2 Chronicles 26

Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.

NoteUzziah's father Amaziah had been killed by conspirators (2 Chronicles 25:27–28); "all the people of Judah" putting the sixteen-year-old on the throne describes the public act of confirming the murdered king's son rather than letting the plotters choose a ruler. Uzziah is called Azariah in the parallel account in 2 Kings 14–15; both names were in use for him.

2Uzziah was the one who rebuilt the town of Eloth and brought it back under Judah's control. He did this after his father the king died.

2He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.

NoteEloth (also spelled Elath) stood at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, at the head of the Red Sea, a port giving Judah access to sea trade with Arabia and Africa. Holding it meant controlling the trade route south.

3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he ruled fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah, and she was from Jerusalem.

3Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

NoteFifty-two years is the longest reign recorded for a king of Judah. Ancient Near Eastern reign totals normally counted co-regencies, so these years probably include time when Uzziah ruled alongside his father at the start and alongside his son Jotham at the end (see verse 21).

4He did what was right in the LORD's sight, just as his father Amaziah had done.

4And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah did.

5He looked to God as long as Zechariah was alive, a man who understood the visions of God. And as long as Uzziah looked to the LORD, God gave him success.

5And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper.

NoteThis Zechariah is otherwise unknown; he is not the prophet whose book stands near the end of the Old Testament, who lived some three hundred years later. "Understood the visions of God" describes him as a recognized prophetic figure who advised the young king; some Hebrew manuscripts read "who instructed him in the fear of God."

6He went out and fought the Philistines. He tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod, and he built towns near Ashdod and in other Philistine territory.

6And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines.

NoteThe Philistines occupied the coastal plain south-west of Judah, in five main cities including Gath and Ashdod; they had been Israel's rivals for centuries. Jabneh is the town later known as Jamnia. Tearing down a city's wall did not destroy the town: it stripped away its defenses so it could not resist, and building towns nearby planted Judean settlers to hold the territory.

7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.

7And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gurbaal, and the Mehunims.

NoteGur-baal is otherwise unknown, somewhere south or south-east of Judah. The Meunites were a people probably based around Ma'an, east of the Arabah in what is now southern Jordan. Both were desert peoples on the trade routes Uzziah was trying to control.

8The Ammonites paid Uzziah tribute, and his fame spread all the way to the border of Egypt, because he had grown very strong.

8And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entering in of Egypt; for he strengthened himself exceedingly.

NoteTribute was a regular payment (silver, goods, livestock) made by a weaker people to a stronger king as the price of being left alone. It was an admission of political submission, not a gift in the ordinary sense. "The border of Egypt" marks the far south-western edge of the known world from Judah's point of view.

9Uzziah also built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the angle where the wall turned, and he made them strong.

9Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and fortified them.

NoteThe Corner Gate and the Valley Gate were points on Jerusalem's city wall; the "angle" was a sharp turn in the wall's line, a naturally weak spot. Amaziah's defeat had left part of this wall broken down (2 Chronicles 25:23), so Uzziah is repairing and strengthening the city's defenses.

10He built towers out in the desert too, and dug many cisterns, because he had a great deal of livestock in the western foothills and on the plain. He also had farmers and vineyard workers in the hills and in the fertile fields, because he loved working the land.

10Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry.

NoteCisterns are pits cut into rock and sealed to catch and store rainwater, in dry country they made grazing possible where there were no springs. The "western foothills" translate the Shephelah, the low hill country between Judah's central ridge and the coastal plain. The word rendered "fertile fields" is Carmel, which can be either a place name or simply the ordinary word for good farmland.

11Uzziah had an army of fighting men who went out to war in organized divisions. Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer kept the count and the record, working under Hananiah, one of the king's commanders.

11Moreover Uzziah had an host of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their account by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king’s captains.

NoteThe "secretary" (scribe) was a senior official who kept the muster rolls, the written lists of who was liable for military service and which unit they belonged to. Recording an army this way, by divisions under named officers, marks it as a standing royal force rather than a militia raised only when war came.

