About the king's munificence we are told no more, but we cannot doubt that it was refused. If Naaman's still costlier blessing had been rejected, though he was about to receive through Elisha's ministration an inestimable boon, it is unlikely that Elisha would accept a gift for which he could offer no return, and which, in fact, directly or indirectly, involved the death of the sender. But the historian does not think it necessary to pause and tell us that Elisha sent back the forty camels unladen of their treasures. It was not worth while to narrate what was a matter of course. If it had been no time, a few years earlier, to receive money and garments, and olive-yards and vineyards, and men-servants and maid-servants, still less was it a time to do so now. The days were darker now than they had been, and Elisha himself stood near the Great White Throne. The protection of these fearless prophets lay in their utter simplicity of soul. They rose above human fears because they stood above human desires. What Elisha possessed was more than sufficient for the needs of the plain and humble life of one whose communing was with God. It was not wonderful that prophets should rise to an elevation whence they could look down with indifference upon the superfluities of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, when even sages of the heathen have attained to a similar independence of earthly luxuries. One who can climb such mountain-heights can look with silent contempt on gold. But there is a serious difficulty about Elisha's answer to the embassage. "Go, say unto him"--so it is rendered in our Authorised Version--"Thou mayest certainly recover: howbeit the Lord hath showed me that he shall surely die." It is evident that the translators of 1611 meant the emphasis to be laid on the "_mayest_," and understood the answer of Elisha to mean, "Thy recovery is quite possible; and yet"--he adds to Hazael, and not as part of his answer to the king--"Jehovah has shown me that dying he shall die,"--not indeed of this disease, but by other means before he has recovered from it. Unfortunately, however, the Hebrew will not bear this meaning. Elisha bids Hazael to go back with the distinct message, "Thou shalt surely recover," as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version. This, however, is the rendering, not of the _written_ text as it stands, but of the margin. Every one knows that in the Masoretic original the text itself is called the K'thîb, or "what is written," whereas the margin is called _Q'rî_, "read." Now, our translators, both those of 1611 and those of the Revision Committee, all but invariably follow the Kethîb as the most authentic reading. In this instance, however, they abandon the rule and translate the marginal reading. What, then, is the written text? It is the reverse of the marginal reading, for it has: "Go, say, Thou shalt _not_ recover." The reader may naturally ask the cause of this startling discrepancy. It seems to be twofold.