Get to know a Bible character November 26, 2012 Issue

Naaman and Elisha

Mary Jane Chaignot

Carolyn Decillo—Staff

Naaman was a general in the King of Aram’s army. The king thought very highly of Naaman because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. Naaman was truly a very great man, but he had a very bad skin disease. The Bible calls it leprosy. This would have been horrible for a leader because people would have been very wary of catching it. No doubt, he was very embarrassed about it. And it surely made his job more difficult.

Did you know? Aram was north and east of the kingdom of Israel. Today it would be Syria. Some Bible translations, such as the King James Bible, use the name Syria for the country of Aram. But Aram is the more accurate name.

In the Bible we read that on one of his raiding expeditions against Israel, Naaman had captured a young girl. He gave the girl to his wife to be her maid. We don’t know anything about the rest of the girl’s family. The girl might have been 10 or 12 years old. We hear so little about her that it’s hard to even imagine how she might have felt being kidnapped. She may have been very sad about what had happened to her.  