Chapter 26

The Works of Uzziah.^{[a] 1} Then all the people of Judah chose Uzziah, even though he was only sixteen years old, and they made him king as the successor to his father Amaziah. ² It was he who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after the king had fallen asleep with his ancestors.

³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ⁴ He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ Furthermore, he consulted God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the guidance of the Lord, God allowed him to prosper.^[b]

⁶ Uzziah went forth and fought the Philistines. He demolished the walls of Gath, the walls of Jabneh, and the walls of Ashdod; and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod, and elsewhere 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, and his fame spread as far as the borders of Egypt, for he became ever more powerful. ⁹ Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them. ¹⁰ He also erected towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, for he had large herds of cattle both in the Shephelah and in the plain; and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.

¹¹ Uzziah had a well-trained army ready to engage in battles and divided into divisions according to their numbers as specified by the scribe Jeiel and the staff officer Maaseiah, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. ¹² The total number of the heads of ancestral houses of mighty warriors was two thousand six hundred. ¹³ Under their command was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, a powerful force to help the king against his enemies.

¹⁴ Uzziah provided for the entire army the shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows, and slingstones. ¹⁵ In Jerusalem he also had requisitioned machines, invented by skilled workers, to be placed on the towers and battlements for shooting arrows and large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was so miraculously gifted that he became very powerful.

¹⁶ Pride and Punishment. However, when Uzziah continued to grow ever stronger, he also was afflicted with pride, and that led to his destruction. For he proved unfaithful to the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to make an offering on the altar of incense. ¹⁷ Then the priest Azariah and eighty priests of the Lord who were courageous men followed him.

¹⁸ The priests confronted King Uzziah and said to him: “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to make offerings. Leave the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and you will no longer share in the glory that comes from the Lord God.” ¹⁹ Uzziah had a censer in his hand to burn the incense, but while he showed his intense anger to the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense.

²⁰ When the chief priest, Azariah, and all the other priests looked at Uzziah carefully and saw that his forehead was leprous, they quickly removed him from the temple; and he himself was equally anxious to leave because the Lord had afflicted him. ²¹ King Uzziah remained a leper until the day of his death, and because he was thus afflicted, he dwelt while confined in a separate house, since he was excluded from the house of the Lord. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace of the king, and he governed the people of the land.

²² The rest of the history of Uzziah, from first to last, was written by the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz. ²³ Uzziah rested with his ancestors and was buried with them, but in the field adjoining the royal tombs, for they said: “He is a leper.” His son Jotham succeeded him as king.