Second Book of Chronicles 26

¹ All the people of Judah chose Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah.

² It was he who rebuilt Elath and recovered it for Judah, after the king was sleeping with his ancestors.

³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah, of Jerusalem.

⁴ He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, just as his father Amaziah had done;

⁵ he sought God devotedly throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, who had advanced so far in the fear of God. And for as long as he sought Yahweh, God gave him prosperity.

⁶ He went out to fight the Philistines, demolished the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod, then rebuilt the towns in the area of Ashdod and in Philistine territory.

⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs, the inhabitants of Gur-baal[*a] and the Meunites.

⁸ The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah. His fame spread as far as the approaches of Egypt, since he had become very powerful indeed.

⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem, at the Gate of the Corner, at the Gate of the Valley and at the Angle; and he fortified these.

¹⁰ He built towers in the wilderness too, and dug a great many cisterns, for he had large herds in the lowlands and on the tableland; and he had farmers and vine dressers in the hills and on the fertile lands; he was fond of agriculture.

¹¹ Uzziah had a professional army ready to go on campaign, divided into contingents manned as detailed by the scribe Jeiel and the registrar Maaseiah, and commanded by Hananiah, one of the king’s officers.

¹² The total number of heads of families of these valiant champions was two thousand six hundred.

¹³ Under their command was a trained army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred fighting men, a powerful force to support the king against the enemy.

¹⁴ Uzziah provided them with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows and sling stones, for each campaign.

¹⁵ In Jerusalem he constructed engines, invented by experts, which were mounted on the towers and at the corners to fire arrows and great stones. His fame spread far and wide; he owed his strength to a help nothing short of miraculous.

¹⁶ But, as his power increased, his heart grew proud, and this was his ruin: he broke faith with Yahweh his God. He entered the great hall of the Temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.

¹⁷ Azariah the priest followed King Uzziah in, with eighty brave priests of Yahweh,

¹⁸ to resist him. ‘Uzziah,’ they said ‘it is not for you to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, consecrated for the purpose. Leave the sanctuary; you have broken faith; the glory from Yahweh God, is no longer yours.’

¹⁹ Uzziah, censer in hand for the burning of incense, flew into a rage. But while he was raging at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, in the Temple of Yahweh, there by the altar of incense.

²⁰ Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests turned towards him and saw the leprosy on his forehead. They quickly hurried him out, and he himself was anxious to go, since Yahweh had struck him.

²¹ King Uzziah was a leper till his dying day. He lived confined to his room, a leper, excluded from the Temple of Yahweh. Jotham, his son, was master of the palace, and ruled the people of the country.

²² The rest of the history of Uzziah, from first to last, has been written by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

²³ Then Uzziah slept with his ancestors and they buried him with his fathers in the burial ground of the kings,[*b] for they said, ‘He is a leper’. His son Jotham succeeded him.