Uzziah's Prosperity and Pride; Leprosy for Presumption
2 Chronicles 26:1-23
1All the people of Judah took Uzziah. He was sixteen years old, and they made him king in place of his father Amaziah.2He built Eloth and restored it to Judah after the king lay 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 the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.5He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.6He went out and fought against the Philistines and broke through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod. He built cities in Ashdod and among the Philistines.7God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians who lived in Gur-baal and the Meunites.8The Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah, and his name spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he had become very strong.9Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and he strengthened them.10He built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much livestock in the Shephelah and in the plain, and farmers and vinedressers in the mountains and in the Carmel, for he loved the soil.11Uzziah had an army of warriors who went out to war by divisions, according to the number of their muster by the hand of Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's officials.12The total number of the heads of the fathers' houses of the mighty men of valor was two thousand six hundred.13Under their hand was an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred who made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.14Uzziah prepared for them, for all the army, shields and spears and helmets and coats of armor and bows and stones for slings.15In Jerusalem he made devices, the invention of skillful men, to be on the towers and on the corners to shoot arrows and large stones. His fame went out far, 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 the LORD his God by entering the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.17Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the LORD, sons of valor.18They stood against Uzziah the king 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 consecrated to burn incense. Go out from the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully, and it will not be for honor to you from the LORD God."19Then Uzziah became angry, and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. While he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the house of the LORD, in front of the altar of incense.20Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him, and behold, he was leprous on his forehead. They hurried him out from there, and he himself also hastened to go out, because the LORD had struck him.21King Uzziah was leprous until the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house, leprous, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. Jotham his son was over the house of the king, judging the people of the land.22Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, the first and the 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 that belonged to the kings, for they said, "He is leprous." Jotham his son reigned in his place.