The House of Rimmon
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This play offers a powerful exploration of faith, sacrifice, and the triumph of true love over corruption, making it a compelling read for those interested in classic literary drama.
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Book Summary
In ancient Damascus, a heroic Syrian general named Naaman is betrayed by corrupt priests and a treacherous wife, then stricken with leprosy. Guided by the devoted Hebrew slave Ruahmah, he seeks healing from the prophet Elisha, discovering true faith and redemption while political intrigue and sacrifice unfold around him.
The play opens with a conspiracy: Rezon, priest of Rimmon, and Tsarpi, Naaman's wife, plot to betray Damascus to Assyria, using a false oracle and even poison. Ruahmah, a Hebrew slave who secretly loves Naaman, overhears and is torn between loyalty and fear. After Naaman returns victorious from battle, Rezon publicly declares him a leper, casting him out. In despair, Ruahmah reveals her love and persuades him to seek healing from the prophet of Israel. Their journey is fraught with obstacles: the king of Israel refuses help, and Naaman is angered by Elisha's simple command to wash in the Jordan. Eventually, he humbles himself and is healed, both physically and spiritually. Meanwhile, Ruahmah receives a divine warning to flee, but she is captured by Rezon's forces during a night attack. Naaman returns to find his camp destroyed and learns of her capture. Saballidin exposes Tsarpi's betrayal, and the play builds toward a climax of justice and redemption, as Naaman confronts the corrupt religious and political powers, ultimately choosing faith in the true God over the false god Rimmon.
Reading guide
Go deeper in The House of Rimmon
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
Ruahmah’s emotional peak occurs when she awakens from the vision and accepts her fate—she must give thanks, ob…
Hazael
Naaman is the man the King honors and the people love, a soldier whose absence from his own house is measured in hours of moonlight. His garden holds a small, hideous image of Rimmon and a tower whose shadow falls across it, while his wife waits and a high priest slips through the trees. The scorn he shows Rezon, and the hatred it earns him, sets the whole drama quietly burning before he ever appears.
Ruahmah
Ruahmah belongs to the same charged world of Damascus where priests, kings, and generals trade favors and grudges. Carrying the aliases Saballidin and Master, this figure's standing places them near the levers of power rather than at its edges. Their choices and loyalties matter early because the struggle over Naaman's house needs allies who can move between its factions.
Rezon Rimmon
Rezon keeps the House of Rimmon, whose square tower casts its shadow across Naaman's garden, and he wields a rod tipped with star and thunderbolt. He repays Naaman's scorn with double hatred, yet he kneels before Tsarpi's beauty and needs her as much as she needs his promises. His midnight errand in the garden ignites the rivalry that drives the play's first acts.
Tsarpi
Tsarpi rules the terrace of Naaman's palace while her husband haunts the camp, arranging her curls and dismissing her maids with careless authority. She wants everything that lifts her beauty to a higher throne: what a priest can promise, what a man can give, what a god can bestow. Her midnight meeting with Rezon, and the bargain she strikes, turns the household's private neglect into public danger.
Shumakim
Shumakim moves through the drama's confrontations with a temper that surfaces in clipped, bitter speech. Where others calculate, this character feels the sting of slights and lets it show, making them a barometer of the grudges simmering around Naaman and the House of Rimmon. Their outbursts matter because they force hidden resentments into the open before the plot can quietly resolve them.
Benhadad
Benhadad sits at the head of a kingdom whose stability depends on generals like Naaman and priests like Rezon, and his bearing shifts with every turn of fortune. He lingers, repents, rises, and sinks by turns, a sovereign whose personal wavering mirrors the realm's precarious balance. His decisions weigh on the middle of the story, where loyalty, faith, and power must be sorted out at the highest level.
Religious Corruption and Hypocrisy
The House of Rimmon is depicted as a corrupt institution where priests like Rezon manipulate divine will for personal power, wealth, and political control, using false oracles and sacrificial rituals to deceive the people and the king.
Love and Sacrifice
True love is portrayed through Ruahmah's selfless devotion to Naaman, as she risks her life, endures captivity, and sacrifices her own identity to heal and save him, contrasting with Tsarpi's selfish and manipulative desires.
Political Intrigue and Betrayal
The plot is driven by secret alliances, treasonous deals with Assyria, and personal betrayals, as nobles and priests conspire to sell out their city for wealth and status, while Naaman remains loyal to Damascus.
Faith and Doubt
The narrative explores the struggle between blind adherence to a cruel, false god (Rimmon) and the search for a merciful, true God, as Naaman moves from skepticism to belief through Ruahmah's guidance and the prophet Elisha's healing.
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