Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 5:25
But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence [comest thou], Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
25. and stood before his master ] He would let his absence be as little noted as possible. In the East the servants are usually kept in waiting. Hence the phrase ‘to stand before’ is frequent in connexion with Oriental service. Thus David ‘stands before Saul (1Sa 16:21-22), so of Abishag (1Ki 1:2). See also 1Ki 10:8; Dan 1:5, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lest his absence should be noticed, Gehazi hastened, without being called, to appear before his master. In the East it is usual for servants to remain most of the day in their lords presence, only quitting it when given some order to execute.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 5:25
Thy servant went no whither.
A lie sticks
A little newsboy, to sell his paper, told a lie. The matter came up in the Sunday school. Would you tell a lie for a penny? asked a young lady teacher of one of her boys. No maam, he answered very decidedly. For sixpence, then? No maam. For a shilling? No, maam? For a thousand shillings? Dick was staggered. A thousand shillings looked big. Wouldnt it buy a lot of things? While he was thinking, another boy behind him called out, No, maam. Why not? asked the teacher. Because, said the boy, when the thousand shillings are all gone, and all the things theyve got with them have gone too, the lie is there, all the same. It is so. A lie sticks. Everything else may be gone, but that is left, and it must be carried with you, whether you will or not.
Heredity not wholly a disadvantage
A young man complains to Jupiter that in consequence of his fathers debaucheries he is pierced with pangs and punished with pains for sins not his own. Jupiter replies that in accordance with the very law of which he complains, he also receives from his father delicate nerves, vigorous muscles, and keen senses which are inlets of joy and many noble capacities and faculties of mind and heart. Jupiter offers in his case to suspend the offensive organic law; but warns him that, in losing his pain, he shall also lose all advantages and benefits through that same law of hereditary descent. And he further reminds him that even his pain is a monitor to warn him from the paths of vice trodden by his father. The sufferer withdraws his complaint, resigns himself, and resolves by pious obedience to all bodily laws to bring back his body to a normal and healthy state. (Combe on the Constitution of Man. )
Continuity of evil influences
Suppose a company of shipowners started a sea captain with an imperfect chart and with an unseaworthy vessel, and after the vessel has been gone five days they feel sorry about it, and wish they had not let the vessel go out in that way. Does that make any difference to those who have gone out? No! In the first storm the captain and the crew go down. And if you come to God in the latter part of your life, when you have given your children an impulse in the wrong direction, those ten, or fifteen, or twenty years of example in the wrong direction will be mightier than the few words you can utter now in the right direction. So it is with the influence you have had anywhere in community. If you have all these years given countenance to those who are neglecting religion, can you correct that? (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Heredity may transmit predisposition to disease
We know from experience that a full measure of health is not often the happy condition of human tissues; we have, in short, a variety of circumstances which, as we say, predispose the individual to disease. One of the commonest forms of predisposition is that due to heredity. Probably it is true that what are known as hereditary diseases are due far more to a hereditary predisposition than to any transmission of the virus itself in any form. Antecedent disease predisposes the tissues to form a nidus for bacteria; conditions of environment or personal habits frequently act in the same way. Damp soils must be held responsible for many disasters to health, not directly, but indirectly, by predisposition; dusty trades and injurious occupations have a similar effect. Any one of these three different influences may in a variety of ways affect the tissues and increase their susceptibility to disease. Not infrequently we may get them combined. (Newman, Bacteria.)
Verse 27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever.—
Gehazi smitten with leprosy
The sin which led to this punishment suggests–
I. That it is a mark of the highest contempt of the Holy God to link His name with our sinful purposes. As the Lord liveth, said Gehazi, I will take somewhat of him (2Ki 5:20). To stamp base metal with the image and name of the king is regarded as a great crime against the country and the monarch. How much greater the crime of stamping upon our evil actions the name of God. Yet some of the most diabolical acts that stain the page of history have been wrought in the name of the sinless Redeemer.
II. That the transgression of the first table of the moral law is a step to the transgression of the second. The man who will speak lightly of a good master will find it an easy matter to misrepresent the character of his fellow-servant. The child who dishonours a good parent will not be likely to be a kind brother. Those who fear not God, will as a rule regard not men (Luk 18:2). The sin against the less, comes easily after the sin against the greater. Gehazi first profaned the name of God, and then wronged his earthly master.
