The only points of difficulty in this narrative are those connected with the requests made by Naa man to Elisha, and which the prophet seems not to have refused. The request for two mules' load of earth with which to build an altar to Jehovah in Damascus, appears to have arisen from the notion that the soil of the land was proper to the God of the land, whom he proposed henceforth to wor ship. Jehovah's claim to be the universal God was unknown to, or misunderstood by, the neigh bouring nations ; and the only question that ever came before them, was whether Jehovah, the God whom the Hebrews worshipped, was more or less powerful than the gods they worshipped. That he was infinitely more powerful was, as we take it, the point at which this man's faith rested. He was convinced, not that Jehovah was the universal God, but that ' there was no God in all the earth save only in the land of Israel'—and, therefore, he desired to worship at an altar formed of the soil which was thus eminently honoured. It is not clear whether he intended to say absolutely that there was no God in the world save in the land of Israel, or used the phrase as a strong expression of his belief that the gods of other lands were nought as compared with him. The explanation applies
in either sense. Naaman's other request for per mission to bow in the house of Rimmon seems to have amounted to this. He had acknowledged indirectly that Rimmon was no god, or else a god too powerless to be henceforth the object of his worship. Yet, as a great officer of state, his duty required him to attend the king to the temple of this idol, and, as the king leaned upon his arm, to bow when the monarch bowed. To refuse this would bring disgrace upon him, and constrain him to relinquish his high place, if not his country ; and for this he was not prepared. Of the views under which Elisha consented to this request, we are less able to judge. But indeed it is not clear that he did consent, or expressed any distinct opinion in the matter. His• words of dismissal, Go in peace,' do not necessarily convey his approval of all that Naaman had asked, although in tenderness to one so well intentioned, and whom there was no opportunity of instructing further, he may have abstained from urging upon the Syrian those obli gations which would have been indispensable to a subject of the Mosaical covenant.—J. K.