Oedor

1. A Benjamite, an ancestor of kmg Saul, 1 Ch 8" 9^. 2. 3. The eponym of two Judahite families, 1 Ch 4- '». bee Genealogy. GE-HARASHIM {cxnn n-j), 'valley of craftsmen,' 1 Ch 4''', Neh U'. In the latter passage it occurs ■\vith Lod and Ono. The name mav survive at ihe ruin Hirsha, E. of Lydda. See S'WP vol. ii. sh. xiv. GEHAZI ('in"!, except in 2 K 5=» 8-», where it is Vp?, ' valley of vision ' ; LXX Tifffi, Vulg. Giezi) is four times called tlie servant (lyj, lit. ' boy ') of Elisha, a term which indicates a lower kind of service than Elisha's 'ministry' to Elijah. He may, however, be the jjerson called in 2 K 4'" Elisha's minister (niv'r). the word which is applied to Elisha himself in 1 K 19^'. Gehazi is one of those Bible characters— Achan, Judas, Anania^ Demas, etc. — wliose crimes and apostasy point the moral that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. What is known of him is told in three narratives. 1. In the story of the lady of Shunem (2 K 4»-") he appears as a man of shrewd practical sense, but incapable of understanding the impulses of deep feeling. His moral quality is scarcely defined. Elisha having failed to persuade his benefactress to ask any favour, turns in perplexity to consult his servant (4'^). G. has penetrated the good lady's thoughts, and teUs the prophet of her secret longing for a son. Elisha perceives that his servant's insiglit has surpassed his own, and, recalling the Slmnam- mite, promises that the desire of her heart will be granted. In the sequel to the story, when the lady, bereft of this child of promise, comes in htsta to the retreat at Carmel and casts herself ai. the prophet's feet in a passion of grief, G.'s common- place mind is shocked at this liberty taken by a woman. He would rudely thrust her away ; but the prophet, pitying her unknown sorrow, reproves his servant for adding to the bitterness of her soul. When she has told the cause of her grief, G. ia directed to hasten to Shunem, saluting no man by the way (cf. Lk 10^), ana lay the prophet's staff on the face of the child. 2. In the story of Naaman G. appears as a finished example of covetousness (2 K 5^"'"). His baseness is in startling contrast to the high- mindedness of his master. In vain does Naaman press his treasure on the acceptance of Elisha ; lie has to depart with it intact (5'). To the sordid mind of G. this situation of affairs presents a temptation which he cannot resist. His passion for gain, probably long nourished in secret, suddenly overmasters him. The voice of reason and religion is stifled, and blasphemy, lying, sacri- lege, and fraud come to serve his master passion. Elisha's refusal to take the stranger's gold seems to liini madness. 'As J" liveth,' he will secure a portion of it for himself — thus lightly does he use the same oath witli which Elisha solemnly refused the filthy lucre (o''-"). Running to overtake the Syrian cavalcade, G. invents a clever story of two poor young sons of the prophets having just come to Samaria, whose wants Elisha has bethought himself of supplying out of the treasure which he liad refused for himself. G. begs for them a talent of silver (,C400 !) and two changes of raiment GEHENNA GEHENNA 119 Plausible though the story was, it could hardly fail to lower the prophet in the estimation of the Syrians. They would reflect that he was like other men, after all. But G.'s request is at once granted, and two of Naaman's servants return to Samaria laden with the clianges of raiment and twice as much silver as had beeu asked. When they come to the hill C^ril', LXX £<s rb SKmiivbi/, to the secret place, from a reading ^^k ■ Vulg. jam vesperi) G. dismisses the men and conceals his prize. He then boldly presents himself before his master, and in answer to a qi'pstion assures him witli an air of innocence tliat lie has been nowhere. But the prophet has at last discovered his servant's true character, and with searching interrogations lays bare his guilt, and reads the very tliouglits and intents of his heart. G. is utterly confounded. Pale and speechless he hears the cui-se of Naaman's leprosy entailed, with awful appropriateness, on himself and his family for ever, and goes from Eli.-iha's presence a leper, white as snow. 3. In the third narrative (2 K S''") G. appears engaged in conversation with king Jehoram, who has called him to recite the story of Klislia's wonderful deeds. G. is tellin"; of the restoration of the Sliunammite's son to life, when the lady herself comes on the scene to petition the king to reinstate her in the house and land which she had lost in a recent famine. The difficulty of imagin- ing the king talking to a leper and G. glorifying Elisha has led some critics to suppose that this narrative is misplaced, and should appear before 2 K 5. But it reads quite natmallj' as it stands. Conversation with lepers was not forbidden. The story certainly shows G. in a more favourable litflit than the previous narrative. The notice taken of him by the king, and the truthfulness and respect with which he recounts the deeds of his former master, may be charitably taken to indi- cate that atlliction had at last made him a wiser and better man. I'.lislia's clioice of this covetous man to be his follower presents a difficulty of the same kind, thougli not so great, as Christ's choice of a covetous disciple. It appears that the prophet's insight, tliough often marvellous, was sometimes quite ordinary (2 K 4"). He confesses his inability to read the mind of the Shunammite : ' .J " hatli hid it from me, and hath not "told me' (4^"). In tlie same way he was evidently mistaken with regard to the character of his servant. He probably cliose hiiii for his ready wit and practical sense ; and if he detected in him a love of money, lie may have hoped that the force of example would wean him from it. But to minds steeped in avarice the means of grace are often a savour of death rather than of life, and a holy e.\amp!e may not cliange the heart. ' Happy was it for Gehazi,' says Bisljop Hall, 'if, while his skin was snow-wliite with leprosy, his humbled soul was washed white as snow with the water of true repentance.' J. Strachan.