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New Testament
2 Chronicles 26
Uzziah (Azariah) King of Judah
261All the people of Judah took Uzziah,[] who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2He was the one who built Elat and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah rested with his fathers.
3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mother's name was Jekoliah[] from Jerusalem.
4He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like everything that his father Amaziah had done. 5He continued to seek God throughout the days of Zechariah, who trained him in the fear[] of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
6He went out and waged war against the Philistines. He broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Javneh, and the wall of Ashdod. He built cities in the territory of Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal, and against the Meunites.
8The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah. His reputation spread as far as the border of Egypt because he had become very strong. 9Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.
10He built towers in the wilderness. He dug many cisterns because he had large herds both in the Shephelah and on the plains. He also had farmers and vineyard workers in the highlands and in the fertile lands,[] because he loved the soil.
11Uzziah had an army, well trained and ready for war, organized in divisions based on the numbers from the census taken by Jeiel the secretary and Ma'aseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's officials.
12The total number of the leading fathers[] who led the powerful warriors was 2,600. 13Under their command there was a strong army of 307,500 men, able to wage war as a very powerful force, to help the king against the enemy. 14Uzziah supplied the whole army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slingshots. 15In Jerusalem he made war machines produced by clever inventors to be mounted on the towers and at the corners, to shoot arrows and hurl large stones. His reputation spread far and wide because he received marvelous help until he was strong.
Uzziah's Sinful Pride and Death
16But when he had grown powerful, the pride in his heart led to his destruction. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God. He entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17Azariah the priest went in after him. He was followed by eighty priests of the Lord, brave men. 18They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, because you have been unfaithful. This action will not result in any praise for you from the Lord God.”
19Uzziah became angry. He had a censer for burning incense in his hand. When he became angry with the priests, leprosy[] broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, beside the altar of incense in the House of the Lord. 20When Azariah, the head priest, and all the other priests looked at him, they immediately realized he had leprosy on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also was in a hurry to leave because the Lord had struck him.
21King Uzziah remained a leper until the day of his death. He lived in a quarantined house because he was a leper. He was excluded from the House of the Lord. Jotham his son was in charge of the palace of the king and administered justice for the people of the land.
22The rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, were recorded by Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.
23Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, because they said, “He is a leper.” His son Jotham ruled as king in his place.
Footnotes
- 26:1 He is called Azariah in 2 Kings.
- 26:3 Also called Jekiliah. Such spelling variants are common in biblical personal names.
- 26:5 A Hebrew variant is visions.
- 26:10 Hebrew carmel, which may be translated as a proper name Carmel
- 26:12 Fathers is a common name for the heads of societal units in Israel since they were organized along family lines.
- 26:19 The Hebrew word covers a wider range of skin diseases than the disease presently known as leprosy.