2 Chronicles 26

1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

2He built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king slept 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 Amaziah his father had done.

5He continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as 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 territory of Ashdod and among the Philistines.

7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.

8The Ammonites gave 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 cut out many cisterns, for he had much livestock; and in the lowland and in the plain he had farmers and vinedressers, in the hills and in the fertile land, for he loved the soil.

11And Uzziah had an army fit for war, going out to battle by divisions, according to the number of their enrollment, under the direction of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders.

12The total number of the heads of the fathers’ houses, for the mighty men of valor, was two thousand six hundred.

13Under their command was an army of 307,500, making war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.

14And Uzziah prepared for them, for the whole army, shields and spears and helmets and coats of armor and bows and slingstones.

15In Jerusalem he made devices, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones. And his fame spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.

16But when he became strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he acted unfaithfully against Yahweh his God and entered the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.

17Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of Yahweh, valiant men.

18They stood against King Uzziah 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. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully, and it will not be for your honor from Yahweh God.”

19Then Uzziah became angry, with a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.

20Azariah the chief priest turned toward him, and all the priests also, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead. So they hurried him out of there, and he himself also hastened to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.

21And King Uzziah was leprous until the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house, leprous, because 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.

22The rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet wrote.

23And Uzziah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, “He is a leper.” And Jotham his son reigned in his place.