Tazria haftara for M'tzora and vice versa?

Question

When Tazria and M'tzora are read separately, we have the following situation:

• Tazria discusses tzaraas on a human: how he contracts it, is diagnosed, is quarantined, and is pronounced cured.
  • Its haftara is about someone who sought a cure for tzaraas and was cured.
• M'tzora discusses tzaraas on a human: how he is pronounced cured, is unquarantined, and becomes tahor.
  • Its haftara is about people with tzaraas.

Shouldn't the haftaros be reversed?

Answer 1

The simplest answer is that the haftoras go in the way the Torah ordered it in Melachim. (Tazria's being from 2 Kings ch. 4, and Metzora's from ibid. ch. 7.) (Not that this is always the case, see for example Behar and Bechukosai. )

In addition, the Gemara tells us (Sotah 47a) that the four lepers (discussed in the second haftora) are Gechazi and his sons (who got tzara'as as a result of events in the first haftora). According to this, the two stories are really contiguous, and reversing their order doesn't really make so much sense (l'chorah).