2 Chronicles 26 – 28

Uzziah (Azariah) King of Judah

2 Chronicles 26

¹ All the people of Judah took Uzziah, ^[1] who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

² He was the one who built Elat and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah rested with his fathers.

³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah ^[2] from Jerusalem.

⁴ He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like everything that his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He continued to seek God throughout the days of Zechariah, who trained him in the fear ^[3] of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

⁶ He 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. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal, and against the Meunites.

⁸ The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah. His reputation spread as far as the border of Egypt because he had become very strong. ⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.

¹⁰ He 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, ^[4] because he loved the soil.

¹¹ Uzziah 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.

¹² The total number of the leading fathers ^[5] who led the powerful warriors was 2,600. ¹³ Under 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. ¹⁴ Uzziah supplied the whole army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slingshots. ¹⁵ In 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

¹⁶ But 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.

¹⁷ Azariah the priest went in after him. He was followed by eighty priests of the Lord, brave men. ¹⁸ They 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.”

¹⁹ Uzziah became angry. He had a censer for burning incense in his hand. When he became angry with the priests, leprosy ^[6] broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, beside the altar of incense in the House of the Lord. ²⁰ When 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.

²¹ King 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.

²² The rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, were recorded by Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.

²³ Uzziah 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.

Jotham King of Judah

2 Chronicles 27

¹ Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok.

² He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord in everything, as his father Uzziah had done, but he did not go into the temple of the Lord as Uzziah had done. The people, however, still followed corrupt practices.

³ He built the upper gate of the House of the Lord. He also carried out extensive construction work on the wall of Ophel. ⁴ He also built cities in the hill country of Judah. On the wooded hills he built forts and towers.

⁵ He waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites gave him one hundred talents of silver, sixty thousand bushels ^[7] of wheat, and sixty thousand bushels of barley. The Ammonites paid him this amount also in the second and third years.

⁶ Jotham became powerful because he aligned his ways with the ways of the Lord his God.

⁷ You can find the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸ He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years.

⁹ Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. His son Ahaz ruled as king in his place.

Ahaz of Judah

2 Chronicles 28

¹ Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord as his father David had done. ² Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made cast images for the Baals ³ and sent up sacrifices in smoke in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. He burned his sons in the fire, in keeping with the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. ⁴ He also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

⁵ So the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and captured a great number of prisoners, who were taken to Damascus. Ahaz was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who dealt him a heavy blow.

⁶ In one day, Pekah son of Remaliah killed one hundred twenty thousand men in Judah, all of them strong warriors, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. ⁷ Zikri, a strong warrior from Ephraim, killed the king’s son Ma’aseiah, as well as Azrikam chief officer of the palace, and Elkanah second in command to the king.

⁸ The men from Israel took two hundred thousand of their fellow Israelites captive, including wives, sons, and daughters. They also seized a large amount of plunder from them and took it to Samaria.

⁹ There was a prophet of the Lord there, whose name was Oded. He went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Look! Because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry against Judah, he gave them into your hand. You have killed them in a rage that reaches up to heaven. ¹⁰ Now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Do you not have enough guilt of your own against the Lord your God? ¹¹ Now hear me. Send back the captives whom you have taken from your brothers, because the fierce anger of the Lord is upon you.”

¹² Some of the leaders of Ephraim, Azariah son of Johanan, Berekiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai, took a stand against those returning from the battle. ¹³ They said to them, “You must not bring the captives here, because it would make us guilty before the Lord. You are proposing to increase our sins and our guilt, because great guilt rests upon us and fierce anger burns against Israel.”

¹⁴ So the armed men left the captives and the plunder in front of the officials and the whole assembly. ¹⁵ The men who had been designated by name got up and took custody of the captives. From the spoils they provided clothing for all those who were naked. They clothed them and provided them with sandals, with food and drink, and with salve for their wounds. They transported all those who were weak on donkeys. They brought them to Jericho, the City of Palms, to their fellow Israelites. Then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent a request for help to the kings of Assyria. ¹⁷ Once again the Edomites came and defeated Judah and carried away captives.

¹⁸ The Philistines also made raids on the cities in the Shephelah and the Negev of Judah. They captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soko with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages, and they settled there.

¹⁹ The Lord brought Judah low, because Ahaz king of Israel ^[8] had led Judah to throw off all restraint. He had been very unfaithful to the Lord.

²⁰ When Tiglath Pileser ^[9] king of Assyria came, he marched against Ahaz and oppressed him instead of strengthening him. ²¹ Ahaz took some things from the House of the Lord, from the palace of the king, and from the officials, and he gave them to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.

²² In the time of his distress King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord. That was the way he was. ²³ He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him. He said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they may help me.” But they were his ruin and the ruin of all Israel.

²⁴ Ahaz gathered the articles from the House of God and cut all these things from the House of God to pieces. He shut the doors of the House of the Lord and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ In each and every city throughout Judah, he made high places to burn incense to other gods. He provoked the Lord, the God of his fathers, to anger.

²⁶ As for the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, you can find them written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷ Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem. They did not bury him in the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah ruled as king in his place.