2 Chronicles 26:16-21

Amplified Bible

Pride Is Uzziah’s Undoing

¹⁶But when Uzziah became strong, he became so proud [of himself and his accomplishments] that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful and sinned against the Lord his God, for he went ^[a]into the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.^(A) ¹⁷Then Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the Lord, men of courage. ¹⁸They opposed King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron who have been consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from the Lord God.” ¹⁹Then Uzziah, with a censer in his hand to burn incense, was enraged; and while he was enraged with the priests, ^[b]leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord, beside the incense altar. ²⁰As Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked toward him, behold, he was leprous on his forehead; and they hurried him out of there, and he also hurried to get out because the Lord had stricken him. ²¹King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and, being a leper, he lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And his son Jotham took charge of the king’s household, judging and governing the people of the land.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

2 Chronicles 26:16 Only priests were permitted to enter the temple proper and perform such ceremonies.
2 Chronicles 26:19 Or possibly a skin disease, because the Hebrew word is a general term that can refer to true leprosy (Hansen’s disease) or lesser skin diseases. In any case, it was a severe judgment from God because the disease rendered Uzziah ceremonially unclean, limiting his contact with other people and banning him from participation in worship services (see v 21).