2 Chronicles / Uzziah's Prosperity and Pride; Leprosy for Presumption

Uzziah's Prosperity and Pride; Leprosy for Presumption

2 Chronicles 26:1-23

Chapter 26

¹ And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ² He built Elath and settled it for Judah after the king lay down with his fathers. ³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. ⁴ He did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God prospered him. ⁶ He went out and fought against the Philistines. He broke through the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in Ashdod and among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who dwelt in Gur-baal, and the Meunites. ⁸ The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his name spread as far as Egypt, for he became strong as far as the ascent. ⁹ And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and he strengthened them. ¹⁰ And he built towers in the wilderness, and he hewed many cisterns, for there was much livestock to him, and in the Shephelah and in the plain plowmen and vineyards in the mountains and in Carmel, for a lover of land he was. ¹¹ And there was to Uzziah a force of doers of warfare, going out of the army to the troop by number. You mustered them by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, over the hand of Hananiah from the king's chiefs. ¹² All the number of the heads of the fathers to the mighty men of army: two thousands and six hundreds. ¹³ Under their command was an army of 300,750 warriors with mighty power to help the king against the enemy. ¹⁴ And Uzziah equipped all the host with shields and spears and helmets and breastplates and bows and stones for slingers. ¹⁵ And he made in Jerusalem inventions, an invention, an inventor, to be on the towers and on the corners to shoot arrows and great stones. And his name went out to farness because he extraordinarily vowed-help until because he strengthened. ¹⁶ And in his strength his heart was exalted to the point of corruption, and he acted unfaithfully against the LORD his God, and he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense. ¹⁷ Azariah the priest went after him, along with eighty brave priests of the LORD. ¹⁸ And they stood against 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 are sanctified to burn incense. Go out from the sanctuary, for you have acted treacherously, and it is not for you from the glory of the LORD God." ¹⁹ Uzziah was enraged, and in his hand was an incense pan to burn incense. In his rage against the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, above the incense altar. ²⁰ Azariah the head priest and all the priests turned to him, and behold—he was leprous in his forehead. They hastened him out from there, and he himself hurried to go out, for the LORD had afflicted him. ²¹ And King Uzziah was leprous until the day of his death, and he dwelt in a separate house as a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the house of the king, judging the people of the land. ²² The rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet has written. ²³ And Uzziah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that was for the kings, for they said, "He is a leper," and Jotham his son reigned in his place.