III. That those who will lie in order to deceive, must lie in order to conceal. Gehazis lie to Naaman was soon followed by another to Elisha. It has been said that a lie has no legs. There are men in the world who have no limbs upon which they can walk, and are indebted to the artificial help of crutches to make their way in the world. So a lie must be kept up by the crutches of other lies. The punishment for the sin teaches–That those who sin and seek to cover it by concealment, will be compelled, in time, to be the means of its revelation. (Outlines of Sermons by a London Minister.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
But he went in, and stood before his master,…. To know his will, and minister to him, as he had used to do, and as if he had never been from the house:
and Elisha said unto him, whence comest thou, Gehazi? where had he been, and where was he last?
and he said, thy servant went no whither; he pretended he had never been out of doors, which was another impudent lie; one would have thought that he who had lived so long with the prophet, and had seen the miracles wrought by him, and knew with what a spirit of prophecy he was endowed, would never have ventured to tell such an untruth, since he might expect to be detected; but covetousness had blinded his eyes and hardened his heart.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But when he entered his master’s presence again, he asked him, “Whence (comest thou), Gehazi?” and on his returning the lying answer that he had not been anywhere, charged him with all that he had done. , “had not my heart gone, when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee?” This is the simplest and the only correct interpretation of these difficult words, which have been explained in very different ways. Theodoret ( ) and the Vulgate ( nonne cor meum in praesenti erat, quando, etc . ) have already given the same explanation, and so far as the sense is concerned it agrees with that adopted by Thenius: was I not (in spirit) away (from here) and present (there)? stands in a distinct relation to the of Gehazi. – : “is it time to take silver, and clothes, and olive-trees, and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and servants and maidens?” i.e., is this the time, when so many hypocrites pretend to be prophets from selfishness and avarice, and bring the prophetic office into contempt with unbelievers, for a servant of the true God to take money and goods from a non-Israelite for that which God has done through him, that he may acquire property and luxury for himself?
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(25) But he.And he himself (after putting away his ill-gotten gains).
Went in.Into his masters chamber. Gehazi was already in the house.
Stood before.Came forward to (2Ch. 6:12).
Thy servant went no whither.Literally, Thy servant went not away hither nor thither.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
It should seem from what Elisha said to Gehazi, concerning oliveyards, and vineyards, and the like, that the prophet not only knew by divine teaching the sin of Gehazi, but the design he had in seeking Naaman’s wealth. He was probably planning a scheme to dispose of the money, in the purchase of those things for himself and family. Observe, if so, what an awful purchase he had made, instead of the one he intended. He and his seed shall be marked with a loathsome disease and with infamy forever. Oh! ye unhappy, deluded, and wretchedly mistaken parents! do ye not, when determining to be rich, pierce yourselves through with many sorrows. Oh! Sirs! what of real happiness do you entail upon your offspring, though you entail upon them the largest estates! And if for the purchase of this world’s treasure for your children, you sacrifice your own everlasting good; think in a dying hour, with what reflections in yourself, or what real thankfulness and affection from them, your mind will be comforted. Oh! for that solemn sentence of our adorable Lord, to be written on the walls of every worldly man’s house, and sounded in his ears every day; What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Mat 16:26 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ki 5:25 But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence [comest thou], Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.
Ver. 25. Thy servant went no whither. ] Another flat lie; sic mendaciuui mendacio assuit; but with ill success. Our false hearts will answer us in like sort, when they have been ranging and roving in hell’s ways.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
no whither
Heb. “not hither or thither.”
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
stood before: Pro 30:20, Eze 33:31, Mat 26:15, Mat 26:16, Mat 26:21-25, Joh 13:2, Joh 13:26-30
Whence: 2Ki 20:14, Gen 3:8, Gen 3:9, Gen 4:9, Gen 16:8
Thy servant: 2Ki 5:22, Act 5:3, Act 5:4
no whither: Heb. not hither or thither
Reciprocal: Jos 1:1 – Moses’ minister Jos 7:11 – dissembled Jos 7:21 – they are hid 1Sa 10:14 – no where 1Sa 13:11 – What hast 2Sa 1:3 – From 2Ki 8:14 – He told me Job 1:7 – Whence Pro 27:18 – so Mat 26:25 – Judas