2 Chronicles 26:16-28:8

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Pride and Apostasy

¹⁶ But when he had become strong he grew proud, to his destruction. For he acted unfaithfully toward the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to make offering on the altar of incense.^{(A) 17} But the priest Azariah went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor;^{(B) 18} they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to make offering to the Lord, but for the priests the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to make offering. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.”^{(C) 19} Then Uzziah was enraged. Now he had a censer in his hand to make offering, and when he became enraged with the priests a defiling disease broke out on his forehead, in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense.^{(D) 20} When the chief priest Azariah, and all the priests, looked at him, he was diseased on his forehead. They hurried him out, and he himself hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him. ²¹ King Uzziah had a defiling disease to the day of his death, and being diseased lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace of the king, governing the people of the land.^(E)

²² Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz wrote.^{(F) 23} Uzziah slept with his ancestors; they buried him near his ancestors in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, “He had a defiling disease.” His son Jotham succeeded him.^(G)

Reign of Jotham

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok.^{(H) 2} He did what was right in the sight of the Lord just as his father Uzziah had done—only he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people still followed corrupt practices.^{(I) 3} He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord and did extensive building on the wall of Ophel.^{(J) 4} Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah and forts and towers on the wooded hills. ⁵ He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. The Ammonites gave him that year one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years. ⁶ So Jotham strengthened himself because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God.^{(K) 7} Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.^{(L) 8} He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.^{(M) 9} Jotham slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city of David, and his son Ahaz succeeded him.

Reign of Ahaz

28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his ancestor David had done,^{(N) 2} but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made cast images for the Baals,^{(O) 3} and he made offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnom and made his sons pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel.^{(P) 4} He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.^(Q)

Aram and Israel Defeat Judah

⁵ Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who defeated him with great slaughter.^{(R) 6} Pekah son of Remaliah killed one hundred twenty thousand in Judah in one day, all of them valiant warriors, because they had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors.^{(S) 7} And Zichri, a mighty warrior of Ephraim, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, Azrikam the commander of the palace, and Elkanah the next in authority to the king.

Intervention of Oded

⁸ The people of Israel took captive two hundred thousand of their kin: women, sons, and daughters; they also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria.^(T)