number who dies in a foreign land. It would seem, however, that Xaaman's faith ex- tended no further tlian acknowledging the superiority of Jehovah to the gods of other nations so far as his words are naturally understood (2 Kings v, 15). The Talmud regards liim as a proselyte of the second class {Gittiii, 57). Naaman further requested permission to attend his king in the temple of the idol liimmon, and bow before the god. Some (e. g. Niemeyer, Charaki. V, 371) have indeed referred these expressions to his past acts of idolatry; but this construction cannot be sustained. Nor is it needed to shield I-Ilisha from the imputation of sanctioning the worship of liimraon ; for his words in the 19th verse are simply the usual He- brew formula of farewell, and do not imply assent to Naaman's requests. See Stackhouse, Hist. Bible, iv, 869 sq. ; Cotta, Vhidicice verhor. Nuamaii (Tubingen, 175C). The grateful Syrian would gladly have pressed upon Elisha gifts of high value, but the holy man reso- lutely refused to take anything. His servant, Gehazi, was less scrupulous, and hastened with a lie in his mouth to ask in his master's name for a portion of that which Elisha had refused. The illustrious Syrian no sooner saw the man running after his chariot than he alighted to meet him, and happy to relieve himself in some degree under the sense of overwhelming obliga- tion, he sent him back with more than he had ventured to ask. This narrative, containing all that is known of Naaman, is given in 2 Kings, ch. v. Sec Elisha. Naaman's appearance throughout the occurrence is most characteristic and consistent. He is every inch a soldier, ready at once to resent what he considers as a slight cast either on himself or the natural glories of his country, and blazing out in a moment into sudden "rage," but calmed as speedily by a few good-humored and sensible words from his dependants, and, after the cure has been eflfected, evincing a thankful and simple heart, whose gratitude knows no bounds and will listen to no refusal. See Gehazi. How long Naaman lived to continue the worship of Jehovah while assisting officially at that of Kimmon we are not told. "When next ue hear of Syria, another, Hazael, apparently hold the position which Naaman formerly filled. But the reception which Elisha met with on this later occasion in Damascus probably implies that the fame of " the man of God," and of the mighty Jehovah in whose name he wrought, had not been forgotten in the city of Naaman. A Jewish tradition, at least as old as the time of Josephus (.1/;/. viii, 15, 5), identiiies him with the archer whose arrow, whether at random or not, struck Ahab with his mortal wound at l\amoth-(iilead (1 Kings xxii, 34). The expression is remarkable — "because that by him Jehovali had given deliverance to Syria" (ver. 1). It seems, however, to point to ser- vices of a more important kind for Syria, though not re- lated in Scripture. Ihit inasmuch as the advantage they won for Syria, and the position they tended to acquire for Naaman, were incidentally to subserve the divine purposes towards Israel, they may perhaps on this ac- count have been ascribed to Jehovah. Naaman himself, and partly by reason of the very greatness he had thus acquired, was to become all unwittingly an instrument of promoting the divine glory— in some sense even more than those who had directly to do with the cause and kingdom of Jehovah. It is singular that the narrative of Naaman's cure is not found in the present text of Josephus. Its absence makes the rcforcncc to him as the slayer of Ahab, already mentioned, still more re- markable. It is (luoted by our Ixird (Luke iv, 27) as an instance of mercy exercised to one who was not of Israel, and it should not escape notice that the reference to this act of healing is recorded by none of the evan-
gelists but Luke the physician. See Kitto, Daily Bible Illust. ad ]oc.; Kci],t'u77i7nent. on Ki7iffs, ad \oc.\ Hantz- schel, A^aanum Si/rus (Brem. 1773); Rogers, Xaa//ia7i (Lond. 11)42) ; Bingham, XcKiman the i>yriu/i (Lond. 18G5) ; Bullock, The Sy7ian Lej)er (Loud. 18G2).
Na'amathite (Heb. Nad77iiahi', "'I^^S'J, a Gentile from some unknown place, Xacnmih; Sept. 6 ^lii'alog, but in Job ii, 11, 6 Mipaiu)v f3aai\tvQ ; Vulg. Xaa- mathites), the epithet applied to Zophar, one of the three friends of Job (.lob ii, 11 ; xi, 1 ; xx, 1 ; xlii, 9). B.C. cir. 2200. Some commentators have thought that he was so named as being a resident of the above N.va- MAH (q. v.), in the tribe of Judah (Josh, xv, 41); but this is not at all probable from the locality and age of Job (see Spanheim, JJist.Jvbi, xiv, 11). Job's conn- try, Uz, was in Arabia; his other two friends, Eliphaz the Te/iiaiiile, and Bildad the -V/o/Z/iVf, were Arabians; and hence we may conclude that X(i(i77i(ili was likewise in Arabia (Cellarius, G'eor/r. ii, G98). See Jon. '■ If we may judge from modern usage, several places so called probably existed on the Arabian borders of Syria. Thus in the Geogra])liical Dictionary (Min-dsid el-Iltdlit/) are Xoa77i, a castle in the Yemen, and a place on the Eu- phrates; Xi(i7)ufi, a i)lacc belonging to the Arabs; and Xof77)7'i, a valley in Tihameh. The name Xaai77d/i (of unlikely derivation, however) is very common. Bo- chart (P/idlcff. cap. xxii), as might be expected, seizes the Sept. reading, and in the ' king of the JIina?i' sees a confirmation to his theory respecting a Syrian, or north- ern Arabian settlement of that well-known people of classical antiquity. If the above Naamah could be con- nected with the Naamathites, these latter might per- haps be identical with the Jlehunim or Minteans, traces of whom are found on the south-western outskirts of Ju- dah ; one such at .1/i'»ot.?, or el-Mi/)yay, a few miles be- low Gaza. But this point is too hypothetical for ac- ceptance" (Smith). See ZopiiAit.