12The total number of family heads over these mighty fighting men was 2,600.

12The whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valour were two thousand and six hundred.

13Under their command was an army of 307,500 men who fought with great power, ready to help the king against his enemies.

13And under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.

NoteNumbers of this size are typical of the Chronicler's military figures. The Hebrew word translated "thousand" can also mean a clan or a military unit of unspecified size, so the total may represent units rather than a headcount; the text does not settle the question.

14Uzziah supplied the whole army with shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and stones for slings.

14And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host shields, and spears, and helmets, and habergeons, and bows, and slings to cast stones.

15In Jerusalem he had skilled men design machines to stand on the towers and on the corners of the wall, to shoot arrows and hurl large stones. His fame spread far and wide, because he was helped in a remarkable way until he became strong.

15And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.

NoteThe Hebrew describes "devices, the invention of skilled men," without saying what they were. Catapults and torsion artillery are not otherwise attested this early, so some take these as machines for shooting arrows and stones, others as shielding structures that protected defenders while they shot by hand. The ambiguity is in the original.

16But once he was strong, his pride led to his ruin. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God: he went into the LORD's temple to burn incense on the incense altar.

16But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense.

NoteThe incense altar stood inside the temple building itself, in the room called the Holy Place, and was separate from the large altar in the courtyard where animals were sacrificed. Only priests entered that room. The offense is not that Uzziah worshiped, but that he performed an act the law reserved for one hereditary group.

17Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the LORD who were brave men.

17And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him fourscore priests of the LORD, that were valiant men:

18They stood up to King Uzziah and said, "It is not your right, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That belongs to the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are set apart to burn incense. Leave the holy place, because you have done wrong. You will get no honor from the LORD God for this."

18And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.

NoteIsrael's priesthood was hereditary, restricted to descendants of Aaron within the tribe of Levi; "set apart" (consecrated) means formally installed by ritual for that work. Kings of Judah, from the tribe of Judah, held no priestly office, unlike kings in surrounding nations, who often did. "The holy place" is the temple's inner room, not the open courtyard where anyone could stand.

19Then Uzziah became angry. He was holding an incense burner, ready to burn incense. While he was raging at the priests, a skin disease broke out on his forehead, there in the LORD's house, in front of the priests, beside the incense altar.

19Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.

NoteA censer is a metal pan or shovel for carrying burning coals on which incense is sprinkled. The Hebrew word traditionally translated "leprosy" covers a range of skin conditions, and also discolourations in cloth and on house walls; it is not modern leprosy (Hansen's disease). Its consequence was ritual, not medical: a person with it was excluded from the sanctuary and from ordinary contact until a priest declared them clean.

20Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him and saw the disease on his forehead, so they rushed him out. He himself hurried to get out, because the LORD had struck him.

20And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him.

21King Uzziah had this disease until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, still diseased, and he was shut out of the LORD's house. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

21And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.

NoteA person with this condition had to live apart from the community (Leviticus 13:46), so the king was permanently barred from the temple and from public life. The Hebrew phrase for the house he lived in is obscure and occurs nowhere else; it has been read as "a house of quarantine" and as "a house of release," meaning free of royal duty. Jotham running the palace and governing amounts to a co-regency lasting until his father's death.

22The rest of what Uzziah did, from beginning to end, was written down by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

22Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.

NoteThis is the prophet whose oracles make up the book of Isaiah, which opens by dating his ministry to the reigns of Uzziah and his successors and dates his call vision to "the year that King Uzziah died" (Isaiah 6:1). The record referred to here is not the biblical book but a separate court chronicle, now lost.

23Uzziah died and was buried near his ancestors in a burial field that belonged to the kings, because people said, "He had a skin disease." His son Jotham became king in his place.

23So Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his stead.

NoteHe was buried in ground belonging to the royal family but not in the tombs of the kings themselves, the burial of someone whose condition made him ritually unclean, kept apart even in death.