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Naaman, the commander of the army of the king of Damascus, was a leper. He was advised to seek out Elisha, the disciple of the Hebrew prophet Elijah, who bade him wash seven times in the river Jordan in order to be cured. Naaman did so, in spite of misgivings, and "his flesh was restored as a little child's" (II Kings 5:1-19). As a reward Naaman offered Elisha many gifts, which the latter refused, explaining that the cure had come only from Heaven. For the figure of Elisha on the right of the composition de Grebber appears to have used the same model as for a similar figure seen in profile for his Conferring of the Sword on the Coat-of-Arms of Haarlem.
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