y the Rabbins and others. Nor is that unlikely
which Josephus here adds, that these debts were contracted by her
husband for the support of those "hundred of the Lord's prophets, whom
he maintained by fifty in a cave," in the days of Ahab and Jezebel, 1
Kings 18:4; which circumstance rendered it highly fit that the prophet
Elisha should provide her a remedy, and enable her to redeem herself
and her sons from the fear of that slavery which insolvent debtors were
liable to by the law of Moses, Leviticus 25:39; Matthew 18:25; which he
did accordingly, with God's help, at the expense of a miracle.

[8] Dr. Hudson, with very good reason, suspects that there is no small
defect in our present copies of Josephus, just before the beginning of
this section, and that chiefly as to that distinct account which he had
given us reason to expect in the first section, and to which he seems
to refer, ch. 8. sect. 6. concerning the glorious miracles which Elisha
wrought, which indeed in our Bibles are not a few, 2 Kings 6-9., but of
which we have several omitted in Josephus's present copies. One of those
histories, omitted at present, was evidently in his Bible, I mean that
of the curing of Nanman's leprosy, 2 Kings 5.; for he plainly alludes to
it, B. III. ch. 11. sect. 4, where he observes, that "there were lepers
in many nations who yet have been in honor, and not only free from
reproach and avoidance, but who have been great captains of armies, and
been intrusted with high offices in the commonwealth, and have had the
privilege of entering into holy places and temples." But what makes me
most regret the want of that history in our present copies of Josephus
is this, that we have here, as it is commonly understood, one of the
greatest difficulties in all the Bible, that in 2 Kings 5:18, 19, where
Naaman, after he had been miraculously cured by a prophet of the true
God, and had thereupon promised [ver. 17] that "he would henceforth
offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the
Lord," adds, "In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my
master goeth into the house of Rimnu to worship there, and he leaneth
on my hands, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmort; when I bow down
myself in the house of Rimmort, the Lord pardon thy servant in this
thing. And Elisha said, Go in peace." This looks like a prophet's
permission for being partaker in idolatry itself, out of compliance with
an idolatrous court.