2 Kings 5:26

Went not mine heart... meet thee? — Rather, Nor did my heart (i.e., consciousness) go away, when a man turned (and alighted) from his chariot to meet thee. The prophet, in severe irony, adopts Gehazi’s own phrase: Maurer, “Non abierat animus meus;” “I was there in spirit, and witnessed everything.” The sentence has given the commentators much trouble. (See the elaborate Note in Thenius. We might have expected wĕlô, and w may have been omitted, owing to the preceding w; but it is not absolutely necessary.) The Authorised Version follows the LXX. (Vat.), which supplies the expression “with thee” (μετὰ σοῦ̑), wanting in the Hebrew text. The Targum paraphrases: “By the spirit of prophecy I was informed when the man turned,” &c. The Syriac follows with, “My heart informed me when the man turned,” &c.

Is it a time to receive. — Comp. Ecclesiastes 3:2, seq. The LXX., pointing the Hebrew differently, reads: καὶ νῦν ἔλαβες τὸ�. (“And now thou receivedst the money,” &c.). So also the Vulg. and Arabic, but not the Targum and Syriac. Böttcher, retaining the interrogative particle of the Hebrew, adopts this: “Didst thou then take the money?” &c. But the Masoretic pointing appears to be much more suitable. The prophet’s question comes to this: “Was that above all others a proper occasion for yielding to your desire of gain, when you were dealing with a heathen? Ought you not to have been studiously disinterested in your behaviour to such an one, that he might learn not to confound the prophets of Jehovah with the mercenary diviners and soothsayers of the false gods?” The prophet’s disciple is bound, like his master, to seek, not worldly power, but spiritual; for the time is one of ardent struggle against the encroachments of paganism.

And oliveyards... maidservants? — The prophet develops Gehazi’s object in asking for the money: he wished to purchase lands, and live stock, and slaves — whatever constituted the material wealth of the time. The Targum inserts the explanatory: “And thou thoughtest in thy heart to purchase oliveyards,” &c. So Vulg.: “ut emas oliveta.”