2 Chronicles 26

Uzziah Grows Strong

1The whole people of Judah then took Uzziah — he was sixteen years old — and set him on the throne after his father Amaziah. 2He was the one who rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah, after the king had lain down with his ancestors. 3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah, from Jerusalem. 4He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, following everything his father Amaziah had done. 5He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who taught him to see God rightly; and for as long as he sought Yahweh, God gave him success.* 6He marched out and fought the Philistines. He broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites. 8The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his name carried as far as the approach to Egypt, for he had grown exceedingly strong. 9Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the angle of the wall, and he fortified them. 10He built towers in the wilderness too, and cut out many cisterns, for he had large herds both in the foothills and on the plain, and farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the orchard land — for he was a lover of the soil. 11Uzziah had an army trained for war, going out to the field by companies, according to the muster drawn up by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. 12The full number of the heads of ancestral houses over these fighting men was two thousand six hundred. 13Under their command was an armed force of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, who made war with formidable power to help the king against the enemy. 14Uzziah supplied the whole army with shields and spears, helmets and coats of mail, bows, and stones for slings. 15In Jerusalem he made devices, the invention of skilled men, to be set on the towers and the corner bastions for shooting arrows and hurling great stones. His name carried far and wide, for he was helped in extraordinary ways until he was strong.

Uzziah Enters the Sanctuary

16But once he was strong, his heart grew proud, and it ruined him. He broke faith with Yahweh his God: he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, men of courage. 18They stood against King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary. You have broken faith, and this will bring you no honour from Yahweh God.” 19Uzziah was enraged. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was raging at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, in front of the priests, in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense. 20When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned toward him and saw the leprosy on his forehead, they hurried him out; and he himself was in haste to leave, because Yahweh had struck him. 21King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in a separate house, a leper, cut off from the house of Yahweh, while Jotham his son was over the king’s house, governing the people of the land. 22The rest of Uzziah’s acts, from first to last, were written down by Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet. 23Uzziah lay down with his ancestors, and they buried him near his ancestors in the burial field belonging to the kings, for they said, “He is a leper.” And Jotham his son became king in his place.