He said to him: It should be made clear that it is Elisha who is speaking to Naaman here.

Go in peace was a common way of saying goodbye in biblical times. Jethro said the same thing to Moses (Exo 4.18), Eli said goodbye to Hannah in this way (1 Sam 1.17), as did Jonathan to David (1 Sam 20.42). By sending him off with this friendly farewell wish, Elisha seems to imply his belief that the LORD would forgive the future actions of Naaman in the temple of Rimmon. Another way to express the sense of the Hebrew here is “Go on home, and don’t worry about that” (Contemporary English Version). One African language expresses it as their common farewell blessing: “May you reach [home] in peace.”

But when Naaman had gone from him a short distance: Good News Translation renders this with an independent clause to say clearly that Naaman actually left the presence of Elisha. A short distance was probably less than a full day’s journey (the exact sense of the Hebrew is uncertain), but Naaman was almost certainly out of sight of Elisha when Gehazi decided to try to catch up to him.

Most translations include this clause at the end of the verse with the following verses, and some translations like Revised Standard Version render the common Hebrew conjunction here as “But,” since the action of Gehazi is contrary to what is expected. However, in the Masoretic Text the second half of this verse clearly belongs with the first part of this verse. Hobbs follows the punctuation of the Masoretic Text by translating this clause as the end of the paragraph, saying “So he went away from him a short distance.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .