Pharpar

Pharpar is one of the two rivers of Damascus that Naaman the Syrian commander praises above the waters of Israel when the prophet Elisha tells him to wash in the Jordan.

A River of Damascus

The river surfaces only in Naaman's protest after he is told to bathe seven times in the Jordan to be cleansed of his leprosy: "Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage" (2 Kings 5:12). Pharpar is paired with Abanah as the local water Naaman would have preferred. The name is a geographical marker of Damascus, set in contrast with the Jordan, and the protest is the prelude to Naaman's eventual obedience and healing.