1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2He rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king had lain down with his fathers.
3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Jecoliah, from Jerusalem.
4He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.
5And he set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the seeing of God; and in the days when he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper.
6He went out and fought against the Philistines, and he broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the region of Ashdod and among the Philistines.
7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.
8The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he had become exceedingly strong.
9Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.
10He built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much livestock, both in the Shephelah and in the plain; and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile fields, for he was a lover of the soil.
11Uzziah had an army trained for battle, going out to war in divisions according to the number mustered by them under the direction of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the charge of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders.
12The whole number of the heads of fathers’ houses, mighty men of valor, was two thousand six hundred.
13Under their command was an army force of three hundred seven thousand five hundred, who made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.
14And Uzziah provided for them, for all the army, shields and spears, helmets and body armor, bows, and stones for slings.
15In Jerusalem he made engines, invented by skilled men, to be on the towers and on the corners, for shooting arrows and hurling great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.
16But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up to his own ruin, and he acted unfaithfully against Yahweh his God, for he entered the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, men of valor.
18They stood against Uzziah the king and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully, and it will bring you no honor from Yahweh God.”
19Then Uzziah became enraged, and in his hand was a censer to burn incense; and while he was raging at the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.
20And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned toward him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead; and they rushed him out of there. Indeed he himself hurried to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.
21So King Uzziah was leprous until the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of Yahweh. And Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
22Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, wrote.
23Uzziah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field belonging to the kings, for they said, “He is a leper.” And Jotham his son reigned in his place.
Open in the interactive reader →